Transcript Socioeconomic class and the media

Socioeconomic class and the
media
Socioeconomic class
• The United States has been called a
“classless society”
– What does that mean?
– Is it true?
• What is class, anyway?
Socioeconomic class
• CLASS. Most sociologists use the
term to refer to socioeconomic
differences between groups of
individuals which create differences
in their life chances and power.
• (http://ryoung001.homestead.com/Sociology.html)
Depictions of class in US media
• “The belief that the United States is a
classless society or, alternatively, that most
Americans are “middle class” persists . . .
despite pervasive socioeconomic
stratification”
• (Bullock, Wyche and Williams, 2001)
Media facilitate “classless
society” myth by:
• Presenting the interests of the well-off (e.g.,
stock, financial portfolios, and leisure time)
as general concerns
• Downplaying the structural economic
concerns (e.g., job security, income) of the
working class and poor, and
• Emphasizing shared interclass concerns
(e.g., safety, crime)
Example
• Many media stories talk about the economy
overall, citing “recovery” etc. but do not
look at the differential class-based effect of
various policies and events
• “By dedicating little broadcast time or print
space to stories that openly discuss class
privilege, class-based power differences,
and inequalities, the poor are either
rendered invisible or portrayed in terms of
characterological deficiencies and moral
failings (e.g., substance abuse, crime,
sexual, availability, violence).”
Prime Time programming
• Early television included a number of
working-class leads
– Ralph Cramden
– Marty
• More recent examples
– All in the Family
– Roseanne
• However, the tone of Prime Time is heavily
white-collar/professional or upper class
• The main exceptions are law enforcement
personnel in “cop shows,” ‘reality’ shows
and daytime talk shows
– Often connect poor and working class with
negative depictions, low culture
Depictions of drug crimes
• “Although the ‘typical’ drug consumer and
dealer is an employed, high-schooleducated European American man, the
majority of arrests depicted on reality-based
crime programs involve African American
and Latino men in densely populated, urban
areas (Anderson, 1994).”
Tabloid news shows
• Tabloid news shows tended to “focus on
stories involving upper-class criminals,
particularly celebrities, whereas “highbrow”
news programs were more likely to focus on
stories involving working-class,
unemployed criminals.”
• Also tend to show “rags to riches” stories or
the “hollowness of wealth”
• Limited number of stories on poverty on
national newscasts.
– 11 per network per year 1981 to 1986
Two categories of stories
(Entman, 1995)
• 239 stories
– 39% depicted poverty as a source of threat
(e.g., crime, drugs, and gangs)
– 61% portrayed poverty in terms of suffering
(e.g. racial discrimination, poor health, and
inadequate medical care)
Two frames:
(Iyengar, 1990)
• Episodic frame
– Personal circumstances of a poor individual or
family
– More common
• Thematic frame
– Abstract, impersonal approach that looks at
general poverty trends and public assistance
Framing effects
• Those exposed to episodic frames in an
experiment were more likely to blame the
poor for their own poverty and to perceive
them as responsible for improving their
socioeconomic status. Those exposed to
thematic frames tended to make structural
attributions for poverty and to regard the
government as responsible for social
change.
Framing effects
• Those exposed to episodic frames in an
experiment were more likely to blame the
poor for their own poverty and to perceive
them as responsible for improving their
socioeconomic status. Those exposed to
thematic frames tended to make structural
attributions for poverty and to regard the
government as responsible for social
change.
• “Welfare recipients are among the . . . the most
hated and stereotyped groups in contemporary
society”
• Only one among 17 stereotyped groups (feminists,
housewives, retarded people, Blacks, migrant
workers, etc.) that respondents both disliked and
disrespected.
– Lacking both competence and warmth
• However, most common group of welfare
recipients is poor children
• Media representations concentrate on their
mothers
Content analysis of Newsweek
1993-1995
• De Goede (1996) found that “the language used in
the articles reinforced strong ingroup-outgroup
class-based distinctions, simultaneously extolling
the moral superiority of the middle class while
degrading the values and behaviors of the poor.”
– Single African American mothers and teenage mothers
often the focus of these negative articles
Depictions of welfare mothers
• “immoral and neglectful, responsible for
their own poverty as well as the breakdown
of the nuclear family”
– “the poster mother for welfare reform spends
her days painting her nails, smoking cigarettes,
and feeding Pepsi to her baby”
Teenage mothers
• Content analysis of over 700 newspaper and
magazine stories
• Two types of stories
– “Wrong girl” stories emphasized flawed
psychology of teenage mothers
– “Wrong family” stories focused on violation of
traditional two-parent ideal
Soap operas
• “On soap operas, single mothers are typically
portrayed as White, upper-middle-class
professionals, with nurturing male friends and an
abundance of reliable child care providers
(Larson, 1996).”
– “Teenage girls who were heavy viewers of soap operas
were more likely than lighter viewers to underestimate
the relationship between single motherhood and
poverty and to overestimate the percentage of single
mothers in high-paying jobs.”
Connection to race
• Content analyses show a great overrepresentation of
African Americans in depictions of the poor
• Gilens (1996) content analysis of three major news
magazines found African Americans were represented in
62% of stories about poverty though they comprised 29%
of poor (no more info available)
• Asian Americans, stereotyped as hard working and
conscientious, rarely show up in stories about the poor
• European Americans greatly overestimate the percentage
of African Americans who are poor
Stereotypes in media and popular
culture
• African American men—members of “threatening
and violent underclass”
• African American women—welfare queens or as
“ignorant, promiscuous women caught in a selfperpetuating ‘cycle of dependency’”
• Emphasis on African Americans tends to render
white poor ‘invisible’ in popular culture
Post welfare reform
• April-July 1999 newspapers
• 412 articles
• 24% contained at least some overt discussion of
race/ethnicity
• African American articles:
– 8 focused on chronic poverty and single motherhood
– 5 focused on fraud
– 6 highlighted the lives of African Americans who had
triumphed over poverty
Welfare reform
• 60% of articles took balanced/neutral tone
• 32% positive (supported services and
programs for the poor)
• 8% negative (fraud, drug addiction, etc.)
Welfare recipients
• 60% portrayed poor as deserving of support
(hard-working families with children in
need)
• 17% portrayed poor negatively (drug users,
neglectful parents)
• 14% neutral
• 8% mixed