1. identities and the media
the impact of new/digital media
Section B of the exam
2. The exam board says...
Candidates might study:
• The mainstream media’s role and influence in the construction of identities
• Audiences and identities, including audience uses and responses, self-representation, role playing, collective identities
• The impact of social media on identity and the role of the individual as producer
• Power and resistance, debates about the power of the media and audiences, including the media’s influence, varieties of
audience uses and esponses, campaigning
• Debates about dominant and marginalised identities
• Identity politics, including diverse, fluid and multiple identities, changing identities, alternative and queer identities
• Ideology, the ideas and values communicated by identities.
Case studies might include the construction of
female teen identities (considering gender, age, class, ethnicity etc.) in relation to celebrity culture and its links to ideological
positioning. Thus candidates might study the way different aspects of the identity of a celebrity are produced and
reinforced by mainstream media, fans own constructions in response to celebrity, and the positioning of the audience
through their associations with popular culture in a range of media products. The manufacturing of role models and
their use by institutions and audiences would be a relevant approach to this area.
Studies undertaken for this topic would also involve the evaluation of wider debates such as the blurring of borders between
public and private space, the ideological function of identity and the limits of self representation. A study of identities
and the media would also lend itself to the examination of a variety of media theories to:
• consider how identity is constructed across media forms and types of producers
• consider the role of technology in forming identity; technological determinism or social transformation
• consider the view of technology as threat in the construction of identities (particularly for younger age groups)
• consider the effect of identity politics on the media; how do marginalised groups claim identities and how are they received
by dominant groups?
3. We need to...
• consider how identity is constructed across media forms
and types of producers
• consider the role of technology in forming identity;
technological determinism or social transformation
• consider the view of technology as threat in the
construction of identities (particularly for younger age
groups)
• consider the effect of identity politics on the media; how
do marginalised groups claim identities and how are they
received by dominant groups?
4. • We will look at one case study together and
YOU will choose your own second case study.
5. Starting a powerpoint looking at ‘identity’ so
that your notes are kept in one place.
6. What is ‘identity’?
•Your thoughts...
•The way you perceive yourself
and others
• what you are
• the way you represent yourself
•Something that is unique to you
•What you consume
•USES and GRATS – personal integrative!!
7. • The new topic area for A2 Media Studies is 'Identities and the Media'; a
subject choice which reflects the importance of cultural identities as a
concept in both the form and content of new and traditional media. The
study of identity intersects with theories of representation, audience and
ideology; not surprisingly as identity is a transdisciplinary concept found in
cultural studies, the humanities and social sciences. The move to theories
of identity, away from representation, is also indicative of developments in
the academic discipline of media studies itself.
• The study of identity signifies a move from analysing representations of
groups, whether by gender, ethnicity, sexuality etc. in terms of difference
and opposition, focusing instead on the concept of fluidity and
performance. The limitations of representation theory in explaining the
contemporary media landscape are apparent in its central method of
research: the model of positive and negative images of a specific,
definable group, constructed by a distanced producer and decoded by an
audience. Today the line between producers and audiences is much more
fluid; the range of identities available at different times during different
media experiences much more extensive. The focus in representation
theory on the interpretation by an audience of a product with a fixed
meaning makes it inadequate in explaining the complex relationship
between new media and diverse audiences. Theories of identity consider
representation as one aspect of the intersection between media products,
audience and identity – rather than a total theory of media.
8. To summarise…
• Identity is about producers AND audiences
constructing identities. (representation was
more focused on the Producer and their
motivations but given that developments in
new and digital technology is empowering the
audience, we must consider how they respond
and construct identitites)
9. What different forms of identity can you think of?
For example:
• Gender
Create a mood board of images demonstrating
different forms of identity.
Use images, labels, newspaper headlines etc
10. How do people construct their
identity? What do they use?
