Media and Collective Identity

Identity is complicated- everybody thinks theyve got one David Gauntlett

A focus on Identity 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 David Buckingham

What do you need for the exam?

A British Collective Identity British people represented as a group

Examples of various representations

Refer to at least two different media Examples: Film and Newspapers; TV Drama and Magazines; Internet and TV Documentary; TV News and Newspapers etc.

Understanding of and reference to theory / cultural critics

Stan Cohen; Owen Jones; David Buckingham; David Gauntlett Realism; Representation; Audience; Institution; Ideology; Stereotyping; Moral Panic; Folk Devils etc.

Your own voice! But dont forget to show both Perspective and Context

Michael Wesch

Ethnography of YouTube
Analysis of the community Analysis of cultural phenomenon

Henry Jenkins

Interpretive communities Fans as cultural producers

Cultural identity
- something in which we actively participate

Cultural convergence

What is ColleCtive identity?

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

Collective Identity: the individuals sense of belonging to a group (part of personal identity)

A level Media Specification

A level

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

The Working Class & Middle/Upper Class

FILM Glossy Portrayal Social Realist Historical Context TV Regional Groups British Soap Operas Self-Representation

How does contemporary representation compare with that of the past?

Contemporary Examples: The Working Class & Middle Upper Class on TV and in Film Examples needed for similarity and difference

Examples from the past: Film, and TV

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

Stereotyping: what is its impact on The Working Class and on the Publics perception of The Working Class? What power does the audience have to resist? What about Self Representation
How do we measure the representations we encounter?

to what extent is human identity increasingly mediated ?

Does an increasing media lead to increasing mediation in terms of representations? What about re-presentation by others / by selves?

David Gauntlett

Other ways of reading Identity Gauntletts lego project

Representations of The Working Class in the past

Fiction Film:

Brief Encounter It Always Rains on Sunday Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Television

Coronation Street Upstairs Downstairs (Original series)

Representations of the middle upper class in the past

Fiction Film:

Brief Encounter Mrs Minerver Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Television

The Good Life Upstairs Downstairs (Original series)

Representations of The Working Class on TV

The Jeremy Kyle Show Ladette to Lady EastEnders Benidorm

the jeremy kyle shoW

What issues in the representations of The Working Class does The Jeremy Kyle Show raise?

Who watches it?

For what pleasures

How do different audiences respond to it?

Benidorm
Which cultural
stereotypes are used in Benidorm?

What is the purpose

of this programme (beyond simply being entertainment?

Different audience responses

How would the following audiences respond to either programme?

A Teacher
A building site laborer A Psychologist A TV Producer A Bank Manager

Do we simply make the meaning we want to make from texts?

Summary What ColleCtive identityCan mean

Not just representations by mainstream media

Remember the use of self-construction by users of the media

Youtube, Facebook etc.

Communities formed from shared identity: age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, cultural values, political ideas etc

Tackling exam questions

1
What does the question mean?

What can you use for the answer?

How can you meet the rubric of two media and past, present and future?

2
SELECT your examples

ORDER your argument

PLAN your response

Advice on answers
Know your case study Keep hunting out your own examples

Adapt them to the question

Look at both sides of any argument

Refer to critics / theorists

Mark Scheme

20 marks for Explanation, analysis, argument

20 marks for use of examples

10 marks for terminology (including theory)