After
reading Media Magic, I started to youtube and google search shows and movies
that might support his ideas of class and the media. I was specifically interested in stories that
portrayed the poor in a certain way, rather than those that deny their existence
altogether (as Mantsios argued the media often does). I found a particular pattern of plots in the
media that portray the upper class “taking in” a member of the lower class and
how this changed everyone’s life. These
stories demonstrate a number of Mantsios’s points on the lower class and the
media.
First I’ll describe the shows/movies and then I will make
connections…
The
television show, The O.C. begins with two boys stealing a car and driving away
from the police (an act in which they don’t succeed). Somehow, one of the two boys ends up in the
hands of a wealthy, defense attorney and ultimately lives with the attorney and
his family. The boy gets a chance to
live in the primarily upper class community of Orange County- a living
situation that enables him to work hard and succeed.
The movie, The Blind Side portrays
a story about a poor boy that lives in a lower class neighborhood. The boy is taken in by a white upper-class
family and has the chance to go to school and play football and becomes a professional
football player. Sure, this is based on
a true story. But it is significant that
the media portrayed this particular football player’s story instead of the
stories of the other men on his team.
The movie, Step Up has a similar
plot. A group of three boys who are
members of the lower class get in trouble with the police for breaking into a
school. One of the boys is assigned 200
hours of community service cleaning at a local arts school. While cleaning the dance studio one day, the
boy volunteers to be a girl’s dance partner.
He ends up dancing with her and creating something better from himself
through the white upper-class realm of the private arts school.
Okay… now some connections…
One of Mantsios’s first arguments
is that the media portrays the poor as undeserving and blameworthy for their situation. In The O.C., the show begins with two boys
stealing a car in a low class neighborhood.
Now, I watched this show a long, long time ago (perhaps, before I came
to my senses about what is important in life).
However, I think I remember clearly several times where this upper-class
family had to return to Chino (the town the boy was from) for one reason or
another. This experience was always a
negative one including guns, drugs, and abusive relationships. Since this is how the lower class is
portrayed, everyone can say, “Wow no wonder they’re poor! Look at the way they
conduct themselves!” In The Blind Side,
men sit in groups on the street corners doing drugs and gambling. These men represent the lower class in this
movie. Thus, it appears as though this
is what poor people do- sit around smoking and wasting their money. Where are the people of that community that
work hard to try to support themselves? They
hardly exist in the media. Step Up
depicts a similar image- a group of boys who commit crimes and get busted by
the police. All of these negative
lower-class images make poor people look careless, lazy, and undeserving of
anything better. But these images are
hardly an entire representation of the lower class.
Mantsios also argued that the media
portrays the poor as an inconvenience and irritation. In all three of these media plots, the lower
class boys are burdens to the upper class.
The wealthy family in the O.C. took the boy into their house and had
many discussions surrounding whether or not they should “take the
responsibility” for him. [side-note: in
the trailer I think you can hear one of these conversations]. In The Blind Side trailer, the father of the
wealthy family turns to his wife and asks, “He IS only staying for one night, right?” In the trailer for Step Up, a boy warns his
friend (the female dancer) “You know that low life (lower class boy) isn’t
going anywhere, right?” In other words,
why are you even bothering with him and taking responsibility for him? These types of conversations heavily imply
that the lower class is simply an inconvenience for these people.
Mantsios mentions that normally
during Christmas time, the media paints the image that the poor is “down on
their luck”. These types of stories are
often linked to charitable activities and contributions. Most importantly, these media images paint a
false picture about society: they “tell us that the affluent in our society are
a kind, understanding, giving people- which we are not.” The show and movies I have used here do just
that- they show how understanding the white, upper class community can be. They are the good guys and once in a while,
one of them will even be good enough to take in a bad guy and make him good.
These media images also support
Mantsios’s argument that the media makes it seem like there are two classes in
society: the underclass and everyone else.
We, the viewers, are everyone else.
The boys that are taken from the lower class neighborhoods are the
underclass. This leads to Mantsios’s
similar point that WE are the wealthy.
Viewers envision themselves as the good guys, rather than the men out on
the street gambling or the boys getting arrested by the cops. My examples of the media were made to appeal
to people like us.
Lastly, all three of my examples
provide contrasting ideas about two classes.
These boys had nothing except the ghettos of their lower class
neighborhoods until they were taken in by wealthier people. This shines a completely positive light on
the caring, selfless upper class that provided an opportunity for success to
members of the negative lower class.
And why does any of this
matter? Because the media is extremely
influential on the ideals and values of society in general. When society views these images in the media,
people begin to actually believe that the lower class is a small group who only
has themselves to blame for their poverty.
No comments:
Post a Comment