Class Dismissed [1/8]

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

[LodovicoAriosto1]

Amazing film!

[SpectacleofDebord]

Very interesting and informative film, thanks for posting this!

[32peartree]

trash tv isn't some elitist strategem. If it wasn't popular - they wouldn't make it. The working class actually lap up this rubbish up. However, at a deeper level if we juxtapose junk such as Jerry Springer with feel-good talent shows and lottery draws - then we can clearly discern the classic symptoms of bi-polar depression - whereby the poor constantly oscillate between misery and fantasy.

[vbgirl423]

Very interesting video with excellent examples and wonderful perspective.

[motelcalifornia]

Isn't that beautiful? Things don't change much, do they? Nobody listens to the working class--EVER

[eroc1234]

".... some want to turn it into a class war , and thats not how i think". WELL THATS OBVIOUSLY A CONVENIENT MENTALITY FOR YOU BUSH, you jerk!

[MikeyElgar]

you joker

[BUTLERU]

Of course Bush didn't think that way about classism in this country, since he's rich. The world is changing and things are not getting better. Regardless, if a person holds a college degree or not the working class is struggling, to do better. We work one to two jobs and rarely see home. Inflation has become a big issue, right when produce seems to be getting lower something else goes up. Honestly, classism will always be an issue and it will be debated for years to come.

[MultiSmartass1]

A fine video.

All the more so since Americans are propagandized to think of class as something outside of the range of sociopolitical economic range of this country.

The fact is there is class in this country. Thus, it is no surprise when TV shows favor middle class lifestyles over working class life.

The inability to deal with this both rhetorically and politically is shown in the metasizing growth of right wing news in the U.S.

[philmontphan]

I think this video teaches a good lesson about potrayls of working class people.

[fruccest]

dick shut up! nice vid like the 411 it gave dude 5959512 is gay

[oHelmslyo]

The concept of social class is in my opinion a narrow type of thing altogether that separates people from eachother based on what class they're filed into, but this is a highly intellectual film and a great conversation builder on the world we live in. As far as media portrayals, I still love The Simpsons, Married...with Children and a lot of those other shows that have lowbrow working class characters, but of course it is useful to open up a dialog about these issues and the media.