Noel Clarke

What does Noel Clarke/the Interviewer say about binary oppositions?

The interviewer says Grannies may still think of him as Doctor Who's Mickey, Billie Piper's screen boyfriend who got eaten by a wheelie bin, but 32-year-old actor Noel Clarke has other, less cuddly talents.
Noel Clarke says 'Urban' being a euphemism for an unflinching depiction of under-age sex, drug-taking and fatal violence in a gun-riddled London that would have granny trembling behind the sofa.

What was the films purpose?

To show how that from negativity, what positive aspects arise from it and newspapers show focus on how things could change rather than just sensationalising things that are happening, or saying movies are trying to glamorise them, then we could be in a better position and to give young people opportunities to do things rather than do something negative.

 

How does it compare to films ftrom a different time period?

It shows the unflinching depiction of under-age sex, drug-taking and fatal violence in a gun-riddled London in the modern society.

 

How do music videos create a sense of collective identity?

“We need to replace all of these sexualised images with ones showing girls in positive settings” (Dr Eileen Zurbriggen). For example, the BBC News article called Sexualisation ‘harms’ young girls, states how the media portrays young women as sex objects, which goes on to harm girls mental and physical health. A good example of this is music videos, stars such as Rihanna has a certain ideology which allows her to have a hegemonic status towards society. Many girls aspire to be like Rihanna by wearing the clothes she wears, repeating her explicit lyrics and maybe even starving themselves to get a figure like hers. Rihanna represents herself as a sexual object by certain clothes she wears and her lyrics such as ‘Sex in the air, I don’t care, I love the smell of it”. Through stars and their music videos, many people construct and create their collective identity as they are highly influenced by their music and persona. Jacques Lacan’s ‘Mirror Stage’ helps us to further understand how the sense of collective identity is created, as this is how people start to develop their identity as they reflect behaviour they see, so they imitate behaviour that they may see rewarding, for example, Nicki Minaj dressing sexually and getting all the boys. This relates back to sexualisation as a person’s value comes only from her or his sexual appeal or behaviour, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a person is portrayed purely as a sex object.

“A star is an image constructed from a range of materials” (Richard Dyer), the image that the star creates and constructs can give a negative representation to society. As there are many people that construct their collective identity through the media, it can give a moral panic to society as there are many articles on how rappers have gone prison over gang wars or drugs. As this is how the star is constructed fans may imitate the behaviour and also believe it may be ‘cool’ to take drugs to fit in. Usually in the music videos stars allow themselves to represent their collective identity and as music videos have become less regulated and so have websites, this allows people to go to the extremes of representing themselves. Music Videos are also now globalised, therefore, people around the world can view it and construct part their collective identity from it. As David Buckingham states a focus on identity requires us to play closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups. Adolescence is a distinctive stage with a beginning and an end, a gradual progression to adulthood. The past is different for males and females and the dilemma is with what you will become. An adolescences progression is about “becoming” rather than “being”. Adolescence is about what you will become – regarding future occupations and relationships.
Web 2.0 has no regulations and therefore allows people to communicate and interact freely with one another. Music videos link with the Web 2.0 as they are constantly shared over Facebook, Twitter, Myspace etc... Through the Web 2.0 people create and construct their collective identity as Henry Jenkins state “how teens are constantly updating and customizing their profiles online”.

Contemporary music videos have the technology and fewer regulations than historical music videos. Also contemporary representations are more explicit and lyrical raw than historical representations in music videos, for example, here we can juxtapose Michael Jackson with Lil Wayne and how they differ from lyrics and music videos. Michael Jackson was seen to representing positively in society whilst Lil Wayne is seen to represent negatively with society. Historical counterculture representations such as the Anarchy can also be juxtaposed with contemporary representations.

“Media representations are complex, not simple and straightforward”. How far do you agree with this statement in relation to the collective group that you have studied?

Media representations are complex, not simple and straightforward’, media appear to reflect identity, whilst in fact they construct it (Stuart Hall).

For example, in the London Riots the media tabloids and broadsheets created and further constructed an ideology for youths for society. This led to a negative and stereotypical view of youths as loud, reckless thugs that downgrade society. Lives were lost. “Parents had to carry children out of burning homes, leaving a lifetime of possessions behind to be destroyed" this quote on The Independent gives a moral panic to society as they are threatened by what occurred. As the News showed varies clips of teenagers destroying properties and starting fires, this caused the media and society to construct a stereotype of teenager’s collective identities. However, media representations are complex as there have been many articles about teenagers that have done good for society, thus, it juxtaposes with the negative representations.

‘A star is an image constructed from a range of materials’ (Richard Dyer 1979). Stars such as Rihanna, constructs a hegemonic view, as her music videos allow her to construct and create her collective identity and persona through her lyrics, actions and clothing.  Rihanna subverts to the stereotypical views of women, and shows her independence through her music videos. Many fans of Rihanna have created a subculture where they follow her independent carefree ways, which represents youths in a negative way. Rihannas sexual outfits and lyrics cause a dissonance towards society and media as it can cause moral panic to young mothers. Lyrics from one of her recent music videos are ‘Sex in the air, I don't care, I love the smell of it’ this is seen to be obtrusive in society, as it is very explicit and sexual and many young girls sing this song and don’t know the meaning to it. Therefore, it states that stars are allowed to create and construct their representations in the media through many different things that are seen to be influential to others; this may cause a negative or positive representation towards youths.

We need to interact in order to form our identity with other people or with the media (Richard Jenkins). Youth interactions can cause a negative or positive representation depending on their actions; therefore, it makes it very complex for media to represent youths. However, it has been noted that there are many negative representations of youths as one of ‘The Guardian’ articles by John Naughton on 12^th November explains how youths don’t like the media as the article is about “Young people don’t like us. Who can blame them” in this article it explain how media have constantly represented youths in a negative representation, therefore, youths have started to cause a dissonance with the media. Therefore, youth interaction allows the media to represent youths in an ideological representation towards society. The way youths interact with each other allows them to create their collective identity, one way they do this, is through the many uses of communication, mainly through the interaction with Web 2.0 which has no regulations. Social networking companies such Facebook, Twitter, MSN etc… have no regulations therefore, it allows people to interact freely with each other, creating and constructing their own collective identity. Through Web 2.0 youths create their own representations for themselves, this allows the media to exploit youths and give them negative representations, for example, during the London Riots, many youths used Web 2.0 to communicate with each other about the riots, and due to some comments that may have been sent through twitter and Facebook that linked with the London Riots, youths had got prison sentences from it, which creates moral panic for families with young children.

A focus on identity and representation requires us to play closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups.

‘Sexualisation harms young girls’, the media’s portrayal of young women as sex objects harms girls mental and physical health (BBC News). Sexualisation is said to lead to lack of confidence with girl’s bodies as well as depression and eating disorders. This creates a negative representation for women; however, it is more complex then that, as it doesn’t always cause problems for other women. Sexualisation doesn’t necessarily harm girls, but can motivate them to be more like the sexualised model, therefore, it is showing that at a young age girls are exposed to sexual images of role models and may inspire to be like them. “We need to replace all of these sexualised images with ones showing girls in positive settings – one that show the uniqueness and competence of girls” – Dr Eileen Zurbriggen

This also links with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, as girls may seem they need to improve their social needs and self esteem in order improve their representation for people to notice them more. This would negatively represent girls in the media, and can cause uproar in society.

The Hypodermic Needle Model suggests that youths socially accept the messages they receive through the media and accept it. For example, they may see their role models or music stars smoke weed, or act sexual and believe that it is socially acceptable to act this way, therefore, they begin to act this way.

I believe that representations of youths are very complicated and complex as there are many positive and negative aspects to the representation of youth through media. However, I do believe that the media represent youth in a more negative way than positive. There are many different aspects when considering the representation of youths in the media, as many different factors effect the representations for example, environment, celebrities, peer influence, past experiences etc….

Glossary of Theorist and Key Terms

Theorists

1.      Henri Tajfel - Henri Tajfel was a psychologist that came up with the Social Identity Theory. Social identity theory is a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership. Henri Tajfel argues that there is a distinct ‘in group’ and an ‘out group’. This is developed in ‘in group’ favouritism and ‘out group’ discrimination. The individual’s self-esteem is maintaining by being part of the ‘in group’

2.       David Gauntlett – “Identity is complicated – everybody thinks they’ve got one”. Construction of identity is very useful as it discusses the power relationship between media and ourselves when it comes to constructing identity.

3.       Michel Foucault – Born with a basic identity but we develop our collective identity, and then we change that personality based on who we meet. We do this during our discourse. Foucault believes that it can be limiting for what actually develops which is a stereotypical group and people then begin to make assumptions, forming collective identities.

4.       David Buckingham – A focus on identity requires us to play closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups. Adolescence is a distinctive stage with a beginning and an end, a gradual progression to adulthood. The past is different for males and females and the dilemma is with what you will become. An adolescences progression is about “becoming” rather than “being”. Adolescence is about what you will become – regarding future occupations and relationships.

5.       Caroline Howarth - Caroline Howarth’s a British lecturer in social psychology. Her research focuses on the inter relationships between social representation and identity.

6.       Noam Chomsky & Edward Herman – states how propaganda functions in mass media. The theory posits that the way in which news is structured (through advertising, media ownership, government sourcing and others) creates an inherent conflict of interest which acts as propaganda for undemocratic forces.

7.       Antonio Gramsci - Gramsci was one of the most important Marxist thinkers in the 20th century, and his writings are heavily concerned with the analysis of culture and political leadership. He is renowned for his concept of cultural hegemony as a means of maintaining the state in a capitalist society.

8.       Maurice Merlot – Ponty – We have embodied experiences and anything in which we use allows us to create and build our identity.

9.       Henry Jenkins – Teens are constantly updating and customizing their profiles online, adding photos, songs and posting to each other’s virtual walls. This can be interpreted as just playing around, however, these activities can also be a means for teens to construct and experiment with their identity. In particular, it can be a space for exploring one’s gender identification.

10.   Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - Observations of humans' innate curiosity. Stages of growth in humans.

11.   Piaget –

12.   Stuart Hall - Stuart Hall argued that the media appear to reflect reality whilst in fact they construct it. Stuart Halls encoding/ decoding challenges long held assumptions on how media messages are produced, circulated and consumed, proposing a new theory of communication.

13.   Branston and Stafford -  

14.   Jacques Lacan – “mirror stage” in which a child begins to develop an identity.

15.   Richard Jenkins – We need to interact in order to form our identity with other people or with the media. Partaking in an event in reality or virtually with people whom we feel comfortable with helps us to form our collective identity identification and Aspiration.

16.   Isidore Isou (1949) – “We will call any young individual, no matter what his age, who does not yet coincide with the function which has been planned for him. The young, who have nothing to lose, are the attack. They are the adventure!”

17.   Richard Dyer (1979) – A star is an image constructed from a range of materials.

Key Terms

1.       Collective Identity – A sense of ‘one-ness. A membership in social group that is collective and has a sense of togetherness.

2.       Subvert – Going against the norm

3.       Conform – Going with the norm

4.       Hegemony – A ruling class that is able to control or dominate a society through the use of media.

5.       Construction – The way things are portrayed.

6.       Ideology – A dominant idea.

7.       Dichotomous – Two different things that are opposite sides.

8.       Dissonance – Two conflicting things.

9.       Archetypal – Something that is typical.

10.   Subculture – A social group within a national culture that has distinctive patterns of behaviour and belief.

11.   Counter Culture – A group that runs a counter culture to subvert oppression.

12.   Post Modernism – The emergence of social order in which the importance and power of the mass media and popular culture means that they govern and shape all other forms of social relationships.

13.   Obtrusive – Noticeable or prominent in an unwelcome or intrusive way.

14.   Enigmatic – Difficult to interpret or understand; mysterious.

15.   Binary oppositions – class/race/gender/age/disability

16.   Marxism – Communism

17.   Moral Panic – The intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order.

18.   Web 2.0 – User centred information sharing site.

19.   Mediation – A negotiation to resolve difference, the idea of us using negotiated readings of the media to help us construct media. So not taking the messages at face value but understanding them in context and using our own experience.

20.   Winship – Notion of complexity is about being prepared in terms of audience gratification to finally recognise the ideal version of ourselves. A constructed audience is ’made’.

To What extent do audiences use media to construct their collective identity

‘Identity is complicated – everybody thinks they’ve got one’ (David Gauntlet), a focus on identity requires us to play closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups.
For example, The Daily Telegraph, Year 2010, questions whether the constant use of electronic gadgets reshapes our brains and makes our thinking shallower. In this article it states that “Facebook and Twitter have become enormously powerful consumers of young people’s time”, this suggests that many youths of society use most of their times on social networking sites, in which they identify their collective identity within Web 2.0. However, in the article is also represents Web 2.0 negatively towards society as is states that people ‘lose the ability to apply them properly to a single task’ suggesting that Web 2.0 is distracting, as people tend to multi task whilst researching or working on the computer. In the article it also explains how people rely on social networking to communication and construct people’s collective identity and social groups, that they start to lose the basic skills to construct themselves face to face. So therefore, it explains that people have no limit and control over social networking sites and have no limits on constructing their collective identity via media. Thus, it gives an ideological view on social networking sites (Web 2.0).

We need to interact in order to form out identity, with other people or with the media (Richard Jenkins), it helps people form their collective identity identification and aspiration, through Web 2.0, as it has no regulations, so people would feel more free within those sites to construct their identify.  For example, the workings of Henry Jenkins, suggest that teens are constantly updating and customizing their profiles online, adding photos, songs and posting onto each other’s virtual walls. This can be interpreted as just ‘playing around’, however, these activities also can be a means for teens to construct and experiment with their identity, also exploring ones gender identification.

People can construct their collective identity through films they can relate to, for example, many youths would be able to relate to films such as ‘Kidulthood’ or ‘Fish tank’ and through that they will people able to construct their social groups and identify. However, films like ‘Kidulthood’ give a negative representation towards youth and stereotypical ideologies of how youths construct their social groups and collective identity.
However, media represents people’s collective identities negative or positive construction. For youths it could be said that it is mainly a negative representation of collective identities and social groups. For example, The London Riots has shown many negative representations of youths, and from this, society have fixated themselves with a stereotypical view of youth social groups and collective identities. Society have started to call youths collective identities and social groups ‘gangs’ or ‘mobs’, which is constructing a negative impact on society. The London Riots caused a moral panic to many people and especially parents with teenage children.

‘Media messages in encoding/decoding become a common sense status in part of performative nature’ (Stuart Hall). Halls theory links with collective identity as people interpret media messages different and also have different opinions on it, and through their opinions on the media people can form collective identities and social groups with similar view points and opinions.

I believe that the audiences have no limits to use the media to construct their sense of collective identity, as media controls modern society and society are dependent on media and technology such as Web 2.0 to form collective identities and to communicate with others to form social groups.

Theories for Revision

Useful theory 1: Jacques Lacan - Mirror Stage‘Lacan's concept of the mirror stage was strongly inspired by earlier work by psychologist Henri Wallon, who speculated based on observations of animals and humans responding to their reflections in mirrors. Wallon noted that by the age of about six months, human infants and chimpanzees could both recognize their reflection in a mirror. While chimpanzees rapidly lose interest in the discovery, human infants typically become very interested and devote much time and effort to exploring the connections between their bodies and their images. In a 1931 paper, Wallon argued that mirrors helped children develop a sense of self-identity.’While it's not vital to remember all of the above the assertion is that we gain an idea of self-identity through reflection. Lacan suggested a "mirror stage" in which a child begins to develop an identity; it is a point in their life when they can essentially look into a mirror and recognise themselves. It can be argued that audiences are able to form and develop their identity and change the way in which they see or recognise themselves.

Useful theory 2: David Gauntlett's Construction of Identity is very useful as it discusses the power relationship between media and ourselves when it comes to constructing identity.

'The power relationship between the media and the audience involves a 'bit of both' or to be more precise, a lot of both. The media sends out a huge number of messages about identity and acceptable forms of self-expression, gender, sexuality, and lifestyle. At the same time the public have their own even more robust set of diverse feelings on the issues. The media's suggestions may be seductive but can never simply overpower contrary feelings in the audience.'

Useful Theory 3: Althusser's Interpellation
Here's one definition. And here's an attempt to explain it: Interpellation is the process where a human subject is constructed by pre-given structures. This has been taken up some media theorists to to explain how media texts impose their ideology (their set of ideas) on the audience. If you think about it, we're bombarded by messages from the media, messages that make certain assumptions about us (taste, place in society etc), and as soon as we engage with the message we are positioned as a 'subject' rather than an individual. The idea is that we are controlled by these messages and go some way to defining our identity.

Research on online press & viral - London Riot

How does the internet provide an enormous challenge for regulators? In the news there are many video clips showing what young youths did during the riots. This shows that the media is stereotyping young youths as they show them stealing from stores such as game stores, footlocker, and mobile phone stores, therefore, giving a negative representation towards young youths of the modern society. Also it would be an enormous challenge for regulators as they wouldn’t be able to control social networking as they may not have the rights to do so. Rioters contacted each other through their mobile phones, twitter, Facebook, blackberry messaging etc… Therefore, there are no regulations over these social networking sites, even though the government tried to stop these websites during the riots, they had no rights and it wasn’t their choice, therefore, the sites were still operating during the riots making it even more difficult for regulators to restrict people from social networks.

How does the internet provide a post - modern vision of identity? The internet provides a post-modern vision as technology has advanced over the years; therefore, the use of internet is more frequent for information and social networking. For example, social networking allows people to form/find their identity as the mass media has become more dominant over the years. Social networking such as Facebook and twitter allow people to identify with one another, therefore, allowing them to create and find their identity through Facebook or twitter. The London Riots show how young youths are negatively identified through YouTube videos and news videos.  Internet images and information increasingly dominate our sense of reality, and the way we define ourselves in the world around us. Therefore, post-modern identity is controlled by the media, as they categorise difference types of ages. Post-modernism has a neo-Marxist effect on society.            

How has online press affected us in today’s society? Online press is so dominant in society that is becomes people’s everyday reality and it influences people’s decisions. For example, the press showed dozens of videos of the London riots which showed youths destroying the city. The press influenced this negative representation of youth upon society, therefore, society has discriminated young youths and categorised them as criminals. This is also the case with the Brixton riots, the press released videos and articles about the Brixton riots, thus giving a negative representation on Brixton, so people around the world would have this fixed opinion on Brixton even if they haven’t been there due to the press. The press therefore, encodes information and then it is decoded by people.

How does it present an area of control for today’s society? During the London riots, many youths uploaded videos and pictures of them looting stores, this shows that youths of the modern society adhere to the media representation of youths. It shows that even though the media constantly degrade modern youths and influence stereotypes, youths of today reflect it upon the society themselves by behaving aggressively and delinquently.                                                                                                                                                                                           

The media do not construct collective identity; they merely reflect it.

The media do not construct collective identity; they merely reflect it. The relationship between collective identity and its representation with the media is very complex. Collective identity is a sense of ‘one-ness, a membership in social group that is collective and has a sense of togetherness. In this essay I will discuss and explain the different ways media represents the collective identity of youths and young adults in society through films, news, newspaper articles etc... I will also juxtapose youth representation with adult representation in the media and the significant differences that show between the different age groups.

Postmodernism is said to describe the emergence of social order in which the importance and power of the mass media and popular culture means that they govern and shape all other forms of social relationships. This is therefore explaining that media has dominate throughout the years and has now had a big influence on society. The media often gives a negative representation on youths and therefore, making a stereotype out of them. For example, media has given youths such a bad representation that when society sees a group of teenagers they stereotype them by calling them gangs or hooligans. Modern societies have this constant stereotypical view of young youths due to the influences of media. They fail to understand that through these large groups, young youths form their collective identity and create social groups and subcultures.

However, it could be argued that media identify youths in a negative representation because youths in the modern society continuously behave in a negative way e.g. rioting, binge drinking, stealing, attacking etc.. Therefore, the media would want to cause a moral panic to alert society, so that they can act upon the modern teenagers causing this negative representation as society may appear to be threatened by this. Thus, it can be said that the media construct the youth’s collective identity through newspaper articles and news clips to show how harmful modern youths have become.

Stuart Hall argued that the media appear to reflect reality whilst in fact they construct it. Halls encoding/decoding challenges long held assumptions on how media messages are produced, circulated and consumed, proposing a new theory of communication. He suggests that media messages in encoding/decoding become a common-sense status in part through their performative nature. For example, an adult may read or see a group of teenagers steal from a sweet shop in a film or on the news, and from this encoding of the message through media, this adult may now identify groups of teenagers as thieves or trouble makers, as the adult decoded the message in that negative term. Therefore, it shows that the media is reflecting the youth’s collective identity in a negative impact on society.

However, it could be said that youths act this way to make a point. For example, ‘Young people don’t like us. Who can blame them? This article posted by ‘The Guardian’ newspaper written by John Naughton explains why youths today behave the way they do and how media has influenced this. In the article it overviews on how young youths are always under pressure and how easy it is for youths that live in a deprived area to get into drugs and stealing through peer pressure and how the media write ‘spiteful, biased, inaccurate factoid journalism that portrays youths as a hateful, terrifying, anti social and a petty criminal that society would be better without’.  As newspapers know that young youths don’t really read the news articles, they believe it is acceptable to write such harmful words that may describe young people. It also explains how the media don’t really represent youths in a positive representation to society, as there are many young people who have been raised respectably and are currently studying for their GCSE, A-Levels or Degree.  Therefore, the media can be said to construct this negative collective identity towards youths. As adults have a respectable collective identity of hard working class citizens, they start get influenced by the media and see youths with negative collective identities. So the media is affecting the whole society by constructing young people’s collective identity by stereotyping them and constantly creating negative articles about them, so that adults get influenced by it.

However, the media also segregates young people’s negative identity through binary oppositions. The media often stereotype youths that are deprived and are a certain race, so they tend to write articles about how a young black teenager from a deprived background stabbed another youth. There have been many articles about how young black people are stabbing or shooting other youths, and this has cause a major moral panic and has caused the society to stereotype every young black youth with a ‘hoody’ on and in a group of people to be young thugs or gang members. Therefore, through binary oppositions the media has stereotyped individual races in society and thus constructed their collective identity to be negative and dangerous.

To conclude this essay, I believe that the media construct collective identities as the media increasingly dominate our sense of reality and they way we define ourselves in the world around us. Therefore, it is stating that the media has such a big influence on society that it can construct a collective identity and stereotype young people.  

‘Identity is complicated, everybody’s got one’ – Gauntlet

‘Identity is complicated, everybody’s got one’ – Gauntlet. Identities complexion occurs between the relationship with social groups and collective identity and the ways it changes when young people grow up.  For example collective identity gives a sense of ‘one-ness’, it is a membership in a social group that is collective and has a sense of togetherness. Therefore, different social groups have different subcultures or countercultures, in a social group people identify with one another and share similar interests.

Henri Tafjel’s social identity theory assumes that individuals strive to improve their self image by trying to enhance their self-esteem based on either their personal identity or various social identities. He argued that there is a distinct ‘in-group’ and an ‘out-group’. Therefore, Tafjel believed that identity comes from a person’s self image and their self esteem would be maintained by being in the ‘in group’ of a social group and a person’s self esteem would be low if they were part of the ‘out group’. For example, in Rebel Without A Cause James Dean’s character was part of the ‘out group’ as he was new to the area and constantly was in trouble with other kids.  Therefore, people’s identities change as they are constantly improving their self image, whilst improving their self image people can change social groups and thus, the subculture may change within the new social group.

Identities of young people have been stereotyped in a major way by the media, for example, the London Riots, the News showed clips of young looters constantly to show how young youths are acting in our modern society. This has therefore, stereotyped young people to be reckless, loud and criminal to people around the UK, it has given young people a bad representation. Also film such as Kidulthood gives a negative interpretation of youths; it portrays the different stereotypical social groups that youths have, showing that they are lower class citizens out on the street, taking drugs, being promiscuous, violent, and aggressive and having foul language.
In the media it also shows that youths constantly use technology to identify with one another for example, mobile phones, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc... Henry Jenkins stated that teens are constantly updating and customizing their profiles online, adding photos, songs and posting on each other’s virtual walls. These activities can also be a means for teens to construct and experiment with their identities and thus exploring their gender identification. This explains that young people use technology and social networks to explore their identity and find a collective identity within social group.
Reality TV shows have represented young people in a negative way and conforms to the stereotyped identities of young people. For example, the reality shows Geordie Shore the young adults are portrayed to be reckless, loud and carefree. All they do is go out get drunk and have sex. Within media this gives a negative representation of young people, therefore, allowing the media to stereotype the identities of young people and their social groups. In a column for metro, Christopher Hooton described the show as ‘a gaudy kaleidoscope of six packs, shots, fights, stimulated fellatio and exposed breasts’. Geordie Shore gives a negative identity to young people and therefore, it allows the media to portray them as a disrespectful and reckless group.
To form an identity people would need to interact and find out their interest. This is the way Richard Jenkins believed identity is formed; he believed that interaction with other people or with the media forms our identities. He believed partaking in an event in reality or virtually with people with whom we feel comfortable with, thus it helps us to form collective identity identification and aspiration. Therefore, through interaction with new people, our identities would change as we got older, thus changing out subcultures and social groups.

Through Experience our identities change also changing our subculture/counterculture as we get older. Merleau Ponty believed that we build our identities through our experience as we get older, thus stating that we all have an identity, but it changes as we get older because our interests/hobbies change, thus changing out identity and our personality.

As a society we have constructed the idea that people identities are the person we are on the inside. We believe this is defined by factors such as gender, age, class, sexuality. Michel Foucault believed that we are born with a basic identity but develop our collective identity, therefore, stating that our collective identity is later created through our identity which develops as we get older. Foucault believed that our personality mediates due to the people we meet as we get older, thus, stating we change our social group and subculture as we grow older.

On the other hand, Marxism theory which was started by Karl Marx is a communist theory which determines that all members of society will be governed by work and in a class less system. All members of society must follow a governed viewpoint; they must follow rules, drive the same car, live the same life and must hold a common perception of each other. This still occurs in our modern society in China where there are certain rules to follow. Therefore, the Marxism theory states that people have the same identity or have no identity as they are all alike, therefore, identity can be complicated. There is no division of class or social group, as everyone is so similar they all have one identity; therefore, they don’t have individual identities which other people around the world may have.

Thus, to conclude I believe the statement ‘Identity is complicated, everybody’s got one’ – Gauntlet is true, as everybody has got an identity as they are born with one, but their identity changes as they grow older, thus their social group and subculture also alters, therefore, making identity complicated. Everyone is born with an identity, even though they live in a communist country, they still are born with an identity, but lose is as they get older because they have to follow the rules and be similar to everyone else.

How far does the representation of a particular social group change over time?

A social group in society consists of many factors. A social group could be either a subculture which is a social group within a national culture that has distinctive patterns of behaviours and beliefs e.g. Gangs. This subculture may consist of fashion, clothing, hairstyle, lifestyle, gender etc... The subculture also may consist of a counterculture that runs to subvert oppression.

In a subculture a collective identity if formed, through this collective identity the social group has a sense of ‘one-ness’, thus has got a member ship in the social group and has a sense of togetherness. Examples of two different social groups would be in the films Rebel without a cause & Kidulthood.

In rebel without a cause the social group’s ideology was being a rebel. The social group in the film were very loud and intermediating, also showed a lot of delinquent behaviour, with no respect for others. The social group are all young teenagers that smoke, drink, have a certain colloquialism and are very carefree as they meet up in the middle of the night to play dangerous games. This therefore gives a negative stereotypes of teenagers, thus represents young people in negative way. James Dean’s character in the film shows the dissonance of youth as he wants to be part of that social group as he is rebellious, but yet is confused whether he thinks it’s right or not.
At the beginning of the film the social group was represented in a carefree, loud and hyped up group of young people having fun, however, when the character dies in a horrible accident half way through the film, the representation of the social group changes as they are less carefree and loud. This sudden chance came from a death of a friend. Nevertheless, the social group still carried on being rebellious by breaking into a house and still being violent with one another. Near the end of the film, another boy dies by getting shot and from this incident the representation of James Dean’s character and the social group changes as he wants to become less rebellious and asks for help from his dad, thus his innocence comes out.

In Kidulthood there is one type of subculture, but within that subculture involves different social groups. These social groups have certain things in common, for example, drugs, alcohol, partying, acts of violence, arguments, shopping, wooing girls etc... In Kidulthood teenagers are showed in a negative stereotypical representation due to the events that occur in the film. Through binary oppositions of age/gender the social groups create their collective identity.
At the end of Kidulthood there is a fight between 2 people in different social groups, the crowd cheers on when they are fighting, however, when one of the characters is badly injured and dies, the crowd becomes silent and sad, thus the social groups representation in the film changes from the start to the end.

Social groups are linked with Henri Tafjel’s social identity theory as he believed that individuals strive to improve their self image by trying to enhance their self esteem base on either personal identity or various social identities. He argued that there is a distinct ‘in group’ and ‘out group’ which is developed from ‘in group’ favouritism and ‘out group’ discrimination. The individuals, self esteem is maintaining by being part of the ‘in group’. This links with both Kidulthood and Rebel without a cause because in Kidulthood a girl commits suicide because she gets bullied, this shows that she was in the ‘out group’ thus her self esteem was very low which also would link with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Therefore, with her low self esteem and her being part of the ‘out group’ being isolated and bullied she committed suicide. On the other hand, the boy that is James Dean’s best friend was in the ‘out group’ as he was always alone and isolated from others, however, after he became friends with James Dean in the film he became partly part of the ‘In group’ as he went with them to the race and also has a friend with whom he identifies with.

Richard Jenkins believed we need to interact in order to form our identity/social groups. From these interactions a collective identity is create and then from this a whole social group and maybe a subculture. This relates back to the two films as they both have young people interacting with one another if not through technology such as mobile phones then by going around to each other’s houses and going out. Therefore, through interaction and social skills people form their social groups.

People a born with a basic identity but soon develop a collective identity with others, and then we change that personality depending on who we meet. This was Michel Foucault’s theory on collective identity, and this links with the change in social group’s overtime. This is because over time when people grow up their personality changes and they become more sophisticated and therefore, they may change social groups depending on what path they take.

Thus, to conclude, I believe that the representation of social groups change due to a dramatic incident that may occur in the social group which makes people within that social group change in a certain way. Also, over time social groups would change as people choose different paths and go their separate ways to create new social groups and their representation would completely change.

How do young people form their collective identity through reality TV?

Young people form their collective identity through varies different aspects in reality TV. The 2 different realities TV shows that I am going to compare is Geordie Shore and Made in Chelsea, these 2 shows are reality based programmes with young people with 2 different collective identities.

Michel Foucault had a range of theories and he stated that as a society, we have constructed he idea that people’s identities are the person we are on the inside. We believe this is defined by factors such as gender, age, class, sexuality. We are looking at this specifically in reference to youth. Michel Foucault said that we are born with a basic identity but we develop our collective identity when we get older and also we change it as we get old. Thus, we therefore, mediate that personality based on whom we meet; we do this during our discourse. Foucault therefore believes that it can be limiting for what actually develops is a stereotypical group and people then begin to make assumptions, forming a collective identity.

In Geordie shore the characters have their collective identity through what they do, how they are dressed. The way that Geordie shore characters act, it gives a stereotypical view to the media and the audience of how young people are and the ways they act. Geordie shore character shave identified with themselves from what they do and how they dress, as they all dress similarly and the things they do are similar, for example, the lads in the programme are always out to find girls when going clubbing. Also they have identified with one another through colloquialism (the way they talk) as they are all from Newcastle and have the same accent. Geordie shore also create their collective identity through participating in social activities, for example, they go clubbing often, to the beach, and they are often wild, they get drunk and basically live a wild life, thus through this they create their collective identity.

In Made in Chelsea the characters have their collective identity through their elegance, fortune and their pre-determined status as they are all rich. Their high status gives them a collective identity and also the things they do, for example, the girls love to shop in their expensive branded stores and have a common interest in clothing. This therefore, would give them a stereotypical view as well and also their collective identity.

Thus, to conclude, young people form their collective identity through Michel Foucault’s theory, as they identify with people who have the same common interests as them and whom they can form a bond with easily.

What extent does social media/digital media give us a sense of belonging and a ‘collective identity’?

Social media gives us a sense of belonging as it allows teens to explore and expand their identity. It gives teens a collective identity as the Henry Jenkins theory states that teens constantly update and customize their profiles online and these activities can also allow teens to construct and experiment with their identity.

A collective identity is a sense of ‘one-ness’. It is like a membership in a social group that is collective and has a sense of togetherness. Therefore, social networks such as Facebook and twitter give teens a collective identity as they may be a group of people that like a certain band or artist.

Michael Foucault said that social media is a surveillance in society and is used as a form of social organisation. This therefore, is stating that other is constantly watching teen’s social lives from family to friends. This can also relate back to the London riots as they say that due to social networking many young teenagers got together and decided to riot.

“Identity is complicated – everybody thinks they’ve got one’ this was stated by David Gauntlett, this therefore means that everyone’s identity is complex, however, if someone lives in a communist country, then their identities is said to be the same, as they would have to follow the same rules. For example, China is a communist country as they can only have one child and have to follow certain rules; therefore, they have no identity. This supports the Marxism theory that was started by Karl Marx; it is a communist theory that determines that all members of society will be governed by work and in a class less system. All members of society must follow a governed viewpoint – they must follow the rules, drive the same car, live the same life and we must hold a common perception of each other. Thus, stating that no one would have an identity if they lived like that.

Not only does social media/digital media give us a sense of belonging but it also requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups according to David Buckingham. Therefore, social media requires us to be cautious to what we do, for example, for celebrities, the social media/digital media at times gives them a sense of belonging and collective identity, however, when they do something wrong, then the media turns against them and make them look bad.

Social media/digital media also gives us a sense of a social identity, as the media is all around us.  Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, MSN etc… are all types of social identities as many people use those sites. Henri Tajfel’s social identity theory assumes that individuals strive to improve their self-image by trying to enhance their self-esteem, based on either personal identity or various social identities. Also he argues that there is a distinct ‘in group’ and an ‘out-group’. This is developed in ‘in group’ favouritism and ‘out group’ discrimination. The individuals self – esteem is marinating by being part of the ‘in group’. Therefore, social media gives people a social identity and from there people start to form social groups in which they identify with.

Through social media/digital media subculture and counter cultures are formed, as a social group within a national culture that has distinctive patterns of behaviour and belief are called subcultures. Therefore, people have they own group, which they have identified with, and have a similar identity. A counter culture is a group that runs a counter culture to subvert oppression.

Thus to conclude, social media/ digital media gives us a sense of belonging and a collective identity to a certain extent.

What examiners look for in an answer

The examiners would look at the Explanation / analysis / argument, Use of examples and the Use of terminology. For the exams using social groups as a case study/ examples would maximise my knowledge and understanding. Using different theories such as Jenkins, Howarth, Tejfal etc… would guarantee a better grade in the exam. The definition of collective identity would be needed in the answer; collective identity – the individual’s sense of belonging to a group. 

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

-          Focus on today and young people

-          Diverse representations and self representation

-          Own examples from the groups you are studying

Collective identity is linked with stereotyping; therefore, linking how the media stereotypes with young people with same collective identity and you can use the London riots as an example of this.

(Source: http://petesmediablog.blogspot.com/2010/03/media-and-collective-identity.html)

Psychologist's

Henri Tajfel – Henri Tajfel was a psychologist that came up with the Social Identity Theory. Social identity theory is a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership. The groups which people belonged to were an important source of pride and self-esteem. Groups got given a sense of social identity, a sense of belonging to the social world. Tafjel believed to increase our self image we enhance the status of the group to which we belong to, we can increase our self image by discriminating and being prejudice against the out groups. Therefore, out groups get categorized into ‘them’ or ‘us’ based on social categorization. Stereotyping is based on a normal thought process, therefore, we tend to exaggerate the differences between groups and the similarities of things in the same group, this is how the media do it when they categorized youths with the riots when they occurred.
Henri Tajfel argues that there is a distinct ‘in group’ and an ‘out group’. This is developed in ‘in group’ favouritism and ‘out group’ discrimination. The individual’s self-esteem is maintaining by being part of the ‘in group’.
This can be linked with the London riots as the media categorized the rioters to be youths, therefore, they are the out-groups. This also gives a negative representation for youths which has a big impact in the world as youths are stereotyped even more. The media increase youths self image by discriminating and being prejudice against the social groups. The London riots gave a negative social identity to youths, as they categorized them during the riots.
Stuart Hall – Stuart Hall argued that the media appear to reflect reality whilst in fact they construct it.
(Source - http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism04.html)       A central feature of Marxist theory is the 'materialist' stance that social being determines consciousness. According to this stance, ideological positions are a function of class positions, and the dominant ideology in society is the ideology of its dominant class. This is in contrast to the 'idealist' stance that grants priority to consciousness (as in Hegelian philosophy). Marxists differ with regard to this issue: some interpret the relationship between social being and consciousness as one of direct determination; others stress a dialectical relationship.
Stuart Halls encoding/ decoding challenges long held assumptions on how media messages are produced, circulated and consumed, proposing a new theory of communication.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Hall_(cultural_theorist)#Encoding.2Fdecoding) Distortion is built into the system, rather than being a 'failure' of the producer or viewer. There is a 'lack of fit' Hall argues 'between the two sides in the communicative exchange.' That is, between the moment of the production of the message ('encoding') and the moment of its reception ('decoding').
Stuart Hall suggests media messages in Encoding/decoding become a common-sense status in part through their performative nature.
This relates to the London riots as the media encode and decode information and news to make it look like it was all youths rioting. For example, all the video clips they were showing had youths rioting, therefore, people that watch the news would decode the information and see that only youths have been rioting, therefore, this again gives a bad impression on all youths and young people. The media twist information, therefore, they only encode part of the information and decode part of the information.
Caroline Howarth’s – Caroline Howarth’s a British lecturer in social psychology. Her research focuses on the inter relationships between social representation and identity. She did the Brixton youth studies, where she combined social identity theory with social representation theory. She explored the representations of different communities and social groups and the ways they define and represent themselves.

(Source: http://etn.sagepub.com/content/2/2/237.abstract) Caroline Howarths Brixton Study

This article examines how the struggle for recognition and esteem permeates everyday experiences in the context of young people growing up in Brixton, south London, UK. It begins with a brief history of Brixton and an explanation of the qualitative methods (focus groups and interviews) and thematic analysis used in the research. The findings are then discussed in three sections. The first section illustrates how identity is constructed through and against the representations held by others within particular social contexts. Focusing on the varying strategies that different young people adopt in constructing a positive identity reveals the salience of racist representations in the social construction of Brixton. The second section examines the effects this can have on the self-image and self-esteem of many in the study, looking in particular at strategies used to contest negative versions of blackness. This points to the racializing and gendering within the (re)production of local youth identities. The concluding section illustrates how some young people collaboratively develop the social and psychological resources to protect themselves against the prejudices of others. Together, this material reveals how social relationships and institutional cultures empower/disempower Brixton's youth in their collaborative struggle for recognition and esteem. This allows us to consider how new multicultures address, incorporate and resist new racisms and prejudices towards a locality.