Class Dismissed [4/8]

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

[RocketeerAndRoll]

Malcolm in the Middle dealt with class to some extent...even it didn't address it all the time but at least it showed his mother's job as one that was lower class and incredibly difficult.

[TripleAgent83]

Sociologists will spark the new Revolution.

[BUTLERU]

Will and Grace was one of my favorite shows.

[philmontphan]

This is a very interesting video.