The Article
The article “Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption” I feel I understood pretty well after reading. The end of the article threw me, however. I am not sure what the writer, Diana Kendall, was trying to accomplish in the section entitled “The Realities of Class.”
In the first paragraph of the article Kendall refers to class framing in a manner that is ambiguous. She says that the now canceled show The Simple Life “sums up a recurring theme of Framing Class: The media typically take ‘the heaviest of topics,’ such as class and social inequality, and trivialize it” (Kendall 229). After reading this sentence, I was left without a clear understanding of what the theme of framing class is. Is it the act of the media trivializing heavy topics, or is it the specific act of trivializing social inequality? Though this is clarified after further reading, I found it difficult to discern here. I also found Kendall’s questions at the end of the introduction difficult to understand clearly. “How do media audiences understand and act upon popular culture images or frames?” (Kendall 230). The terms “act upon” denote that we are going to find out how audiences impact popular culture images or frames, something that I do not think is actually addressed explicitly in the rest of the text.
The middle portion of the article I found clear, insightful, and important. I understood it all pretty easily. The last portion of the article on “The Realities of Class” I felt was forced into this essay. It seemed like one huge non-sequitur. Why are the statistics of class and wealth being discussed at the end of this article? Are we insinuating that it is the media’s fault that this information does not reach the public? If that was Kendall’s meaning, it was left unclear to me and would have been in poor taste. The logical end to this passage is a series of practical suggestions about how the media can begin to accurately and responsibly portray the classes in a fashion that would be appealing to the middle and poor classes of today.
Action Plan
My eagerness to grasp everything being discussed as soon as it is mentioned is part of my problem when it comes to understanding terms as they are presented in the beginning of reading material. If I do not understand it immediately, I panic, when in most cases the terms are introduced in the beginning of the work, and explained more deeply in the work’s body. This seems like common sense as I write it here, however this is the most important thing for me to realize as I re-read the article. My frustration with the term “framing class” was truly unnecessary as Kendall makes it perfectly clear that the act of the media being admonished is the act of framing classes in ways unreflective of reality, not the media’s general tendency to trivialize disturbing issues. If I simply allow the writer to do his or her job, continue reading, and understand his or her deeper explanations, I think I will find that my frustrations with reading materials when I first pick them up are wildly unnecessary.
As for the last portion of this article, I will try to pay particular attention to the details of the author’s diagnosis of framing class so as to perhaps make a clearer connection to the outline of the facts of our class and wealth breakdowns provided in conclusion. My problem here is ideological: I disagree with the premise of what I believe the author’s message is. The conclusion reads like a diatribe against the wealthy, when the true problem as I see it is that the less fortunate classes tend to resign themselves to ignorance when the type of information provided in the middle of the text is exactly the kind we need to free ourselves from our most toxic behaviors.
Plan Realization
After re-reading the article, I must say that it is hard to really know how much the first part of my strategy worked. I already understood the terms that threw me the first time around, so to write here, now, that having patience with terms I already understood benefited me in some way seems a little ridiculous. I am confident though that the strategy will work, especially when applied to these types of argumentative, persuasive pieces that rely on some basic term definitions to outline cohesive, non-contradictory arguments.
The second part of my strategy was effective, but not as effective as outlining exactly what I did not understand clearly in writing turned out to be when I re-read. Having to explain my own confusion to outline a strategy in Part Two was extremely helpful, as during my second reading I was able to further clarify what I have a problem with in Kendall’s conclusion.
The problem Kendall discusses throughout the excerpt is one of the wealthy taking advantage of the middle and the poor classes with the help of mainstream media. The facts that have to do with the realities of our class divides are relevant, but not as conclusive as would have been a common-sense rebuke of the media for not having the scruples to air material that would help the poor and middle classes in ways that were entertaining to watch. With all the marketing genius that is out there, it is hard for me to believe that this would be an impossible feat to accomplish while still turning an advertising profit. The problem is not the wealthy, or the injustice of the class divide, as I see it.
Works Cited
Kendall, Diana. Framing Class: Media Representations of Wealth and Poverty in America. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.