Monday, 15 September 2014

Class representation in newspapers

There has been a newspaper report that has claimed 'children from poor homes need to change how they eat and dress and conduct themselves so that they can feel comfortable in middle class settings such as restaurants and theatres'.  I think that this statement out of a newspaper report published by The Guardian conveys working class children in a very negative way. I find the  statement very demoralising towards working class children, as I think it was a way of saying that they can't be seen in the same settings as middle class people with the way they are. I identified this because I thought that this was a very incorrect statement to make.

I don't think that children should have to be pressured into changing the way they conduct themselves, the food they eat or the way they dress just to fit in. I think that children should be able to feel comfortable with the way they are, instead of having to be something they're not just so that they don't look out of place when they go out for a meal or a day out at the theatre.

I think that this had to be identified because if we where to put both middle class and working class children together,  don't think that we'd be able to tell them apart. They would probably eat the same food, things such as chicken nuggets and fish fingers, they'd probably also dress similarly and have the same toys and have the same interests. So I find it surprising that such a statement could be made as its difficult to look at any child and place them under a certain class just from the way they eat, dress and conduct themselves.  

The Guardian's values are that the press must take care not release any inaccurate, misleading or distorted information. Also The Guardian says that its press must distinguish clearly between comment, conjecture and fact.This means that The Guardian will most likely release things that are factual or close to the truth. This means that despite how I feel about this particular news report, the must be some truth to it. Maybe thats how the author of that report felt but, I still feel it was a misrepresentation on their part.

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