Online Media

Connotations of fb logo:


gossip
drama
relationship status
other poeples converstaions with eachother
bitching
bullying
keeping in touch with friends
pictures
stalking
events
online chats
making new friends/finding old ones
sharing
nosey
avoiding work
venting feelings
judgementalness
lack of privacy


Impact this has on british youth and youth culture


Positives:

• Helps young people to promote themselves in a positive light (youtube), can be used as a forum to advertise yourself
• Equalises people as anyone can have it no matter what your class, status, age etc.
• Form of free communication and you can communicate with alot of poeple at one time
• Form of news

Negatives:

• Portrays us as lazy as if you spend lots of time on there makes you look nosey and like you have nothing better to do
• bulling/low self esteem
• Once its up its up for ever
• Dangerous(pedophiles)
• People can write stuff about you and you have no control over it
• Makes you pre judge before you know the person
• Fraping

Blumler and Katz


Personal identity
Personal relationships/social interaction
knowledge and information can be learnt
entertainment/escapism




What new forms of social interaction have media technologies enabled?


Globalisation
Sharing of information
Development of self identity
Self-realisation




Online media are especially suitable ro construct and develop several identities of the self(Turkle, 1998)


If facebook were a country it would be the 3rd largest in the world


How you choose to identify yourself now will be completely different to how you do it in 10 years
all throught your life your identity is going to be changing










IDENTITY










Media Use in Identity Construction

Katherine Hamley

Highlight key points/quotes that you think are important and then answer these questions when reading this text:

•      Young people are surrounded by influential imagery – popular media (Examples?)

•      It is no longer possible for an identity to just be constructed in a small community and influenced by a family (Discuss)

•      Everything concerning our lives is ‘media saturated’ (What does this mean?)

In society today the construction of a personal identity can be seen to be somewhat problematic and difficult. Young people are surrounded by influential imagery, especially that of popular media. It is no longer possible for an identity to be constructed merely in a small community and only be influenced by family. Nowadays, arguably everything concerning our lives is seen to be ‘media-saturated’. Therefore, it is obvious that in constructing an identity young people would make use of imagery derived from the popular media.
However, it is fair to say that in some instances the freedom of exploring the web could be limited depending on the choice of the parents or teachers. So, if young people have such frequent access and an interest in the media, it is fair to say that their behaviour and their sense of ‘self’ will be influenced to some degree by what they see, read, hear or discover for themselves. Such an influence may include a particular way of behaving or dressing to the kind of music a person chooses to listen to. These are all aspects which go towards constructing a person’s own personal identity.
Firstly, it is important to establish what constitutes an identity, especially in young people. The dictionary definition states the following:

“State of being a specified person or thing: individuality or personality…” (Collins Gem English Dictionary. 1991).

The mass media provide a wide-ranging source of cultural opinions and standards to young people as well as differing examples of identity. Young people would be able to look at these and decide which they found most favourable and also to what they would like to aspire to be. The meanings that are gathered from the media do not have to be final but are open to reshaping and refashioning to suit an individual’s personal needs and consequently, identity. It is said that young people:

“…use media and the cultural insights provided by them to see both who they might be and how others have constructed or reconstructed themselves… individual adolescents…struggle with the dilemma of living out all the "possible selves" (Markus & Nurius, 1986), they can imagine.” (Brown et al. 1994, 814).

When considering how much time adolescents are in contact with the popular media, be it television, magazines, advertising, music or the Internet, it is clear to see that it is bound to have a marked effect on an individual’s construction of their identity. This is especially the case when the medium itself is concerned with the idea of identity and the self; self-preservation, self-understanding and self-celebration.

 “With a simple flip of the television channel or radio station, or a turn of the newspaper or magazine page, we have at our disposal an enormous array of possible identity models.” (Grodin & Lindlof 1996)

I believe the Internet is an especially interesting medium for young people to use in order to construct their identities. Not only can they make use of the imagery derived from the Internet, but also it provides a perfect backdrop for the presentation of the self, notably with personal home pages. By surfing the World Wide Web adolescents are able to gain information from the limitless sites which may interest them but they can also create sites for themselves, specifically home pages. Constructing a home page can enable someone to put all the imagery they have derived from the popular media into practice. For example:

“…constructing a personal home page can be seen as shaping not only the materials but also (in part through manipulating the various materials) one’s identity.” (Chandler 1998)

This is particularly important as not only are young people able to access such an interesting and wide ranging medium, but they are also able to utilise it to construct their own identity. In doing this, people are able to interact with others on the Internet just as they could present their identities in real life and interact with others on a day to day basis.
In conclusion it can be seen that the popular media permeates everything that we do. Consequently, the imagery in the media is bound to infiltrate into young people’s lives. This is especially the case when young people are in the process of constructing their identities. Through television, magazines, advertising, music and the Internet adolescents have a great deal of resources available to them in order for them to choose how they would like to present their ‘selves’. However, just as web pages are constantly seen to be 'under construction’, so can the identities of young people. These will change as their tastes in media change and develop. There is no such thing as one fixed identity; it is negotiable and is sometimes possible to have multiple identities. The self we present to our friends and family could be somewhat different from the self we would present on the Internet, for example. By using certain imagery portrayed in the media, be it slim fashion models, a character in a television drama or a lyric from a popular song, young people and even adults are able to construct an identity for themselves. This identity will allow them to fit in with the pressures placed on us by society, yet allow them to still be fundamentally different from the next person.

1.      Girls for example, as always compared body wise, to supermodels and girls with perfectly shaped bodies and if you do not look like this you are seen almost as an outcast as you do not fit the mould and it can be seen as ‘unacceptable’ although this is just how you are and if we all looked the same this would mean there is nothing that makes you you and people would be boring to look at. Everyones always aiming to impress. Music videos.

2.      The reason it this is no longer possible is because media influence is something you can’t get away from, it is everywhere you go and if you are not involved in it you are out of the loop therefore you want to be a part of it.

 '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 theor consequences for social groups' David Buckingham




BUCKINGHAM

• Identity is something unique to all of us, but also implies a relationship with a broader group.
• Identity can change according to our circumstances
• identity is fluid and is affected by broader changes
• Identity becomes more important to us if we feel it is threatened

Cultural imperialism=globalisation
social mobility
inmigration
becoming a multicultural society






GAUNTLETT

• Identity is complicated, however, everybody feels that they have one
• Religious and national identities are at the heart of major international conflicts
• The average teenager can create numerous identities in a short space of time
• We like to think we are unique , but Gauntlett questions whether this is an illusion, and we are all much more similar than we think.

David Gauntletts 5 key themes for identity:

1. Creativity as a process about emotions and experiences
2. Making and sharing to feel alive, to participate, in community
3. Happiness through creativity and community
4. Creativity as social glue a middle layer between individuals & society
5. Making your mark and making the world your own

WHAT IS COLLECTIVE IDENTITY?
Representaion: the way reality is ' mediated' or 're-presented' to us.
Collective identity: the individual's snese of belonging to a group( oart of personal identity).

Inbetweeners

Ben Palmer 2011

The representation of: 

• age
• ethnicity
• gender
• social class and status

comedy rather than social realist drama

The representation of the boys shows that as they are teenage middle class boys who have just finished theyre education for the summer holidays therefore have lots of free time on there hands with not many responsabilities to worry about so they are going on a 'lads holiday' which is a holiday thought to be full of alcohol, stupid jokes and sex. your average teenage boy is generally thought as to only think about girls and sex and in the film it is proven how important the opposite sex is to the boys and that is their main aim.The boys are white and nerdy therefore would not be seen as gangsters or yobs as they simply do not have the right attitude or look to fit the bill.
Exaggerated however much more realistic to how youths are today in age.
Ethnicity isnt realistic as they live in london middle class which is associated with being predominantly white.
Target audience teens, cos we can identify,middle class, the people represented in the film are generally also going to be the audience.

Females are objectified, sexual objects.
trying to be stereotypical boys however much more in tact with their emotions that what is seen as acceptable.
Status is important as although they are friends they are all competing to be the leader.

Binary opposition when parents say goodbye compared to in Harry Brown
parents are very involed in childrens lives whereas in HB they are in prison or leave children to fend for themselves...

Social class:reinforcing cultural hegemony dominant ideologies.

Misbehaving however not stealing or selling drugs, no gang culture simple travelling together for companionship, much more law concious, consciencious citizens.

Protagonist=hero
Antagonist=villan
headmaster, parents

Fish tank
lack of parenting/education
true british cinematography
social realist edge

ta: teens working as maybe they can relate and also middle so that they can understand why lower class act the way that they do and what they may be subjected to on a daily basis.

who produces these structures and why?








Media effects

• Do media representations of young people effect how they are perceived?
• If so how does this effect occur?
• Hypodemic model
• Cultivation theory
• Copy cat theory(clockwork orange)
• Moral panic

Suggests that we as consumers have no power as to how the media influences us, passsive consumers, robots.


The more you see it happening in media particularly tv the more likely you are to believe that is is realistic in society and that it will happen at that level.

• Whose perspective is dominant in each of these texts?
• what do the representations have in common?
• How are the representations different?
• How are parental figures represented?
• How important is social class?

Contemporary British social realism


Ordinary people in their ordinary enviroments
Subcultures are boprn into that enviroment therefore they are a product of their own enviroment.
Groups are shown as victims of the system if you are born into working class you are automatically starting on the worng foot and with a disadvantage


Social realist films are directed at abritish audience therefore their constuction is very different to american.


not glossy idiolised. lower budget.


Hugh Grant, epitemy of what americans think of english people laughing at them rather than with them


KEY QUESTIONS


asked when analysing the representations 

1. Who is being represnted 
2. Who is representing them?
3. How are they represented?
4. What seems to be the intentions of the representations? 
5. What is the dominant discourse?(communication)
6. What range of readings there are?
7. Look for alternative discourses

Collective identity.
The media contributes to our sense of collective identity but there are many different versions that can change over time.
Representations can cause problems for the groups being represented because marginalised groups have little control over their representation/ stereotyping.
The social context in which the film/tv programme is made influences the messages/ values/ dominant discourse of the film.


 Stuart Hall Decoding 1980


Encoding decoding is an active audience theory which examines the relationship between a text and its audience


Encoding is the process by which a text is constructed by its producers
Decoding is the process buy which the audience reads and understands and interprets a text


Hall states that texts ate polysemic; meaning they may be read differently by different people, depeding on their identity, cultural knowledge and opinions.


Preffered reading/ dominant hegemonic: when an audience interprets the message as it was meant to be understood, they are operating in the dominant code.the position of professional broadcasters and media producers is that is that messages are already signified within the hegemonic manner to which they are accostumed.


Negociated reading: Not all audiences may understand what media producers take for granted.There may be some acknowledgement of differences in understanding.
Decoding within the recognised version contaisn a  mixture of adaptive abd oppositional elements.stuggle to understand those domingant ideologies or have a problem with them.


Oppositional reading/ counter hegemonic:You disagree with the text entirely,guardian or independent readers will not but the sun as they disagree with everything about it.
you may understand the dominant ideologie sthat are embeded in the text but you refuse them.


Any representation is a mixture of:

1. The thing itself
2. the opinions of the people doing the representation
3. The reaction of the individual to the representation
4. The context of the society ini which the representation is taking place

Stereotyping


Why do we stereotype?
so we can recognise them easily
the fact that we naturally see the world in this kind of shorthnd way, with connexions between different character trates allows, the media to create simplistic representations which we find believable.Implicit personality theory explains this process...


As humans we use our own unique storehouse of knowledge about people when we judge them


What we have experienced in the past we tend to rely on more than what is actaully hapening now with that person


We categorise people into types


Pattern of conextions form a prototype
assumptions
identity and the way we choose to see others


conspire with the media to misunderstand the world we do it to eachother and to ourselves.

Comparative analysis

Comparative analysis: How are British youths represented in Quadrophenia vs. Harry Brown?

Write a comparative analysis of representations found in Quadrophenia against Harry Brown. Consider the following:

The main theme in both films is gang culture. They travel in packs  as  if it is 2 against one although an uneven fight two will always win and it’s the winning that’s important.

The attitude of the mods and rockers compared to the thugs and gangs from Harry Brown is totally the opposite as In Harry Brown they go out aiming to injure unnecessarily  as they have nothing better to do and they believe it will give them power and is almost a way of crying out for attention and it gives them bad press coverage however teens have received bad attention from the media since the 60s as demonstrated in Quadrophenia and it has now reached the point that teens feel as if they should live up to their reputation as they are going to been seen as ‘bad’ anyway.  `The minority spoil it for the majority and as shown in Harry Brown all teens  are seen as yobbish murderers

Both are fighting for survival, 9-5 in the case of quadrophenia so that they have money for food and to go out, etc. and selling drugs, fighting to show their power, and position in the hierarchy for similar reasons in harry brown except with added territorial needs.

Symbolic climaxes are used to try and influence your opinion on British youths and make you think that this is what needs to be done to solve the problem because it is becoming out of control. In Harry Brown so much violence is thrown at you it starts to not even shock you as much ( this is also happening in real life ass when people watch the film they may not even be as concerned after watching the film and may see it as normally as it is in so many movies and such a common view in today’s society). The view given in films is becoming so widely recognized the public believe that this is happening on every estate and you should stay away from them and that all youths  and areas are the same.

Th   The main theme in both films is fighting for what they believe and the struggle faced with going through out teenage years and discovering who you are and where your place in society is.

Th   The main character in both films is a teenage boy, very unsure of his identity trying to fin dhis place in society and trying to make this place as high up the hierarchical ladder

          The parents in quadrophenia are quite influential and try and make their beliefs jimmy’s however he chooses to ignore this therefore upsetting his parents and making them feel the need to show their authority and tell him what  he is doing is unacceptable and until he decides to obey by their rules he must find somewhere else to live, being homeless would normally make someone just do what they’re told so that they have somewhere to live however he chose to ignore this and decided that finding out who he was was the most important thing in the world to him.

The representation have not changed at all they have only got slightly worse violence wise as now in harry brown they have guns and knives and aim to kill rather than quadrophenia where they fight with their fists and simply aim to injure to prove that what they belief in is right.

Although the men is the films seem to have no feelings for other people and seem very destructive in their ways they do seem to have a borderline general respect for women as in both movies having a girlfriend is important and they seem to look after them averagely well as long as they fit the mould and behave how they are expected too.

        Both are seen as stereotypical youths in their time and are trying to rebel from this in one way or another, HB by trying to get money ( by selling drugs protecting people for money so even if not in necessarily the best ways) to get out of this dodgy area where this is how they have been brought up so it is seen as if gang culture is acceptable because this is what has happened for generations as they have had no way to escape and in Quadrophenia as they are post war and have only just started to have enough money for non-essentials therefore they are exploring what to do with this extra income and finding out ways to help keep things advancing for the better and pushing so that new things are created for these new subcultures to keep them entertained and happy.