This document discusses representations of the working class in media. It examines how ideology and mediation can lead to stereotypical portrayals of working class people, who are often discriminated against or presented as things to escape from. The film Pride is used as an example of a representation that focused on working class identity and community, though some characters were still highly stereotyped. Theories of audience reception are also covered, explaining how passive audiences may be affected by representations while active audiences could engage more critically based on their own experiences. Finally, there are notes on using audio editing software like GarageBand.

1. A2: Pride and Working Class
Alice and Carly

2. A2
• Radio
• Documentary
• Blog
• Double Page Spread
• Representation of Working class-exam

3. Representation
5 Main Questions
Who or What is being represented?
How is the representation created?
Why is the representation created in that way?
What is the intention?
What is the effect of the representation?

4. Representation
Mediation
“Everything we see in media text has gone
through some process to get to us”
This means that any media we see, has been
developed so the audience has a secondhand
version of the original.

5. Representation
Ideology
These are dominant beliefs and values that society has.
These ideas come from education, the government and
institutions.
The producers are middle class and mostly white males.
So the ideas they distribute are mostly stereotypical and
we have to question the verisimilitude in the
representation. The result of this is that the working class
is presented to the audience in a wrong way. Members of
the working class are downplayed and usually
discriminated against. This shows that they are not
included fairly in society.

6. Theory
“The 1980s saw a dramatic assault on all aspects
of working class. Unions and council houses and
communities and with it working class pride. It
has been replaced by middle class pride, and the
working classes have to come to be seen as
something to escape from.”
-Owen Jones, Media Commentator

7. Pride
Pride was made to represent the working class in society.
Although it included members of the LGBT community, it was
focused on the working class as well as gay people.
The positive representations of the working class were that
the young people had strong political opinions, they kept
together in their community, but also were accepting of other
people regardless of their class or sexuality.
However the negatives were they were highly stereotyped.
Some were unemployed, loud and disruptive and they were
victimized by the police. This shows the unrealistic
representations set by the middle class.

8. Codes and Conventions of interview
• Critics
• Overview of film/synopsis/content information/working class
identity
• Own opinions/other opinions (film critic/expert)
• Information on film
• Talk about actors- focus on big names
• Positives and negatives
• Clip
• Intro/Outro music
• Title of show mentioned
• 1 presenter and 1 Expert
• Questions from presenter and answers from expert
• Factual information/formal language
• Short background of film from presenter

9. Audience Theory
• Active Theory- An active model instead suggests that
audiences interact with the text to create meaning
• Passive Theory- A passive model of consumption suggests
that the texts have an effect on the audience
• Reception Theory- Producers / directors construct a text
encoded with hidden meanings or messages that the
producers or directors want to convey across the audience
• Links to working class in film- An active audience would
watch the movie and if they too are from working class
background then they would engage with what is being
portrayed in the film. A passive audience would be affected
by what they are seeing however they would not pay much
interest to the messages being conveyed

10. GarageBand
• When using GarageBand you have to make sure the
metronome is turned off so there isn’t a ticking noise
in the background.
• We learnt how to cut audio out of a clip and edit the
sound levels so music can fade in and out.
• We learnt how to get the music from a website and
drag it over onto our track.
• We also found out the best position for the recording
device so we could hear our voices when listening to
the audio.