Media and Collective Identity – Young People

1. Media and Collective Identity – Young People Lesson Objectives: To plan an answer to an exam style question on media representations of young people.

2. Giroux (1997) • Representations of youth in popular culture have a long and complex history and habitually serve as signposts through which American society registers its own crises of meaning, vision, and community…youth becomes an empty category inhabited by the desires, fantasies, and interests of the adult world.

3. Acland (1995) • Order has a key function: to reproduce itself. Youth in crisis, youth gone wild, is a central site in which this activity of reproducing order takes place. It involves the constitution of the normal, adult, the normal youth, and the relation between the two. The deviant youth is thus a crucial trope of this relationship; it helps patrol the boundaries

4. Gramsic (1971) • Cultural hegemony - a culturally-diverse society can be ruled or dominated by one of its social classes. It is the dominance of one social group over another, e.g. the ruling class over all other classes. The theory claims that the ideas of the ruling class come to be seen as the norm; they are seen as universal ideologies, perceived to benefit everyone whilst only really benefiting the ruling class.

5. Cohen (1972) • Societies appear to be subject, every now and then, to periods of moral panic. A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media

6. Althusser (1970) • ideological state apparatus - institutions such as education, the churches, family, media, trade unions, and law, which were formally outside state control but which served to transmit the values of the state. In contemporary capitalist societies education has replaced the Church as the principal ideological state apparatus. Among Marxists, the term is contrasted with the so-called ‘repressive state apparatus’ of the armed forces and police, and is allotted a major role in securing compliance within developed capitalist societies.

7. McRobbie (2004) • Symbolic violence against the working class is a form of social reproduction

8. Gerbner (1986) • The repetitive pattern of television’s mass-produced message and images influences people’s understanding of the world • Cultivation theory • Mean World syndrome

10. How do the contemporary media represent nations, regions and ethnic / social / collective groups of people in different ways? • How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods? • What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people? • To what extent is human identity increasingly ‘mediated’?

11. Examiner Advice • http://getaheadocrmedia.blogspot.com/2010/11/writing-frame-for-g325-from-julian.html

12. Examiner Advice - Structure • Introduction – start with a quote, paraphrase it, and link to issues of identity, representation, and the media. State your focus (social group, texts, media). • Historical example. • Contemporary examples. • Connect examples together. • Conclusion – return to start. Prediction for the future.

13. Examiner Advice • Use referencing – name and year of publication given after first mention, e.g. (Giroux, 1997). • Quote – paraphrase – critique. • One text older then 5 years. • Other texts should be from within last 5 years. • Make a prediction for the future.

14. Exam Style Question • What are the social implications of the ways in which different media represent social groups?

15. Introduction • Quote from theorist – discussion • Introduction of topic. • Cultural theorist Henry A. Giroux argues that in media representations of young people ‘youth becomes an empty category’ (1997) which reflects the anxieties and interests of adult society. From this perspective media representations of the collective identities of young people are constructed by adults, and serve the needs of adult society. This approach to youth identity and the media raises several questions about the relationship between media and identity which will be explored in this essay. Contemporary film, television, and print media representations of young people appear to consistently reflect an adult perspective. The collective ‘identity’ of young people constructed by media representations arguably has a social function.

16. Historical Representations • Example – significance – theory – critique • Contemporary Examples – newspapers • Example – significance – theory – critique • Contemporary Examples – Film • Example – significance – theory – critique • Contemporary Examples – Television • Example – significance – theory – critique • Connections/effects

17. Conclusion • Return to the start. • Summarise key idea. • Prediction for the future. • Mass media construct representations of youth from a middle class, adult perspective, for the ideological purpose of maintaining hegemony. • Impact of new media technologies/internet – more potential for self-representation; limited impact compared to mass media.