Media Classism Essay

Media comes in a variety of forms including television, advertising, broadcasting, and much more. The purpose of media is to share information, to communicate. America is drawn into the world of mass media now more than ever. For most of us, the first thing we do when we wake up is check our phones and social media. We eat dinner in front of the television; we listen to the radio during the drive to work. Through the media we decide where we should go, who we should vote for, even how we should dress. It is important to understand what roles media play in society in order to construct our own views and opinions. For example, most Americans define classism based on what we see in the media, “products of media culture provide materials out of which we forge…our sense of class…and of ‘us’ and ‘them’” (Kellner, 2011, p. 7).

The poor are essentially invisible in the media today because no one wants to hear about it. According to Kellner (2011), “… various people’s voices and experiences are silenced and omitted from mainstream culture” (p. 9). For some, it’s simply too sad to read about. For others, if it’s not about a celebrity, they just don’t care. Although media allows us to see and understand some of the world’s social and political issues, it also distracts us from reality. It is incredibly easy to become immersed into a good book or television show and to block out the true problems our society