Social researchers and scholars point out that the mainstream media typically skew their portrayals of economic classes towards the white middle and upper classes, with all their privileges. They rarely represent the interests or perspectives of working-class women and men.

Richard Butsch, in his article "Ralph, Fred, Archie and Homer: Why Television Keeps Recreating the White Male Working-Class Buffoon," notes that the entertainment media tend to exaggerate affluence, and under-represent working-class men and women. Working wives in television series tend to be middle class women in pursuit of careers. Depictions of working class wives are rare. Working-class men tend to be shown as immature, irresponsible, and requiring the supervision of their "betters."

In her article "The Silenced Majority," Barbara Ehrenreich writes that the media rarely represent the interests or experiences of working class women and men. In news and current affairs programming, the "experts" who discuss issues affecting the working classes are often white, professional, middle class men. She continues that members of the white working classes are portrayed as dumb, inarticulate and old-fashioned. Such stereotypes serve to silence the concerns and perspectives of working class women and men in the media.

News and information media also express biases against working-class interests:

• A survey conducted by City University of New York found that in two years of PBS prime-time programming, 27 hours addressed the concerns and lives of the working classes - compared with 253 hours that focused on the upper classes.
  
  
• The Institute for Alternative Journalism, and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), have reported on the negative or non-existent coverage of union activities and labour strikes in the mainstream news.