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.

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

We're all involved in constructing an image to communicate our identity.

Our identity would have been based around aspects of our lives that were constructed outside of our selves; class, religion, gender and the predetermined roles that were part of the accident of the family we were born into.

 Advertising and marketing was persuading people to consider what they wanted, Consumer goods were about creating and then satisfying desires.

During the second half of the 20th century, people began defining themselves as individuals, and so wanted to express their ‘difference’ and ‘uniqueness’; they were empowered by being encouraged to ‘be themselves’.

Branding is the association of a ‘personality’ with a product. Advertisers sell the personality rather than the product, so that people will choose products that match their own self-image.

Through the anonymity of the internet and particularly the possibilities afforded by the creation of avatars, we have more control over our public image now than ever before.

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

Samsung: Samsung reflects who I am as an individual while providing functionality and overall comfort.

Crunchyroll: It gives me a wide range of anime to watch which reflect me as a person as well as my emotion/

Microsoft: I can relate to Microsoft's need to help and provide entertainment for everyone.

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

I strongly agree that cultures these days value style over substance, because people are always following trends and buy new technology that they have done no research just because it looks good.

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

Baudrillard calls ‘media saturation’ results in high cultural value being placed on external factors such as physical beauty and fashion sense over internal traits such as intelligence or compassion. Baudrillard's key ideas include two that are often used in discussing postmodernism in the arts:  "simulation" and "the hyperreal."

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?

Both yes and no, although it does reflect aspects of me, it doesn't truly show a reflection of me as a person, only a part that makes me who I am.

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?

I feel like data mining is bad as it is an invasion of a person's privacy in order to make a profit. In short, it makes the data you create worth more than you as an individual.


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.

• He promotes the view that audiences use the media to help construct their own identities.
  
  
• Audiences actively process the messages put across by media tests regarding ones identity and lifestyle.
  
  
• "Identity is today seen as more fluid and transformable than ever before."
  
  
• Alternate ideas and images have created some space for a greater diversity of identities.
  
  
• Gauntlett questions if masculinity is in crisis and concludes that whilst women are told by mainstream media that they can be whoever they want to be, "Identities promoted to men are relatively constrained. 

Task 3: Representation & Identity: Factsheet blog task
 Media Factsheet #72 on Collective Identity. 

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

Collective identity is when an individual has the shared sense of belonging in a group, and shares interests and views about certain things.

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 Royal Family,  Double Decker Bus, London Eye, Royal Guards, Fish and Chips, Roast Beef, Tea, St Edward's Crown, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace,  White Cliffs of Dover, belief in democracy and freedom. They all relate to the royal family, tourist attractions or a British Person's stereotypical favourite food/drink.

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

His toys targeted to a slightly older audience means the toys also become metaphors for the sense of Britishness that May explores, that of ‘nostalgia’.

4) How has new technology changed collective identity?

The nostalgia dwells on what Britain has lost in the modern world, such as a community spirit and social bonds which is evident due to the rise in technology detatching everyone from each other. Nowadays, everyone's sense of collective identity is, for example, speaking to your friends in game chat when playing games.

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

‘Identity is complicated; everyone thinks they have got one.’ 

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

'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’.