Free Essay On Elitism In Newspapers

ELITISM IN JOURNALISM 2

Elitism in Journalism
The question at issue in this paper is: why is there not a labor section in newspapers to add blue-collar workers’ concerns to existing “elitist” issues like big business, the stock market, and all the sections that apply to people with a substantial amount of money? The average American does not participate in big business, probably holds no stock, and isn’t the least bit concerned with glamorous social events and the like. But a section on labor issues could be very helpful to this “class” of people—a section that would address rising and falling wages, worker’s rights, workmen’s compensation, and other issues that the average worker faces every day.
The real mass media are basically trying to divert people. Let them do something else, but don’t bother us (us being the people who run the show). Let them get interested in

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professional sports, for example. Let everybody be crazed about professional sports or sex scandals or the personalities and their problems or something like that. Anything, as long as it isn’t serious. Of course, the serious stuff is for the big guys. "We" take care of that.

Obviously, the newspapers are not interested in catering to the true needs of all readers.

Small-town papers get most of their information from the national AP wires, and so they replicate what the city newspapers are going to say. Upper and middle-to-lower classes are locked into their places, from the newspapers’ perspective.
Some years ago, British commentator Will Hutton observed that, “U.S. society is polarizing and its social arteries are hardening. The sumptuousness and bleakness of the respective lifestyle of the rich and poor represent a scale of difference in opportunity and wealth that is also medieval - and a standing offence to the American expectation that everyone has the opportunity for life, liberty, and happiness.” (New England Journal of Public Policy, 2013).
Social order is maintained by domination, in Marxist thinking. The rich and powerful have a vested interest in maintaining domination over the poorer and less powerful, and the newspapers are a powerful vehicle for doing so. Every day they are able to espouse causes and points of view that represent the wealthy and ignore “the masses.” No wonder there is not much left in American newspapers that is of interest to the “common man,” except perhaps sports. Just as elitists have taken charge of our major airways such as CBS, NBC, and ABC, so have the elitists taken charge of our journalism. As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, this class schism in journalism is bound to grow wider too, since there is nothing to stop it from growing.

Bibliography

Chomsky, N. (1997) What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream? Z Magazine, (Oct. 1997 issue.) Retrieved from: http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199710--.htm
Collins, C. (2113). The Economic Context: Growing Disparities of Income and Wealth. New England Journal of Public Policy, Volume 24 (Issue 1) Article 7. Retrieved from: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1633&context=nejpp
Elwell, F. (No Year.) The Sociology of C. Wright Mills. Rogers State University. Retrieved from: http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/users/f/felwell/www/Theorists/Mills/SocMills.htm
Friendly, J. (1981) There May be Lots of Fight in Blue-Collar Newspapers Yet. The New York Times (Auguust 30 1981 issue.) Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/30/weekinreview/there-may-be-lots-of-fight-in-blue-collar-newspapers-yet.html