Class Dismissed [8/8]

Class Dismissed
How TV Frames the Working Class

Narrated by Ed Asner

Based on the forthcoming book by Pepi Leistyna, Class Dismissed navigates the steady stream of narrow working class representations from American television's beginnings to today's sitcoms, reality shows, police dramas, and daytime talk shows.

Featuring interviews with media analysts and cultural historians, this documentary examines the patterns inherent in TV's disturbing depictions of working class people as either clowns or social deviants -- stereotypical portrayals that reinforce the myth of meritocracy.

Class Dismissed breaks important new ground in exploring the ways in which race, gender, and sexuality intersect with class, offering a more complex reading of television's often one-dimensional representations. The video also links television portrayals to negative cultural attitudes and public policies that directly affect the lives of working class people.

Featuring interviews with Stanley Aronowitz, (City University of New York); Nickel and Dimed author, Barbara Ehrenreich; Herman Gray (University of California-Santa Cruz); Robin Kelley (Columbia University); Pepi Leistyna (University of Massachusetts-Boston) and Michael Zweig (State University of New York-Stony Brook). Also with Arlene Davila, Susan Douglas, Bambi Haggins, Lisa Henderson, and Andrea Press.

Sections: Class Matters | The American Dream Machine | From the Margins to the Middle | Women Have Class | Class Clowns | No Class | Class Action

http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=411

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• class
• dismissed
• tv
• television
• working
• economic
• social
• political
• injustice
• capitalism
• globalism
• myth
• system
• individualism
• meritocracy
• critique

[thejakeman16]

Great! Now to let this documentary fall by the wayside and only be watched by people in sociology classes. Everyone else will either ignore it or dismiss it as "liberal propaganda."

better watch out, those dems are gonna get you and steal your American way of life!

[Qwofacenosehead]

Which obviously isn't what I said. It's a myth to say that the working class is shifting demographics from white to non-white. It ignores the fact that the working class has always been largely non-white and ignores how class is specifically raced and how "whiteness" has been formed around class as well (both for the working class and the owning class) The analysis here just isn't complex enough. But it's still a good film.

[fevanwin]

I just watched this in my sociology class and i feel like it is a real eye opener and makes you think. i wish this was pointed out to me years ago. not really a documentary that should be pushed to the way side. and for all of you fools "trolling" on this video you are pathetic.

[zilbiol]

If you include benefits real income is increasing. Socialism doesn't work because there is nothing special about socialists that allows them to "collectivize" the means of production without using a bureaucracy and facing the same problems as any other bureaucracy, also autonomy is more utilitarian than bureaucracy in many situations. Just stating facts, if you really care about the poor stop being an ideologue and start being logical.

[lechoux]

@MikeCDawg I was actually trolling that guy. I am a socialist ;3

[MikeCDawg]

@lechoux So you vote for party that constantly attacks the working class? And the doc seems to be Leftist, not Liberal. (Liberal = pro-capitalist, even in the American sense of the term)

[lechoux]

@thejakeman16 This liberal propaganda was far too long to pay any attention to. That's why I vote republican.

[patch0482]

Thumbs up if you're only here for a Sociology class!

[dragonwatter]

i agree with your message that what's ben done is wrong but what you seam to be sugesting is to use law to alter whats on telivision and what they can portay and that is a double edged sword the more they are able to put restrictions on what media can pt on the more resendent we set for useping the freadome of speach and the more likly we are to lose that freedom at all. i belive we need to focus on changing what people watch it will take longer but it's the best way to change what people watch

[unsung1984]

@missaquaboogie Exactly, they never hear a damn word that is critical of capitalism. Academia is no longer a place to discuss ideas it is just an assembly line for middle management careers where they all have the delusion that they actually matter.

[unsung1984]

@thejakeman16 I hate you for pointing out reality. Now I am going to post this to facebook in the delusional hope that someone will watch it.

[policestory]

Great documentary. I love the underlying anti-capitalist message. Thanks for the upload.