Applying Marxism: blog task

1) What does Marxism suggest regarding power in society?
Marxism suggests that the majority of power in society lies in the hands of the elite e.g. wealthy large media conglomerates have a large amount of power and that Marxists see powers in terms of class domination as the class with the highest amount of power is superior to those with less power and class.

2) Why is The Apprentice a good example of the media reinforcing capitalist values and ideologies?
This Apprentice is a good example of media reinforcing capitalist values and ideologies as it goes into minorities having power and the majorities having almost none. Although Alan Sugars wealth puts him at a more advantageous place than many others 

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 presents a glorified life for the working class making them look like they are living an almost perfect lifestyle we should look up to even though in reality those in working class normally aren't usually living the ideal life and not those we would idolise, presenting a false representation. In Coronation Street we see the whole community get along quite well together which doesn't match up with real life as there will always be problems as no community is entirely perfect. The Daily Mail presents the working class in a negative way, often presenting them as being hopeless and trying to leech off of others for their own benefit, like those who are unemployed and receive benefits which The Daily Mail like to ridicule and bring shame upon. Also, The Daily Mail like to phrase their headlines in a way that positions the audience to dislike the working class before even reading the articles properly. 

4) Look at the bullet points on page 4 of the factsheet:

When making a Marxist reading of a text, look out for representations that:

• show the values of the power elite as beneficial to the mass
• show queries or challenges to the base as meaningless, foolish or anti-social via ‘failed revolt’
• show the subdominant position of the masses as a naturalised idea
• show the values of the power elite as ‘natural’ or ‘right’
• show that being a member of the mass is a good thing
• show the masses accepting the values of the power elite
• show the values of the power elite as being ‘for the good of the masses’ (even when unpleasant)

Now apply those bullet points to Capital. Think about the setting, characters and narrative strands - how many of the bullet points apply to Capital? Does Capital reinforce or challenge the values of capitalism? Give examples from episode 1 to support your points.

I believe, Capital reinforces the representations that are suggested by Marxism/Capitalism. Firstly Capital shows an upper class British family being the power elite as they have a luxurious house and the father works in a serious business earning  a lot of money being the breadwinner for his family, even though he earns such a good wage he still demands for a better bonus even though the one he got was already thousands showing how the elite are so out of touch with themselves and society as those in the middle class and working class would die for anything even close to what he is earning showing that the elite take what they have for granted and are extremely under appreciative. Another representation that Capital shows is 'meaningless, foolish or anti-social failed revolt', this is shown when the African woman gets deported back to her country even after all the hard work she has been doing all by herself which is her challenging social constructs normally attached to immigrants. Therefore her being deported back shows a failed revolt making it evident and supporting the fact that challenging the original base is foolish.