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.