In Framing Class, Diana Kendall argues that the media (“newspapers, magazines, radio and television networks and stations, and the Internet”) profoundly influence our perceptions of social reality, and particularly our perceptions of social class. In a section titled “Media Framing and Social Reality,” she writes:
Framing is the process by which sense is made of events. When we read a newspaper or watch television or a movie, we live vicariously: we do not actually experience firsthand the event that we are reading about or seeing. Instead, we experience a mediated form of communication in which images and words supply us with information that shapes our perceptions of the world around us. The media selectively frame the world. . . direct[ing] audiences to consider certain features or key points and to ignore or minimize others. (8)
Kendall argues that media frames influence our sense of reality even if we think we are savvy media consumers. She quotes communications scholar Linda Holtzman: “We may say of television, music, or film, ‘I know it’s not real,’ and yet with heavy consumption of the media the repetition of the images will influence us in spite of that understanding” (11).
Reflect on your own media consumption. Is there a particular media text (TV show, film, digital medium) that frames your own perception of social class and/or social inequality in the contemporary United States? Explain.
February 12, 2019 at 8:57 pm
The media directly influences our actions and thoughts on a daily basis, whether that’s the media we are consuming through television, movies, etc, but also through social media, that being Instagram, twitter, Facebook. We know this fact and we actively participate in these platforms. We watch reality TV, movies, TV dramas; we’re hooked on what Diana Kendall calls, ‘living vicariously,’ and it emerges as an escape from our daily lives. The content we are consuming gives us, as Goffman says, “cognitive structures that guide perception and the representation of reality.” (8) Additionally, Goffman’s frame analysis helps people to, “make sense of their everyday lives by devising frames that shape and compartmentalize their experiences and help them explain the realm of objects and events around them.” (8) While this innate tendency that Goffman describes can have crippling effects on people’s self-esteem or understanding of self, and can especially make the gaps between social classes ever-present, there are also television experiences that can do just the opposite. The television drama, ’This is Us,’ depicts a seemingly normal, yet large family, that faces immense hardship. This show frames my perception of the majority of the United States because there are many families in the United States that can identify with many of their misfortune and can find solace in knowing that people are going through these same problems. Further, this type of TV show can help people “make sense of their everyday lives,” (8) and to help frame their own sense of reality in, potentially, a positive way. For example, there is a death in the family, there is a woman who is unable to bear children, a member of the family struggling to come to terms with their sexuality, a family member that was adopted, and much more. These types of problems come up in all social classes and are problems that many of us can relate to. On the contrary, the show, Keeping up with the Kardashians, is largely un-relatable to the majority of its viewers, yet entertaining for that very purpose. This can lead to constructing a poor perception of one’s own social class.