Critiques of the bias of media

The main point of “Representation of Class” is that the media deliberately blur the boundary of social classes and attempt to present classlessness and individual class mobility. The media extol the merits of the riches and blame the poor people for their defective personalities. The only resolution of the poor is pursuing “American Dream,” that is, the poor people or the minority can achieve self-transmission by means of diligent working. The middle-upper class lifestyle is the classic pattern of representation of class on the media.
In Joseph Turow’s book, Breaking up America: Advertisers and The New Media World, there is the similar point of view as this article. At the standpoint of Advertising, the media target the middle-upper class which might consume a part of their disposable income in particular lifestyle activities, as well as the riches, so “Upscale” has become the mainstream of the media until now to lure the affluent audiences or the audiences who want to satisfy their fantasy.
As a result, “Hypercommercialism” is a big issue to the media. Advertisers and marketers encourage people to consume luxury products or services which are not really necessary for their daily lives via the media. “Upscale” is still the favorite content in the current media. The media manipulate “lifestyles” as a commercial intrigue to trap audiences into high-consumption, and produce the special formats, such as reality shows and product placement, to send commercial messages to the audiences. Consumers are not easy to escape from the customized, targeted, persuasive messages from the media bombarding, and even enjoy themselves in these products. For example, “Amazing Race” provides big prizes to the competitors to increase the dramatic effects and attract the audiences. On the other hand, these prizes also disseminate their providers’ brands to the audiences. Take Hollywood films for another example, the actors use high-tech or luxury products that show their brands to attract the audiences. There is the same technique applied to the TV shows. Advertisers try to create perceived-to-be status symbols to drive the consumers to buy these products that make them more access to the celebrities. In the past, the audiences could choose to skip the commercials, but now the audiences are exploited their options for the formats and the contents without commercials. They even accept commercials unconsciously and indulge themselves in this marketing strategy.
Another notice point is “Celebrity-oriented” phenomenon of the media. “American Idol,” “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire,” “The Apprentice” are based on American Dr6eam spirit. The TV programs as shortcuts help common people become rich and famous by means of their intelligence and diligences. The shows present the glory of the celebrities and make the audiences agree with the merits of the riches and the celebrities. And another kind of TV programs is adverse-operation of celebrity-oriented shows. For example, in “The Simple Life,” Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, who are two upper-class girls, do various internships in a road trip. The show seems funny that the audiences can see the celebrities make a fool of themselves. However, the audiences just feel themselves more close to the celebrities by means of watching this reality show. This show does not really degrade the celebrities, but acclaims they are the same as common people instead. It does not apparently extol the merits of the celebrities, but tries to eliminate the dissatisfaction of the celebrities.
On the one hand, the media cover up the socioeconomic diversity to ignore social inequity. On the other hand, the media try to differentiate the audience segments to target potential customers more accurately. In order to target accurately various consumers’ lifestyles, “both competing and cooperating, the executives searched for ways to exploit social rifts they perceived in the nation at large.” The advertisers and the media label Americans, create targeted formats to signal an interest in the specific audiences and tailor to the contents of advertising and the media with new interactive technologies and the responds of the consumers in order to attract the correct potential consumers and exclude the wrong ones. For example, the TV channels divide into different themes to target specific audiences according to different lifestyles. BET (Black Entertainment Television) is a classic black media that targets African Americans. And MTV VH1 targets the twenty-five- to thirty-four-year-old audiences who would be upscale and hip. As a result, the fragmental media will lead to more fractional American society.
This differentiation of American society results in social alienation. The fragmental media respond to social fractionalization and strengthen social diversity. As a result, the media are responsible for social alienation. For example, when we concentrate on watching our favorite TV channels or TV shows, we may overlook other issues which are worthy to care about. Moreover, we may feel annoyed or disturbed by other formats or content we are not interested in. The alienation will undermine the link of interpersonal relationship and the entirety of society. Ironically, American society is composed of diverse cultures and races, but it is gradually losing the macroscopic perspective of a whole society. The audiences have audiovisual identities to choose their favorite contents, but ignore the considerations of other the same important interests.
In conclusion, the bias of media presents not only the representation of class but also the differentiation of society. In hypercommercialism media culture, the media praise the upscale lifestyle of the riches and the celebrities. The media manipulate the upscale lifestyle to drive common people to consume luxury products and ignore social inequity. At the meantime, they also set up the audience segments, customize and tailor to the commercials massages for various audiences. The media present classlessness and individual class mobility; however, they create a more fractional society. Although the interests of commercials is one of the most important economic supports of the media, they should notice this ethical crisis and not to deteriorate the social inequity and the audience segmentation.