TV: Applying Marxism

1) What does Marxism suggest regarding power in society?

Karl Marx said there is a limited amount of power in society, which can only be only be held by one person or group at a time.  Marx said these “groups” are the working and ruling classes. Under capitalism the ruling class hold all the power and use it to exploit the working class. This is the cornerstone of Marxism. Marx believed the structure of society is determined by the nature of its economy, or its “economic base”.  So if the economy is capitalist, the rest of society will act under capitalist values. This is because capitalism dictates the ruling class will own the means of production, meaning they can control their workers, this is why many countries have all the power concentrated in the hands of the ruling class. Ralph Miliband said the political power in society was also held by those who control the economic base.

2) Why is The Apprentice a good example of the media reinforcing capitalist values and ideologies?
the apprentice is a show that gives opportunities to young entrepreneurs who want to create a business that they imagine will be successful, but the way this show reinforces capital values is through the idea of money as lord sugar wont fund the product unless he thinks its going to make him money and this is what capitalism is about the idea that the rich stay rich and powerful and that those who have less are there for a reason that being they haven't worked hard enough but its all about the money, as lord sugar is not going to fund a product because its good,useful or needed he will fund it because it will make him money and this is a good example of the media reinforcing capitalist values and ideologies.

3) Come up with three examples of media texts (e.g. TV programmes, newspapers etc.) that either fetishise working class life (e.g. EastEnders presents quite a harmonious East End community which probably doesn't accurately reflect East London life) or demonise working class life or poor people (e.g. The Daily Mail and The Sun newspapers regularly demonise people living on benefits with headlines referring to 'scroungers'.)
Eastenders is a good example of a media texts that fetishise working class life because east end is shown to be a happy place where everyone gets along and enjoys the life they live and they don't want for anything more when in reality people living in east London probably don't feel like that as they would probably rather live in a high-end area or want a better job and people in the area are definitely not as friendly as they're presented to be in eastenders as people across the whole of London would probably not speak to others unless they're spoken to.

the daily mail is an right wing paper that believe people on benefits are just scrounging off others and they aren't helping the community, the daily mail often tend to demonise working class people and
look down on them as they have a capitalist view on society and believe the rich should stay rich because they have "all worked hard for it" and those with less haven't worked hard enough and should stay where they are and not have help.