MCS Tutorials 3

a) Examine class representations from American television's beginnings to today's sitcoms, reality shows, police dramas, and daytime talk shows.

Answers:
 - Gender, Race, Status, Age Groups and etc play a role in these genre of shows, even from 80's-90's till the present times.
- Examples of these class representations can be seen through:
Gender: Women are marginalized group, men are more dominant during the past times. Despite women achieving ranks and big titles in the 21st century, men are still the dominating gender and its still a men's world. Take example of the movie "The Proposal", the main character (Sandra) keeps masculinity within her work lifestyle and characteristics. However, she is just a Chief Editor and its still under her male superiorities (CEO and President)
Race: Disney Princess Movies cartoons are all white skinned princesses (Ex: Snow White/Sleeping Beauty) until the arrival of a black skinned princess from The Princess and The Frog.

b)What is the American Dream and how has it been portrayed on television? Who has it excluded and why?

Answers:
- American Dream is known as freedom, wealth, democracy, freewill and wishes.
-The American Dream is being portrayed on television as a "one-in-a-million" dream and only the main characters who are unfortunate will obtain it through luck and hardwork.
- It has excluded a few characters which has less screen time and does not bring much contribution towards the series.

c) How do media representations of class reflect the larger social system and social inequality?

Answers:
- Media representations shows different reflections towards the social system in a larger way by the way they communicate, the way they act and etc.
- Examples: In the comedy series "Big Bang Theory", we can see the culture and lifestyle of geeks and comic addicts exist in real life.
- As for social inequality, examples like "Hotel Rwanda", we can see the Tutsi people have been killed and tortured by the Hutu people which resulted in the massacre.

d) How is the working class portrayed when it has been represented?

Answers:
- Working class is portrayed as the middle-income, busy and family type characteristics. They lead a normal life and has drama issues with their boss/family/spouse/daily activities.
- Working class are seen in public areas, having lunch or coffee at the regular coffeehouse, enjoy the comfort of home after work and etc.

e) What are the struggles faced in trying to get a show about working class people on TV?

Answers:
- Leisure time
- Very busy work way
- Time management
-Co Worker: Relation Problem
- Level of positions/titles/ranks are usually for men.
- No alternative to passive consumers.

f) How are race and gender intertwined with class on TV?

Answers:
- 2 ways which makes media audience active...
-Interpretive freedom: Audiences may not construct the meaning intended by producer (eg: different culutre relate differently), Not all audience members construct the same meaning from the same media texts.
- Collective interpretation: Media use not just individual but also social, Membership in social category also matters.
- Race: African: Poor, bad person
Indians: Poor, Robbery/snatch-Theives
Chinese: Rich, business men
Malay: Middle-class, majority
-Gender: Male( Heroes, saviours, dominant), Female: Victims, weaker/controlled
-Race: Black(Poor: Cant afford stuffs, being looked down, gangsters), White(Rich: Owns everything, branded)
-Culture: Western (Open Minded, Sexy wearings), Eastern (Traditional culture)