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Abstract

This dissertation aims to illustrate how multiple media forms such as television, newspapers, tabloids and social media have created misrepresentations of the working class and poverty. The misrepresentations of such groups have been constructed and perpetuated by sensationalised and unauthentic portrayals in the media that have accommodated and nurtured the social and class divide in the UK. Moreover, these representations and narratives that the media produce greatly influence society’s approaches and attitudes towards the working classes. Identifying the influences and the relationship between the media, society and the hierarchy, recognising their role in the production and perpetuation of representations.
This dissertation will further speculate and explore if attitudes and narratives have positively changed. Considering the economic impacts that the UK is currently experiencing; increasing financial insecurity and poverty rates across the country, determining if these factors have the power to change attitudes and narratives.
The research contextualises multiple media examples that demonstrate how media forms utilise their platforms against the working classes. The research and discussion discovered that there is an initiation of shift in recent years in regards to how the media reports and covers poverty, however damaging and unfair representations still exist across multiple media mediums. Emphasizing that the media must seek to present and provide society with more fair and accurate representations that are not mediated and misinforming.

Course: Media Studies - BA (Hons) - C1346

Date Deposited: 2022-08-08

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13967.html