Applying marxism
1) What does Marxism suggest regarding power in society?
Power was only for a minority of people who had wealth and power which helped them grow stronger and take more control.
2) Why is The Apprentice a good example of the media reinforcing capitalist values and ideologies?
The apprentice is a good example of what Marxism speaks about because Alan sugar has all the power and the money therefore he is in control of what happens. The more that you impress him the more likely you are to do better.
3) Come up with three examples of media texts (e.g. TV programmes, newspapers etc.) that either fetishise working class life (e.g. EastEnders presents quite a harmonious East End community which probably doesn't accurately reflect East London life) or demonise working class life or poor people (e.g. The Daily Mail and The Sun newspapers regularly demonise people living on benefits with headlines referring to 'scroungers'.)
I feel like coronation street is a good example because it shows the middle working class people enjoying the life that they are living. This is shown on the show numerous times as for the majority of the time the characters are really happy however in real life middle class people are usually always busy with working and never have time to socialise with their neighbours or with anyone for that matter.
Another example of this is Eastenders, the show shows how the family is living in a struggle as they ahve 8 kids but they have three bedroom house. We see how this affects the rest of the family as a whole and it can be quite difficult and this more or less represents middle class people and how they are living their lives in a sort of struggle.
4) Look at the bullet points on page 4 of the factsheet:
When making a Marxist reading of a text, look out for representations that:
The power that the upper class people have and the lives that they are living are shown again and again for example Rodgers is living in a big house worth millions with his wife and his kids all while they have a holiday home as well this tells us a lot that Rodgers job is doing very well for him because he is making a good amount of money and is able to pay for such a big house as well as put his children into private schools and keep his wife happy with everything she does.
Power was only for a minority of people who had wealth and power which helped them grow stronger and take more control.
2) Why is The Apprentice a good example of the media reinforcing capitalist values and ideologies?
The apprentice is a good example of what Marxism speaks about because Alan sugar has all the power and the money therefore he is in control of what happens. The more that you impress him the more likely you are to do better.
3) Come up with three examples of media texts (e.g. TV programmes, newspapers etc.) that either fetishise working class life (e.g. EastEnders presents quite a harmonious East End community which probably doesn't accurately reflect East London life) or demonise working class life or poor people (e.g. The Daily Mail and The Sun newspapers regularly demonise people living on benefits with headlines referring to 'scroungers'.)
I feel like coronation street is a good example because it shows the middle working class people enjoying the life that they are living. This is shown on the show numerous times as for the majority of the time the characters are really happy however in real life middle class people are usually always busy with working and never have time to socialise with their neighbours or with anyone for that matter.
Another example of this is Eastenders, the show shows how the family is living in a struggle as they ahve 8 kids but they have three bedroom house. We see how this affects the rest of the family as a whole and it can be quite difficult and this more or less represents middle class people and how they are living their lives in a sort of struggle.
4) Look at the bullet points on page 4 of the factsheet:
When making a Marxist reading of a text, look out for representations that:
- show the values of the power elite as beneficial to the mass
- show queries or challenges to the base as meaningless, foolish or anti-social via ‘failed revolt’
- show the subdominant position of the masses as a naturalised idea
- show the values of the power elite as ‘natural’ or ‘right’
- show that being a member of the mass is a good thing
- show the masses accepting the values of the power elite
- show the values of the power elite as being ‘for the good of the masses’ (even when unpleasant)
Now apply those bullet points to Capital. Think about the setting, characters and narrative strands - how many of the bullet points apply to Capital? Does Capital reinforce or challenge the values of capitalism? Give examples from episode 1 to support your points.
Comments
Post a Comment