After reading, "The Political Economic Origins of Reali-TV" by Chad Raphael, I wanted to go more in depth about economics in television. One part of this text really touch down on how Reali-TV is sold as a discount, because of the demographic watching these programs. The discount was due to the lower income of viewers. This to me was very interesting because majority of these reality programs are incredible popular. Sometimes possible even more popular then a regular television Drama.
In looking at Marx key ideas; Capitalist societies alienate the working class, consumer consumption is motivation for work, Capitalism destroys individuality, and ruling class monopolizes mass media and advertising. These all hold possible some truth with the given scenario above (or the discount because consumers have lower income). But, when we look at reality television and it's similar themes, mainly being trashy or focused around entertainment news (also somewhat trash). Why does advertisement assume the demographic is of a lower income? Is this because we assume people watching filthy TV must be poor? Is this another way of the ruling class placing people in one genre? If your poor you watch garbage television, if your rich you watch intelligent television, and if your middle class you watch everything in between.
Basically, I thought this was interesting how advertisers and/or the ruling class can classify the individual just because of... well, class. This is in the text and also the main idea for my post, "The genre's (Reali-TV) excesses drove away some advertisers that do not want to be associated with its tawdry image and generally lower-income audience". (Raphael, Pg. 137)
In looking at Marx key ideas; Capitalist societies alienate the working class, consumer consumption is motivation for work, Capitalism destroys individuality, and ruling class monopolizes mass media and advertising. These all hold possible some truth with the given scenario above (or the discount because consumers have lower income). But, when we look at reality television and it's similar themes, mainly being trashy or focused around entertainment news (also somewhat trash). Why does advertisement assume the demographic is of a lower income? Is this because we assume people watching filthy TV must be poor? Is this another way of the ruling class placing people in one genre? If your poor you watch garbage television, if your rich you watch intelligent television, and if your middle class you watch everything in between.
Basically, I thought this was interesting how advertisers and/or the ruling class can classify the individual just because of... well, class. This is in the text and also the main idea for my post, "The genre's (Reali-TV) excesses drove away some advertisers that do not want to be associated with its tawdry image and generally lower-income audience". (Raphael, Pg. 137)
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