The media’s failure to represent the working class: explanations from media production and beyond

Abstract

The article shows how, even though Media Production Analysis (MPA) has mostly neglected class, it might be fruitfully adapted to explain inadequate media representations of the working class, as long as it draws upon 1) an understanding of political-economic and policy factors beyond the situational contexts that might be observed, or discovered through interviews; 2) an attention to how subjective experiences of class shape production, via combination of Bourdieu’s concept of habitus with Erik Olin Wright’s recognition of “contradictory class locations;” 3) attention to the changing political status of the working class, and how this might shape production and representation.