Working Class Representation

…for the exam

• The British working class is represented in a number of ways on television and film and this representation has changed to some extent over the years, sometimes depending on the institutional provider or on audience needs.

The Angry Young Man era

• The films reflected previous representation in a number of ways – certainly in iconographical terms - (talk about Eley’s (1995) views here) but how were they different and what influenced them? Use Karel Reisz’ Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (1960) as the example

• Remember – until then, wc representation had been marginalised on screen

• How and why was representation different on TV – talk about audience and institutional needs – how is this reflected in the first episode of Coronation Street (1960)? Iconography is similar, but…? You could mention Tuchman (1978) here, because she’s wrong about the representation of women in the case of soaps.

What’s it like today?

• Film – Paddy Considine’s Tyrannosaur (2011) and Ken Loach’s The Angels’ Share (2012) – more brutal? Sign of hope? Why are people like Joseph and Robbie portrayed this way – they’re frustrated living within the confines of a class system, but their reactions and behaviour are more extreme than Arthur Seaton’s. What does Gauntlett (2002) say about the messages we get from the media about identity? What are the problesm with the ending of The Angels’ Share?

Soaps

• More upmarket – look at the mise-en-scene of most houses in Eastenders. More dysfunction (examples?). Why is Coronation Street different? Older audience in general; still largely female BUT have to compete for audience in a multi-channel era – more crime stories (to attract males) and more stories involving younger people – issue-bases stories, the frequency of which point to sensationalism to attract an audience rather than any real drama (examples?).

Owen Jones – left wing critic and commentator

• Demonisation of the Working Class (2013) and his Huw Wheldon Television lecture - feels a lot of representation is negative – examples?

• Where? How? Read what he says…• Why are some of these shows popular? Give examples…• What might the effect be? What does he say about

Vicky Pollard and the way this particular representation was picked up by the press?

• What about the way Ian Duncan Smith was allegedly influenced by what he saw on Benefit Street?

Is Jones right?

• If we take Gramsci’s ideas about hegemony as correct, then… yes….

• If we take the Cultural Effects theory (1965), audience and the way as the truth, then yeas, audiences can be influenced by representations that they see over a long period of time

However…• The effect is debatable – modern identity

theorists like Gauntlett (2002) would dispute the rigidity of this view – example?

• Gammon and Marshment (1998) – stress the role of the audience in the construction of meaning from texts

• British Broadcasting Standards Commission research into the way people watch soaps – even the most fanatical viewers don’t believe they are watching reality

DeZengotita (2005)

• Relevance?• How do working class audiences contribute to the

construction of images of working class? • Look at slide 27 in the slideshare below BUT also note that

you, as working class people, have made your own media texts in which you represent working class life

• However – is the audience, though potentially vast, likely to be as big as, say, that for Jeremy Kyle or Benefit Street – and bear in mind that any controversy is likely to be picked up by the media – in fact, Owen Jones discussed these shows and their potential effect on a Culture Show special, as well as in his book and in the Huw Wheldon lecture

Collective Identity• Look at the last two slides in the Vicky Pollard powerpoint below

– make sure you know what collective identity is and understand that in the age of web 2.0 working class people can contribute to that sense of collective identity (think of your own films that you’ve put on YouTube and your blogs) though, of course they may have taken SOME aspects from existing models that they have seen represented in the media – as Gauntlett says

• Be aware that some aspects of working class representation have become generic and ingrained in or consciousness and I think Jones is worried that less savory aspects (the working class as scroungers, layabouts etc) will become dominant views in a period where people are being forced into attending foodbanks due to government cuts and austerity methods and will affect the views and prejudices of other people, including opinion- leaders in the media and policy makers, like Ian Duncan Smith