We have seen the change in advertisements and overtime they use different ways to win over the hearts of lower class people. The way the media frames people everyday lives is concerning. The media suggest that lower classes people should want the wealthy possessions and live like the upper class, as well as men and women are sought as unequal beings. There are three readings from the authors Diana Kendall, Jean Kilbourne and Sherry Turkle that are mentioned. Kendall, a sociology professor at the University of Baylor, did long extensive studies on how the media portrays social classes. She also includes in her text how the media shape the upper, middle, working and lower classes by ‘framing’ their stories in predictable and misleading ways.
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The job of advertising is to sell products to the people. But really the media and ads strive for the attention of certain classes. According to one of Kendall’s sources from her text, “equality does not exist in contemporary society, but media audiences are encouraged to view themselves as having an “equal right” to purchase items that somehow will make them equal to people above them in the social class hierarchy” (426) For example, the media will say that all Gatorade’s are the same price. But that isn’t true, in the urban community their family owned stores that sells Gatorade’s for $1.25. Then you can go to a more popular gas station in the same area and the Gatorade will cost $1.75. Also, media will try and sell their products by using celebrities and athletes, especially for Gatorades all athletes are expected to drink Gatorade. The media usually go for the middle and working classes. The middle and working classes wants and attract themselves to that lifestyle. Because the rich class is the class with the most power and most admired among the lower class, which they are treated as the products by the media. Stated by Kilbourne, “when power is unequal, when one group is oppressed and discriminated against as a group, when there is a context of systemic and historical oppression, stereotypes and prejudice have different weight and meaning” (501). The media portrays the difference between the pyramid of social class. According to Kendall, “…the poor are blamed for their own problems, stereotypes of the homeless bums, alcoholics, and drug addicts, caught in a hopeless downward spiral because of their individual pathological behavior, are omnipresent in the media” (Kendall 427). In the media they get people to treat homeless people like
The job of advertising is to sell products to the people. But really the media and ads strive for the attention of certain classes. According to one of Kendall’s sources from her text, “equality does not exist in contemporary society, but media audiences are encouraged to view themselves as having an “equal right” to purchase items that somehow will make them equal to people above them in the social class hierarchy” (426) For example, the media will say that all Gatorade’s are the same price. But that isn’t true, in the urban community their family owned stores that sells Gatorade’s for $1.25. Then you can go to a more popular gas station in the same area and the Gatorade will cost $1.75. Also, media will try and sell their products by using celebrities and athletes, especially for Gatorades all athletes are expected to drink Gatorade. The media usually go for the middle and working classes. The middle and working classes wants and attract themselves to that lifestyle. Because the rich class is the class with the most power and most admired among the lower class, which they are treated as the products by the media. Stated by Kilbourne, “when power is unequal, when one group is oppressed and discriminated against as a group, when there is a context of systemic and historical oppression, stereotypes and prejudice have different weight and meaning” (501). The media portrays the difference between the pyramid of social class. According to Kendall, “…the poor are blamed for their own problems, stereotypes of the homeless bums, alcoholics, and drug addicts, caught in a hopeless downward spiral because of their individual pathological behavior, are omnipresent in the media” (Kendall 427). In the media they get people to treat homeless people like