Taste Cultures

Introduction
Class divides have always been present in human society, whether it be through socio-economic standing, race, or gender. By embodying such an array of forms, class divides can be found in almost every facet of our lives, from the way we eat to the way we dress to even the way we relax. Class, as defined by Lynn Spangler, a professor of communication with current research on social class in television at New Paltz SUNY, class is defined by where one fits in occupation, education, income and wealth. Once situated, one is divided into the top fifth, the lower fifth, and the great middle area, which contains the upper middle, middle, and lower middle levels. This article reviews literature on class in the media and television domain,

She begins her article by explaining the differences in highbrow and lowbrow culture in the Netherlands, pointing towards comedy. First, she delves into taste cultures, also known as the culture surrounding a certain preference (specifically in types of comedy or subcategories of comedy). Taste cultures are usually related to social backgrounds and can explain the mindset of different groups of people. However, with the increase of broadening taste cultures, they soon may relate less to cultures and more to environment and exposure. According to Kuipers, taste is less about class and more about knowledge of different types of media now, opposed to the past monumental divides. Simply, those who are exposed to different types of media, like different classifications of comedy, are more likely to enjoy them than those with little exposure. Kuipers insists that now with the broadening exposure of television, as a lowbrow media, highbrow culture may shrivel to a subculture--making way for a new, innovative, and inclusive form of

On the other hand, authors like Jason Mittell attempt to portray the talk show as a dividing force, creating tensions between audiences; however, the information on television as a unifier is more conclusive. Mittel, a professor of film and media studies at Middlebury College, performed an online survey of 240 people regarding a series of open ended questions about talk shows as a genre and specific talk-shows themselves. His results showed that although most respondents dismissed the talk-show as an unimportant and low-level genre, they often advocated in favor of at least one of the specific shows. To put it simply, this means that his sample bonded together over the genre with some inconsistencies on the more specific levels. However, this information should not be alarming. Tastes can create different subcategories of television patterns without directly relating to class. Luckily, Mittler’s results did not point towards a relation between class and taste, instead a connection between taste and distaste. Therefore, one can reasonably assume that genres do, in fact, unite the classes, even though there are taste differences, and in lieu of targeting a specific class audience, shows, like talk shows, attempt to bring as many people to the screen as