Consumer Culture and Television Home Shopping Programming: An Examination of the Sales Discourse

Abstract

In this article, I examine television home shopping programs to explore how social class issues are incorporated into the discourse of selling products. More specifically, a content analysis of the 3 major home shopping cable channels-Home Shopping Network, Quality-Value-Convenience, and Q2-is conducted. I argue that home shopping programming, in general, addresses social class issues through the identification of financial limitations, the promise of status mobility through consumption, and the fostering of anxiety with regard to one's social standing. This research contributes to the larger theory pertaining to social-order maintenance. In this article, I suggest that consumption on home shopping is offered as one means of resolving class tensions among the haves and have nots. More specifically, I argue not only that material consumption may be sold as a means to dispel class antagonism and anxiety but that home shopping programming addresses class-appropriate ideological discourse.