Class Privilege in Mass Media

One important aspect of the media is the tendency for content to focus on privileged lives, lifestyles, and behaviors. Privilege can be understood in the simplest terms as a special benefit or as an advantage that not everyone in a society enjoys. Social class is understood as a group of individuals who share a roughly similar economic position within society. One’s social class can also be understood as a measure of personal worth and value. Since the advent of some of the dominant forms of mass media, for example, television and film, the lives and lifestyles of privileged, wealthy individuals have been documented and portrayed.

Entertainment itself can be seen as a form of privilege. Not everyone is able to spend time searching the Internet, listening ...