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Class Act or Class Clown?: The Public Pedagogy of TV’s Proliferation of Working-Class Reality Programs
Type of Presentation
Shared
Session Abstract
Adult educators who promote social justice should help students recognize and resist the corporate agenda embodied in class-based “info-tainment” in programs like Swamp People and Hillbilly Blood. Come see how.
Target Audience
This session is for anyone who is interested in how the five corporate conglomerates that own most US media use television programing to manipulate the population into accepting, and even embracing, the growing disparity between the very rich and the bulk of the population. This session is intended to assist those critical adult educators who wish to incorporate popular culture into the classroom experience as a tool for teaching and learning, and for anyone interested in exploring issues of class, consumerism, social justice and education for the betterment of society.
Learning Outcomes
Attendees will learn to analyze the hegemonic messages behind class-based “reality TV” and use that aspect of popular culture in their educational settings to help students do the same. They will be able to help students question the naturalness of socio-economic class and educational disparities in the U.S. and to understand how popular culture underpins our understanding of how the world works. The objective of this session is to help adult educators approach issues of class and poverty within the context of popular television programing.
Session Description
From Swamp People to Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and from Hillbilly Blood to Hillbilly Handfishing, the current television line-up seems to provide a tribute to the working-class hero. But a critical analysis of these programs (and the many other titles showcasing working and poor lifestyles) reveals the public pedagogical focus of such programing. Critical adult educators who promote economic justice in the classroom should help students recognize the hidden corporate agenda behind such class-based “info-tainment.” In a time when a growing number of working people are barely making a living wage, corporations aim to prevent unionizing, promote consumerism, and keep workers working with less reward for their labor. These television shows serve the same purpose as the “happy darkie” myth that helped bolster the slave economy in the 18th and 19th centuries. In effect, “people are happy in their deprivation” and “at least I have more than they do.”
Efforts are made to try to schedule sessions on the day preferred by the Primary Presenter, though this cannot be guaranteed. Please check your preference.
Thursday November 7
Primary Presenter
Robin Redmon Wright, Ph.D., Penn State University, Harrisburg
Work Title
Assistant Professor of Adult Education