Kendall discusses three frames that characterize media depictions of the middle class:
- The middle class as backbone of the nation;
- The middle class as squeezed between aspiration and growing anxiety; and
- The middle class as victimized either by the rich and powerful or by the poor and homeless.
Which of these frames resonates most with your own exposure to media portrayals of the middle class?
February 18, 2019 at 1:11 pm
I have experienced each of Kendall’s frames for presenting the middle class in my exposure to media. When reading I found it interesting to reflect on how political leaders and parties use each of these frames, and the middle class as a whole, to push their agendas. For example, the first frame “the middle class as the backbone of the nation” exalts the values of “individualism, achievement and success, progress and material comfort, and freedom and liberty” in the middle class. (176) This frame views the middle class as hardworking and in control of their own destiny. I have seen this frame most actively employed by President Trump’s rhetoric. Throughout his campaign and presidency, he has sought to appeal to middle America by bringing jobs to these areas and emphasizing a return to stable middle-class values and security by “Making America Great Again”. On the other hand, democrats have used the other two frames more actively to connect to many of the hardships that the middle class is currently facing. The United States’ Income inequality is often used to demonstrate the victimization of the middle class by corporate executives and national political leaders who lead corrupt campaigns funded on private money. These media examples highlight the rich, such as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who have benefitted at the expense of the middle and lower class workers that their companies employ. This frame portrays the middle school as currently helpless and dependent on the values of the wealthy elite.
In popular culture and television, I have experienced the squeezing frame of the middle class the most often. TV Shows like Shameless demonstrate the incredibly tense day to day life that many families within the new “global” labor poor face. The traditional values utilized in the backbone framing strategy are replaced with the raw and unfiltered realities of living as a working class family in America today. This includes topics of mental health, drug abuse, inequality and racism. In Shameless, the Gallagher family benefits from welfare and public assistance while the main character Fiona is constantly fighting to make a life for herself both economically and socially, but is hindered by her family’s status as working poor on the southside of Chicago. Each character faces their own storyline in which they work daily to make ends meet as they were born into a family with very little social or economic capital. While this show is an extreme example, I have found that other popular sitcoms are beginning to reflect this reality more often.