Question

What role does the media play in perpetuating both positive and negative social class stereotypes? Support your answer with examples

Answer 1

Media is very powerful in modern era, no doubt about that. They can make or break a situation as they want hence it would not be wrong to say that media plays a very important role in perpetuating both positive and negative social class stereotypes.

They can make a poilitical party hero and other villian, they can generate a strong emotion against a rapist and an equally strong respect for a saint. Many examples can be seen in our day to day lives, there are very few media houses giving authentic news others are just playing in the hands of powerful political parties.

One such example i can quote from India where all the issues of North eastern part of India are ignored and some celebrities death is more important. There was a situation last year when there were floods in north east and parallely one film star died, no one covered the news of floods and hence no help reached what so ever. Such is a powerful medium media is and we should understand that this should not be allowed to happen.

Answer 2

The media shows both positive and negative social class stereotypes which is viewed by the public . This can be seen in the cases where members of the lower social class are depicted as in need of funds and other resources in various situations and how they are sincere in their means to earn money. In many other cases it can be seen that the media brings out right the opposite message where the individual of the same class may be portrayed as vulnerable to be criminals and participating in illucit activities. This shows conflicting views creating both positive and negative stereotypes which can create mixed viewpoints on a group. In many cases some stereotypes will be more overrepresented than the other.