Holding Up a Mirror to a Classless Society

Ray Suarez is a journalist writing about how the media and information we are exposed to shapes our conception of society. This I believe is true because on a daily basis, individuals are exposed to thousands of advertisements both directly and indirectly, and it is the information we are fed that shapes how we perceive certain societies. Suarez continues to talk about when white men are arrested, police are less likely to parade out in front of camera crew. Many television stations are also located within dense urban areas and tend to shoot events that occur in close vicinity. “These factors tend to reinforce unspoken assumptions about correlations between race and class, and between race and crime, that are not in fact true but that are sustained by the language and images streaming from the television day after day” (362). Thus, the more types of crimes or similar stories we are exposed to, create our perceptions of given societies based on what is publicized.

Suarez also continues to state that people will more money have the ability to block out certain things from being publicized and have control over what is seen. If you have less money, you have less ability to control your self-representation of how others perceive you. It is interesting to note that if you are a low status person, you are less likely to be considered an expert if you have a lower education or income or belong to a lower class and are seen as “raw material”. On the other hand, a high status person is seen as “providing context, sketching the big picture, describing systematic challenges of being a lower-status individual” (362). People who are wealthy and have more power than a low-status individual are capable of creating their own place in society staying above within their social positions. Not only is the media in control out of perceptions of class, but also individuals at the top of the hierarchy are able to create their own perceptions about themselves.