Mantsios' "Media Magic"-Hyperlink

                In “Media Magic” Gregory Mantsios argues that the mainstream media works to steer the class narrative in a direction favored by the ruling class. Throughout his essay Mantsios notes the ways in which the media that people are consuming provide a skewed look at poverty and wealth in America. Early in the essay he states that “we maintain these illusions [about living in an egalitarian society], in large part, because the media hides gross inequities from public view. In those instances when inequities are revealed, we are provided with messages that obscure the nature of class realities and blame the victims of class-dominated society for their own plight” (100). The first third of the essay Mantsios backs up this argument by providing examples of how the media clouds the true narrative of poverty into one that portrays the impoverished as undeserving (of help, although deserving of their social status), parasitic, and generally unpleasant. He then goes onto to note the ways in which the media makes people, middle and working class people, believe that they are a part of the wealthy class, or at least believe that they have more commonalities with the wealthy class than with working-class or poor folk.

                Mantsios spends a lot of time using the news media to support his arguments. While reading this essay I began to wonder what shows on television now serve to support the arguments Mantsios puts forth in this essay, and furthermore if there were any nuances to the media’s portrayal of poverty that Mantsios glides over. At some point while reading the essay the show “2 Broke Girls” popped into my head. I began to wonder what exactly is it about those girls that would make them “broke” and therefore more likeable as opposed to “poor”, and thus undeserving, parasitic, etc. Mantsios spends a lot of time talking about the ways in which we, as media consumers, are tricked into identifying with the wealthy and scorning the poor, but he doesn’t spend much time discussing the more subtle ways in which the media works to bolster the us-vs-them mentality (them being the poor, us being…everyone else). I would argue that at times the media does have varied representation, particularly in film and television, but not varied enough to show an accurate representation of the class-landscape of the States. This brings me back to my question of what is the difference between “broke” and “poor”. As that question danced around my brain I was reminded of an article I saw on Jezebel last month about the very same thing (being “broke” vs being “poor”). This article was a summary of a longer (and better) article found on The Nation called “What ‘Girls’ and ‘Shameless’ Teach us About Being Broke, and Being Poor”. I don’t watch either of the shows that Nona Aronowitz uses for her article, but her explanation of the two protagonists’ lifestyles answered my question on what the difference between “broke” and “poor” was in our dominant discourse. “Broke”, what the media chooses to focus on when it deigns to attempt class representation, is basically what a middle-class college student is. It is a temporary position brought upon by life-choices (choosing to work at an artsy non-profit, choosing to attend an expensive liberal arts university and not picking up a side job) and the broke person can often be bailed out by family or have some sort of support system. If you are “poor”, however, your life-chances and opportunities are very different. There is no family support system to bail you out when things get tough. Eating ramen and black beans every night isn’t something you’ll look back at one day with fond memories. If you’re “poor” you are looked at like lazy scum when in reality you are working as many jobs as mouths you have to feed (for example). Media tends to not look at “poor” people, unless it’s to criticize, mock, or provide paternalistic sympathy. The media will, however, give us a few shows about broke people because those broke people generally come from middle-class households and have something aspirational about them. They can serve to be our motivation, “look, so-and-so, is getting her life together, so can I!”

                I feel like there’s something there in the narrative of “broke vs poor”. It would have been interesting to see Mantsios tackle that and other, more nuanced, ways in which the media manipulates the image of class in America.