The Jeremy Kyle Show presents a consistently stereotypically negative representation of working class people. Through a process of selection of guests, editing techniques, and the anchorage of musical cues, working class people are represented as being unhealthy, idiotic, disorganised and unattractive. But why does a show that explicitly targets working class people use such brutally misleading representations?
A simple answer could be because it presents the audience with the gratification of seeing people with a similar lifestyle. But then why would the audience wish to see themselves in such an unflattering way? It is clear that the 'guests' are being 'othered' through the use of binary oppositions, and this meaning is anchored through the use of reaction shots of the working class audience looking in horror and fascination at the working class 'guests'.
How do we know that The Jeremy Kyle Show is targeting a working class audience? There are many aspects that tip us off. For a start, it is broadcast at 9:25am on weekday mornings, meaning that typically only those working part time, shift work and the unemployed will be able to watch it. The show has particularly low production values, from visible boom mics and cameras to a shot of Kyle falling over (to rapturous audience response). The costume of the studio audience suggests a working class background. Finally, Kyle's awkward use of slang suggests a middle class presenter desperately trying to communicate with his working class audience. The constant blunt repetition of "she's your daughter, mate" establishes a sort of catchphrase for the episode, and allows Kyle to adopt a working class lexis.
From a Marxist perspective, The Jeremy Kyle Show is created by the ruling class. The ruling class can only continue to exist by manipulating the working class. Since the working class outnumber the ruling class, the ruling class must make the working class consent to the system of controls that exist in society. This form of ruling through consent is called hegemony. One powerful message to present to the working class audience is that working class lifestyles are undesirable. If the working class audience believe that working class people are fat, ugly, lazy and repulsive, then the ideology that working class people are to blame for society's issues becomes cultivated.
The consistent negative representation of working class people not only presents the poor as being unwholesome and detestable, but it may also effect the ways in which the working class are treated in every day life. "It's a bit Jeremy Kyle" can be used as shorthand for a 'working class situation' or location, and for the secondary audience, the representations on offer on the show become the only point of reference for people who may have never set foot in a council estate before. Additionally, negative representations can provoke a self-fulfilling prophecy, where working class people in desperation may eventually end up emulating the expectations placed on them.
All this might be pretty easy to dismiss if there were the equivalent of The Jeremy Kyle Show for posh people. However, there is no middle class equivalent that I know of. If you can think of anything, please let your teacher know!