Collective identity and representing ourselves: blog tasks

Task 1: Media Magazine article

Read the Media Magazine article on collective identity: Self-image and the Media (MM41 - page 6). Our Media Magazine archive is here.

Complete the following tasks on your blog:

1) Read the article and summarise each section in one sentence, starting with the section 'Who are you?'

'Who are you?' - Consumers use media products and emulate celebrity role models to construct an image that communicates a version of our identities that we want to present to other people.

'I think, therefore I am' - Identities used to be seen as predetermined by the societal roles we were born into and destined to remain in.

'From citizen to consumer' - By making people want to buy products outside of what they needed to survive, it became possible for people to conform to societal standards by buying the same products that everyone else was encouraged to buy.

'The rise of the individual' - Advertisers presented products to make it seem as if their products could help people select and define an identity for themselves. 

'Branding and lifestyle' - Advertisers began to sell the personality of products around the 70s and 80s rather than the product itself incentivising people to choose products that match their constructed identity and image.

'Who will we be?' - The Internet and its anonymity has allowed people to purposefully construct almost every aspect of their identity, leading to our identities becoming consumable by tech corporations due to practices such as data mining.

2) List three brands you are happy to be associated with and explain how they reflect your sense of identity.

Marvel - Reflects my interest in comic books

Letterboxd - Reflects my interest in film

Hobby Craft - Reflects my passion for art

3) Do you agree with the view that modern media is all about 'style over substance'? What does this expression mean?

'Style over substance' refers to something with appealing visual aesthetics that give perceived value, but actually contains little meaningful content. In order to be successful, modern media has to create spectacle in order to attract audiences and focuses on artificial representations that are eye-catching and easy for audiences to understand, so I agree.

4) Explain Baudrillard's theory of 'media saturation' in one paragraph. You may need to research it online to find out more.

Baudrillard suggested that modern society had become so dominated through the influence of media that these media images distort our perception of reality, making it difficult to distinguish between reality and simulacra.

5) Is your presence on social media an accurate reflection of who you are? Have you ever added or removed a picture from a social media site purely because of what it says about the type of person you are?

While I wouldn't say it is inauthentic, my presence on social media is ultimately a construction of the type of self image that I want to project and want others to view me as.

6) What is your opinion on 'data mining'? Are you happy for companies to sell you products based on your social media presence and online search terms? Is this an invasion of privacy?

In my opinion, social media data mining is an invasive practice in tech due to its potential for targeting demographics and individuals to successfully influence them. In order to be sold targeted products, third-party companies have to scrape data from social media platforms and sell them to advertisers, raising issues of not only privacy but data ownership, as users will sign away their rights to their data by agreeing to use social media platforms. In recent years, this is beginning to change as regulations are being set in place, however, I still believe there is a huge risk with allowing this.

Task 2: Media Magazine cartoon

Now read the cartoon in MM62 (p36) that summarises David Gauntlett’s theories of identity. Write five simple bullet points summarising what you have learned from the cartoon about Gauntlett's theories of identity.

- Audiences use media to construct their own identity

- Mass media text offers more diverse range or representation of different ideologies (pluralism)
- Audiences actively process media about lifestyle and identity
- Audiences use media for entertainment values whilst recognising own representations as unrealistic
- Gauntlett also explores the male gaze

Task 3: Representation & Identity: Factsheet blog task

Finally, use our brilliant Media Factsheet archive on the M: drive Media Shared (M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets) to find Media Factsheet #72 on Collective Identity. The Factsheet archive is available online here - you'll need your Greenford Google login to access. Read the whole of Factsheet and answer the following questions to complete our introductory work on collective identity:

1) What is collective identity? Write your own definition in as close to 50 words as possible.

Collective identity is the sense of being part of a group with the same shared values, traditions and ideas about the world.

2) Complete the task on the factsheet (page 1) - write a list of as many things as you can think of that represent Britain. What do they have in common? Have you represented the whole of Britain or just one aspect/viewpoint?

The Union Jack, the royal family, tea and crumpets, rain
These are all things that only represent a traditional view of English culture that is not able to be applied to the entirety of modern Britain today.

3) How does James May's Top Toys offer a nostalgic representation of Britain?

James May's Top Toys dwells upon and explores aspects of British history such as the history of the race track and Scalextric and wider British issues such as the decline of manufacturing jobs in northern

Britain and a sense of regret that many of these toys are now manufactured abroad. The toys represent the sense of British nostalgia and a longing for the past where life was perceived to be simpler. The construction of a nostalgic sense of what it means to be British also means that Britain as a multi-cultural nation is also neglected in favour of a more comforting and familiar view of the past.

4) How has new technology changed collective identity?

David Gauntlet states that the impact of social networking has changed collective identity where technology has evolved the way we view traditions and values due to newer generations and no longer being an active audience. We were able to broaden our understanding on representation and personal identity towards certain people where we have accepted then into society.

5) What phrase does David Gauntlett (2008) use to describe this new focus on identity?

He uses the phrase ‘pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life’.

6) How does the Shaun of the Dead Facebook group provide an example of Henry Jenkins' theory of interpretive communities online?

The view from Henry Jenkins was that ‘fan genres grew out of openings or excesses within the text that were built on and stretched, and that it was not as if fans and texts were autonomous from each another; fans created their own, new texts, but elements within the originating text defined, to some degree, what they could do’. In this way, the Shaun of the Dead Facebook group shows how fans can comment on and develop communities through aspects of the text.