Misrepresentation from popular TV shows

I hate to talk about more TV shows, but the ideals of today's media are apparent mainly from the popularity of TV and its shows. One show that I thought really presents a misrepresentation of the South is My Name is Earl, which is a comedy about a "white trash" crook who turns his life around by beginning to do good deeds in order to gain positive karma. The setting is in Camden County, a fictional location on the border between the North and the South. Because of the exact location, the show compares and contrasts the people of each region. Earl and his family, representing the South, live in trailer homes and fulfill the white trash stereotype. Throughout the show, there are multiple extramarital affairs among the characters, even interracial affairs. Compared the "Northern" suburb which the rest of Camden County represents, Earl and his family are portrayed as dirty, unsophisticated, and unintelligent.



This show like many others, such as The Cleveland Show, demonstrate the stereotypical South as a bunch of dumb, racist rednecks or white trash that live in trailer homes with the Southern accents. From these TV shows, we can see that the media itself misrepresents the South without it ever actually learning about the South and portraying it as it is; however, as we know, the South is more than what the media presents.