Media and Collective Identity

“Identity is complicated- everybody thinks they’ve got one”- David GauntlettDavid Gauntlett

What do you need for the exam?

•social group as a case study- examples

•at least two different media•understanding of and reference to

theory/cultural critics•your own voice!

What is ‘Collective Identity’?

•Representation: the way reality is ‘mediated’ or ‘re-presented’ to us

•Collective Identity: the individual’s sense of belonging to a group (part of personal identity)

•A level

A level Media Specification

How do contemporary media represent different collective groups in different ways?

•focus today: young people•diverse representations including

fiction, non-fiction and self-representation

•for the exam, your own examples from the group you are studying will gain you marks

How does contemporary representation compare with that of the past?

•today: young people on TV/online and in film- mainly contemporary

•examples needed for similarity and difference

•examples from the past

what are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?

•stereotyping: what is its impact?•what power does the audience

have to ‘resist’?•how do we ‘measure’ the

representations we encounter?

to what extent is human identity increasingly ‘mediated’ ?

•increasing media = increasing mediation?

•re-presentation by others/by selves

• Fishtank Andrea Arnold• This is England by Shane Meadows•Goodbye Charlie Bright by Nick Love •Withnail and I by Bruce Robinson•Quadrophenia by• If by Lindsay Anderson•Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick

Film

Youtube links• If http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqoGcC4S5jk

• Clockwork Orange http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI-mDTdeKR8

• Quadrophenia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYlSjawXzko

• Charlie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXumx8W28fI

TV

•Misfits•Inbetweeners•Skins•My Family – Janey, Nick, Michael

Representations of Young people-

News•News coverage and moral panics: dual concerns:

•youth as ‘deviant threat’•childhood ‘innocence destroyed’ by

media

Contemporary moral panics

•can you think of more recent examples?

Contemporary moral panics

•the hoodie and youth as threat•hip hop/gangsta rap•Islamic ‘terrorists’•videogame violence•sexualisation of children

Key Theorists

•youth cultures are subordinate groups Dick Hebdige

•youth cultures are symbolic and ritualistic attempts to resist the power of the ruling class Stuart Hall

•Moral panics and folk devils Stan Cohen

Angela McRobbie•researches young women and

subculture•feminist approach questioning

ideas about representation and Identity

•http://www.theory.org.uk/mcrobbie.htm

Identity Online

Henry Jenkins

•interpretive communities•fans as ‘cultural producers’ •cultural identity- something in which we actively participate

•cultural convergence

David Gauntlett

•other ways of reading ‘Identity’•Gauntlett’s lego project

Facebook

•perfect case study of collective identity

•How do we construct our own identity on facebook?

•what are the consequences of this?

Facebook logo

•profile pic- what’s yours?•groups- what do you join?•campaigns- what do you believe?•friends- how many?

facebook logo

•campaigns: •Save Radio Six

Summary: what ‘Collective Identity’can

mean•not just representations by

mainstream media•self-construction by users of the

media•communities formed from shared

identity: age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, cultural values, political ideas etc

Tackling exam questions

1

•What does the question mean?•What can you use for the answer?•How can you ‘meet the rubric’ of two media and past, present and future?

2

•SELECT your examples•ORDER your argument•PLAN

Advice on answers

• know your case study• keep hunting out your own examples• adapt them to the question• look at both sides of any argument• refer to critics/theorists

Analyse the ways in which the media represent one group of people you have

studied• case study of young people

• two or more media for examples: TV drama, film and news

• news and moral panics (past and present)-

• Film: sympathetic portrayal but still ‘constructed’ (present)

• Comparison of TV portrayals both sympathetic and not

• Facebook, Youtube and self representation

• to what purpose are all these images constructed and for what audiences?

“the media do not construct collective identity, they merely reflect it” Discuss.

•what does collective identity mean? •what’s the difference between construction

and reflection: mediation•two or more media: Film (past), TV and

online •case study examples: construction of ‘chavs’

from Fishtank, Misfits and other TV •audience understandings constructing

meaning: ‘interpretive communities’

Markscheme

• 20 marks for Explanation, analysis, argument

• 20 marks for use of examples• 10 marks for terminology (including

‘theory’)