MIGRAIN: Representing ourselves - identity in the online age

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?'

Whether we use fashion statements, hairstyles, make-up or indeed make an active decision not to do any of those things, we are all involved in constructing an image to communicate our identity.

How we presented ourselves was based on the social constructs that defined the interpersonal relationships within the groups we found ourselves in. 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.

The idea that identity could be constructed in terms of an externalised image came in the post-industrial consumer boom of the early 20th century where there was a deliberate move to encourage people to adopt an identity that Edward Bernays (arguably the originator of modern notions of Public Relations and propaganda) said was based not on behaving as active citizens but as passive consumers’.

Freud’s ideas about the Self seemed to imply that beneath the surface there was an ‘essential self’ – the core of who you actually are. Our identities change depending on external circumstances and relationships. Lacan argues that this fragmentation leaves us feeling incomplete and we seek to complete our selves by imagining an ideal state of self.

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.

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

Apple I like Apple products and how they look and work i find them easier to use as i am used to them.

H and m they sometimes have aesthetic and trendy clothes that i think looks good and has a good vibe.

Tk Maxx has very good and a variety of different jewellery types and accessories, clothes bags as well.

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

Postmodern critics see the construction of identity through media representations as being shallow, leading to a culture that values ‘style over substance’.

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

In addition, the increasing dominance of the mass media and what 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. He says that it is impossible for audiences to experience the natural or real world.

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?

Kind of but not really as people cant see my actually personality in real life especially that i don't post much I did actually remove or refused to put pictures on social media of myself because i feel like they do reveal a lot of my identity maybe and sometimes the things that I like.

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 don't like the idea of data mining also selling products determining on social media presence I think is reasonable not only for me but like for celebrities especially because it doesn't affect their privacy its actually things they are presenting of themselves and showing what they want to show to their fanbases of themselves so they shouldn't be invading their privacy and it shouldn't affect them 

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.

- Describes his field of study as self-initiated everyday creativity and cultures of making and exchanging. 

-In his theories he influences representation of identities and promotes the view that the audiences construct their own identities using the media.

-He argues that texts offers us more diverse range of representations and that magazines are for entertainment value. 

-Explores Mulvey's male gaze and Gidden's concept of structuration as well as Foucault's idea of technologies of the self 

-He questions masculinities and generational differences and that identities are seen as more fluid and transformable, and agrees with Butler's concept that gender as performance. 

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 how individuals define themselves as belonging to a group based on markers From these examples, we can conclude that collective identity may be based on any given characteristic or combination of characteristics, such as race, economic status, class, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or religion etc. Also it can mean individuals' collective awareness of the social distinction of their group. They can be grouped together as Individuals who are similarly situated structurally, such that they are incumbents of similar roles, work in similar enterprises, are linked to the same social networks, or members of the same social class, religion, or ethnic group, are presumed to have a shared collective identity or at least be candidates for such.

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?

Royal Family , Money , Rich, Diverse, Democracy, freedom, 

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

The nostalgia dwells on what Britain has lost in the modern world, such as a community spirit, and the subtle indication is that today’s modern computer games, and people’s apparent failure to use toys as a source of individual imagination, are to blame.

4) How has new technology changed collective identity?

Technology has enabled people to actively engage with the content of the culture around them and then go on to use it as resources for their own cultural productions.

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

‘Make and Connect Agenda’. 

This is an attempt to rethink audience studies in the context of media users as producers as well as consumers of media material. Gauntlett argues that there is a shift from a ‘sit-back-and-be-told culture’ to a ‘making- and-doing culture’, and that harnessing creativity in both the

 internet and in other everyday creative activities will play a role in changing how a collective identity is created.

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

Fans created their own, new texts, but elements within the originating text defined, to some degree, what they could do’.