Summary: Does Modern TV Neglect The Middle Class

342 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays about culture and poverty in the us

Does Modern TV Neglect the Middle Class?
College prep lit
Nick

The writer's argument, in my opinion, is that modern TV shows are neglecting and almost putting down the middle class. The writer talks about how a couple decades back TV shows focused on how many viewers lived, middle class and sometimes struggling to get by. They also compare that to how recent television shows ignore that fact and make fantasy like programs with little to no relevance to the life of their viewers. This is an argument that I agree with fully.
I was raised watching shows like the Andy Griffith show and Sanford and son and other “classics” that my elders watched when they were younger. I personally loved, and still do, those classic TV shows. I feel that since

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Dianne's Essay Framing Class, Vicarious Living

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    As Kendall notes, “the media portrays people who produce goods and services as much less interesting than those who excessively consume them” (429). Viewers want to be entertained, and simply just don’t care about the struggles of the working class. They overlook “low wages (and) lack of benefits” (429) because through caricature framing the media sways people to believe works to be stupid and reckless. Using this frame, they created people such as Homer Simpson, showing people that the working class doesn’t deserve raises, better healthcare, or any such luxuries because they can’t think for themselves. If that wasn't bad enough, the media often characterizes all workers as wanting to transcend their class (429). Through shows such as Extreme Makeover, they depict people who want to spice up their life and improve themselves as people, and that they need help to get to the next level. The media has undercut all of the hard work of this class, and has made people believe that the working class is unavailable, dumb and needs help to be their best self when in fact they are what allows for the success of

    Read More

  • Tv's Callous Neglect Of Working Class America Summary

    675 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the article “TV’s Callous Neglect of Working- Class America” written by Noel Murray explains the modern day TV shows un-relatable plots to Americans today. Murray describes how shows in the ‘50s through the ‘90s were relatable to Americans and how they lived their lives. The TV shows then were able to get such great reviews because the jobs the actors had in the shows were average money making jobs. The characters are meticulously when it came to how they used the money they earned. However, as the years have passed, the shows that are on today are not as relatable to Americans. The shows express the fantasy, perfect life that everyone strives to have, but in reality, it is not possible for every family. The programs on today do not convey the difficulties that average Americans face each day, causing the shows to become more and more relatable to average TV viewers.

    Read More

  • Friday Night Lights Gender Analysis

    1442 Words  | 3 Pages

    The media is a powerful tool and has the ability to influence and change one’s overall perspective of the world and the position they play in it. Although Television shows such as Friday Night Lights are seen as entertainment by consumers, its storyline contributes to the social construction of reality about class in the United States.

    Read More

  • Economics in Popular TV Shows

    660 Words  | 2 Pages

    American Dad! Season 3: Episode 12 – at the beginning of the episode (1:04-1:11), Roger, a character on the show, responds to Coffee pal’s recent incentive – the new Pumpkin Amaretto Cream! He eagerly embraces the exciting new flavor, and adds it to his coffee.

    Read More

  • The Connection between A Bug’s Life and The Chosen People

    2008 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the essay The Chosen People, Stewart Ewen, discusses his perspective of middle class America. Specifically, he explores the idea that the middle class is suffering from an identity crisis. According to Ewen’s theory, “the notion of personal distinction [in America] is leading to an identity crisis” of the non-upper class. (185) The source of this identity crisis is mass consumerism. As a result of the Industrial Revolution and mass production, products became cheaper and therefore more available to the non-elite classes. “Mass production was investing individuals with tools of identity, marks of personhood.” (Ewen 187) Through advertising, junk mail and style industries, the middle class is always striving for “a stylistic affinity to wealth,” finding “delight in the unreal,” and obsessed with “cheap luxury items.” (Ewen 185-6) In other words, instead of defining themselves based on who they are on the inside, the people of middle class America define themselves in terms of external image and material possessions.

    Read More

  • Gregory Mantsios Class In America Analysis

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    In "Class in America", Gregory Mantsios says that "when politicians and social commentators draw attention to the plight of the poor, they do so in a manner that obscures the class structure and denies any sense of exploitation." Based off our readings, class discussion and films, income inequality is known to be erased or ignore. Our society frowns upon the expression of income in our daily conversations, as it could be seen braggy or a complaint depending on your status of income. Because it's frowned upon to talk about, the topic of income inequality becomes erased or ignored. In addition, income inequality in America's class structure can affect people's ability to reach their American Dream.

    Read More

  • Eighner Style Analysis

    1109 Words  | 3 Pages

    The author juxtaposes the rich and poor with those in between in order to convince the audience, the middle class, that they should follow in the footsteps of both those richer and poorer than them in order to cease their materialistic attitudes. Near the end of the essay, Eighner states, “I think this is an attitude I share with the very wealthy—we both know there is plenty more where what we have came from. Between us are the rat-race millions who have confounded their selves with the objects they grasp and who nightly scavenge the cable channels looking for they know not what.” The author is stating that the wealthy and the homeless are both aware that there are things more important in life than tangible objects. Everyone else, however, has not made this connection yet and still searches, meaninglessly, for something of value. The middle class is often known to aspire to...

    Read More

  • All Kids Should Take Poverty 101 Analysis

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    Furthermore it creates a rhetoric that states it is the responsibility of the middle class to change the circumstances of those in need. This makes those in the middle class have a pressure they did not choose, and also those in poverty an expectation that they might not otherwise have had. Other than when Beegle states, “If the teacher had been exposed to Poverty 101, she would have the skills needed to find out what motivators made sense to me (342),” she makes no other suggestions on just how exactly the middle class would end the cycles of

    Read More

  • Race And Myth In Horatio Alger, By Harlon Daltons

    1138 Words  | 3 Pages

    The media portrays the upper class as something to strive for. Obtaining wealth and material possessions will bring you a happy life. The only way to get ahead is to emulate the rich and powerful and to live vicariously through them (Kendall 316). The media’s emphasis on the upper class takes away from people living life for themselves. Instead, they are persuaded to obtain a lifestyle that is realistically out of their means. Kendall states, “Largely through marketing and advertising, television promoted the myth of the classless society, offering on one hand the images of the American dream fulfilled wherein any and everyone can become rich and on the other suggesting that the lived experience of this lack of class hierarchy was expressed by our equal right to purchase anything we could afford”. Exaggerated views of the rich and successful in America are largely portrayed via television. Which gives a false idea of what happiness, wealth and material possessions can bring (Kendall 317). The poor and homeless are at the bottom of the class structure and are often overlooked, ignored and only portrayed as deserving of sympathy. They are stereotyped to be people who have problems such as drugs or alcohol (Kendall 318). Kendall goes on to explain that the middle class is considered the “working class” and are

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Rip The Middle Class

    926 Words  | 2 Pages

    The essay “RIP the Middle Class: 1946-2013” was written by Edward McClelland. Edward McClelland is an American journalist. In this essay, McClelland is trying to prove a point that at some point there wouldn’t be the middle class and there would only be the rich and the poor, unless the government intervenes to balance out the economy.

    Read More

  • The Downfalls of Egalitarianism and Television

    978 Words  | 2 Pages

    What would actually happen if everyone was forced to be equal? Kurt Vonnegut envisioned the fatal outcome in his masterpiece, “Harrison Bergeron.” The story illustrates “what would happen if a government or some other power takes this notion serious” (Mowery). The protagonist, Harrison, who is arrest for “exuberant individuality,” escapes from prison and goes on national television station to declare himself emperor, only later to be killed by the handicap general Diane Moon. In “Harrison Bergeron,” Kurt Vonnegut satirizes the movement toward egalitarianism and the effect of television on people.

    Read More

  • Television and Media - Effect of TV In The Age of Missing Information

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Effect of Television In The Age of Missing Information Bill McKibben, in his book The Age of Missing Information, explores the impact of television on modern cultures both in America and around the world. In the book McKibben carries out an experiment; he watches the entire television broadcast of 93 separate cable channels for one entire day. In all McKibben viewed 24 hours of programming from 93 separate cable stations, that is more than 2,200 hours of television. His purpose in this formidable undertaking was to determine how much actual information that was relevant to real life he could glean from a day of television broadcasting. McKibben also spent a day camping alone on a mountain near his home.

    Read More

  • Social Inequality In Gossip Girl

    783 Words  | 2 Pages

    A person’s particular social status can affect their whole life, it can hold someone back or help them move forward. Numerous TV shows and movies can represent America’s social status in our society, for instance, the popular six season TV show Gossip Girl. This particular TV show explores several parts of the social inequalities in our society between the upper and middle or lower class.

    Read More

  • How Tv Frames The Working Class Analysis

    226 Words  | 1 Pages

    The new introduces ideas this video on "How TV Frames the Working Class" is how TV is not meant to educate, but instead is to entrain. Most TV shows attack the poor with the simple fact that you have to work to pay bills. I truly believe if a person wants to succeed they are able to accomplish that here in America the land of opportunities. We shouldn't not take into consideration on how TV makes us feel of being the working poor to work hard and still not have enough to live a decent life. It is a personal responsibility that we have to want ouselfs or our children to be better to create a better future. The ideas that come to my mind when watching this video of how televation revel who we are is trying to be a better person not to be labeled

    Read More

  • The Role of Television in Today's Society

    1955 Words  | 4 Pages

    popular. Before then, it was a great luxury to own one, as it was so

    Read More

More about Summary: Does Modern TV Neglect The Middle Class

Open Document