This notion also corresponds with recent findings from „Veränderung der Nachrichtenfaktoren und Auswirkungen auf die journalistische Praxis in Deutschland“ a study of the university of Jena. The authors Ruhrmann and Göbbel confirmed that „tabloidization“ is also increasing in tv news. They say that a strong commercialization of tv news has been taking place in the last two decades and that tv news is more and more developping towards a „service“. Here are some central theses from their study.
If we have a closer look at the matter of „tabloidization“ Habermas’s concept of an ideal public sphere is violated and the question wheather media can fulfill its public sphere role as „4th estate“ arises again in consideration with these new findings.
Last week’s question in class was whether there exists something like a habitus or social classes in the context of social media especially on facebook. There are no clear answers, but we agreed that it is quite difficult to eliminate social classes and the phenomenon of habitus even in social media. Apart from that class structure is presented quite differently than in real life. Different forms of capital are important and it can be seen that social positions in reality are not transferable to social media applications: Some classes tend to switch places in the hierarchy of social media.
When you consider the seven classes of “The Great British Class Survey” a change in position in the context of facebook might look like this:
The “Elite” – originally the total upper class- might be located at the opposite of the hierarchy of facebook classes. Facebook is considered to be a waste of time and social media skills are mainly non-existent. People of the Elite have other priorities and that’s one reason why they are part of the lower class of social media.
The same applies for the “Precariat”- a class that remains in its position at the lowest level of the hierarchy. There are some rare social media skills when it for example comes to categories like games but generally actors in this class are not that interested in facebook. Their media use is dominated by watching tv as passive recepients. They see no use real use in facebook and co.
The “Established Middle Class” carefully tries out the properties and advantages of facebook. Its Members see the chances and future of social media but it is quite hard for them to adapt to this foreign terrain. Often these people are just trying out but are no acitve members. There social media position changes from “top” to “lower middle”.
Members of the “Technical Middle Class” take the position of the “Emergent Service Workers” in the context of facebook. Their social capital is not very high and people of this class like to represent their economic capital on facebook as well as in real life.
The “New Affluent Workers” are one of the upper classes on facebook. The rise from the middle class straight to the top in social media. One reason for that are their numerous social contacts and their cultural capital. The latter is represented on facebook in many ways and also its expansion can be supported via social media.
The “Elite” of facbook are the “Emergent Service Workers” that have many friends and a lot of cultural capital. They are ideally connected through different mediums (laptop, smartphone, tablet) and profit especially by the mobility of these gadgets. Facebook is seen as a central part of their lifes. In addition it represents a form of business and management organised through profiles: Social media is tried to be used as a source of income.
This is just an assumption of how these classes might be presented on Facebook. It’s my own assesment and not based on any empirical data.
Bourdieu’s concept of habitus was the central topic of our class in this week. An important term that he adresses in his concept are „social classes“ that are shaped by habitus and influence habitus in turn. When we interrelate Bourdieu’s understanding of „social classes“ to media it is clear that target groups in a way replace these fix social classes. Besides the Sinus-Milieus which are an important categorisation for target groups, the method of semiometry plays an important role in media strategies. This is a model that the market research institution „TNS Infratest“ developped in order to achieve the ideal brand positioning in media contexts.
Target groups are developped by analysing different orientations of values. So every target group is characterized by a certain value profile. If you have for example the profile of a TV show audience, media planners can place the right commercials in the breaks: The profile of the TV show has to correspond the profile of the advertising.
The video shows that there are working class representations in a lot of TV shows, series and comedy. Working class is defined by a certain taste which is described in the furnishing of houses, the inhabitants’ way of dressing and also how they act and behaving in society. The notion that work is there to provide a living for the family in order to survive and economic capital as a source of survival is fixed in the thinking and practices of the working class. They know their place in society through their habitus. Moreover acting in a violent and aggressive way is stereotypical for the working class image represented. Also a specific taste in media use is illustrated by these media representations: excessive TV use can be a common motive of working class. Furthermore low forms of each type of capital, especially a lack of cultural and economic capital, characterize the image of the lower classes. They seem not to be very educated and don’t engage in cultural discourse.
As a result of specific objective structures of class there is a certain image of working class in society. Mass media in turn internalizes this image and creates certain stereotypes on TV. That is where the circular system of reproduction occurs: The objective class structures are externalized in media representations and shape the image of the working class again. Working class in a way adopts that image and acts according to it, but also other classes are influenced in their understanding of working class and certain prejudices are reinforced.
Upper class portrayed
Not only the image of working class is shaped by mass media you can also find other stereotypical class portrayals. For examples if you look at the image of high society in series like “Gossip Girl” and films like “Sex and the city”. The upper classes’ taste is defined by fancy dinner parties, art exhibitions and theater visits. Manners and an exclusive taste in fashion are really important. Members of the upper class have a lot of cultural and economic capital available. They are always very successful and reach their aims: They are employed in leading positions, earn a lot of money and constantly advance themselves. To be on top of society and to know it – that is the habitus of the upper class.
Festinger and his theory of social comparison (1954)
In his theory of social comparison Leon Festinger explains that people tend to engage in social comparison in everyday life. In order to evaluate your abilities and values you compare yourself to other human beings. People can engage in “upward comparisons” and “downward comparisons”. „Upward comparison“ is taking place when individuals want to advance themselves. In order to maintain a positive image and to increase your self esteem “downward comaprisons“ occur. People compare themselves to less fortunate ones in order to feel better (cf. Corcoran, 2011, p.121-127). There are not only comparison processes in real life they can also be found in media settings. Recipients compare themselves to characters presented in the media (cf. Corcoran et al., p.123; Schemer, 2006, p.81). If we think about the upper and middle class being exposed to media images of the working class, “downward comparison” takes place. The higher classes look down on the working class in order to increase their self esteem. On the other hand working and middle class engage in “upward comparison” when they are confronted with upper class media representations: They look up to these higher located people and see what they can still reach in life.
Besides these one-sided reflections of a certain social class there are also media products in which a clash of different classes is outlined. One class gets confronted with the habitus and tastes of a higher or lower class and borders as well as distinctions are revealed.
If you take these sections from the film “The Intouchables” you get a quite clear impression of a clash of different classes. Already in the first scene the differences of classes are expressed quite clearly: In the job interview the old man wants to know the motivations of the applicants for this job. He expects the candidates to talk about long term perspectives by asking them about their personal aims. The answer of the lower class applicant is straight forward: “Of course I’ve got aims: one of them is sitting right in front of me and that is very motivating”. The habitus of the lower class is expressed here by limited perspectives in life. This is notion is also reflected when we look at the colored guy’s reason for applying: He just wants three rejections in order to get his unemployment benefit and doesn’t even consider any personal advancement. If you continue watching you will see that he is characterized by having a totally different understanding of living standards, manners and responsibility. At the end of the scene the prejudices of the higher class regarding the lower class are addressed by the friend of the disabled man mentioning that these people never have any pity.
In “Pretty women” nearly the same story appears: A prostitute meets a rich upper class guy, they approach and fall in love. Julia Roberts as the lower class character is confronted with the world of the elite. It is quite hard for her to orientate herself in that new milieu and she sees the limitations that are connected to her class habitus.
It’s the principle in a lot of TV shows: Just have a look at two “Two broke girls” and “O.C California”. Differences in social class are accepted and the existing prejudices are overcome. Still there are clear cut class borders and characterizations of different classes.
Social class in newspapers
Also in today’s newspapers representation of class habitus and class tastes can be found. On the one hand we have “The Sun” addressing especially lower classes with the use of an easy language, a simple sentence structure, a lot of pictures and scandalous headlines. That matches the low cultural capital of their readers.
On the other hand there are newspapers like “The New York Times” that use a more complex way of presenting information and contexts consistent with their readers high cultural capital.
References: Corcoran, K., Crusius, J., & Mussweiler, T. (2011). Social comparison: Motives, standards, and mechanisms. In D. Chadee (Hrsg.), Theories in social psychology (S.119-139). Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117–140.
Schemer, C. (2006). Soziale Vergleiche als Nutzungsmotiv? Überlegungen zu Nutzung von Unterhaltungsangeboten auf der Grundlage der Theorie sozialer Vergleichsprozesse. In W. Wirth, H. Schramm, & V. Gehrau (Hrsg.), Unterhaltung durch Medien. Theorie und Messung (S. 80–101). Köln: Harlem.
Quiet a simplistic piece of work 🙂 consistent with the concept it tries to represent: the concept of cultural hegemony. It forgets about the freedom of the individual, diversity and creativity. Enjoy your week!
Everything is a remix. When we look at the creation of cultural goods in history and present we can clearly identify all the parallels between these apparent innovations. The video shows that the film industry is like a buffet. Everyone uses the existing creative material in order to transform it into something “new” – to remix it. In some cases this works successfully in others it leads to boredom on behalf of the audience. But everyone has to decide for themselves what to consume and how to evaluate quality. The Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessing says the problem is that in times of the availability and relative simplicity of technologies it is quiet hard for the new generation to decide what is legal and what is against copyright law. The knowledge and the drive to manipulate multi-media technologies define the current generation. It is their form of “literacy”. These technologies are part of the children’s daily lives and they don’t understand why the action of remixing is illegal. Lessig emphasizes that it is impossible to stop amateur appropriation in the digital age but the solution is definitely not defining it as a criminal act. Being labeled as criminals would have a great social impact on generations of children. Therefore Lessing wants us to share our creative wealth and to reform copyright law. He is the founder of Creative Commons: That is a nonprofit organization that supports sharing and the use of knowledge and creativity by means of free legal tools.
Human Robot Interaction 