MIGRAIN: Representing ourselves - identity in the online age

 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.

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?'
It talks about how we think that we are the person that we define as ourselves in which is the way we want to be seen an make an impression in others to give that same impression to others.

2) List three brands you are happy to be associated with and explain how they reflect your sense of identity.
I would say something along the lines of intel and AMD as they are all some form of computer brand and I use computers a lot.

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

This implies that people will often look at how things look instead of going more in depth to find out what the actual product presented to them actually is.

4) Explain Baudrillard's theory of 'media saturation' in one paragraph. You may need to research it online to find out more.
He talks about how it is all shortened down to one factor that is the beauty and looks of a product or person over the intelligence and what the person truly has to offer beyond looks and such. However social media does not allow the people to show their true selves/potential as they are shown a lot as having beauty standards in which people cannot achieve by natural means

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?
I do not really use social media at all, so I have never had an experience in which would make me do such an action.

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?
Data mining is quite conditional as there are many implications and ethical means behind it as you could possibly use it to find criminals, however on the other side some may disagree as they are invading their privacy in such a way.

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.

-Media allows for a range of  representations 

-The media constructs people's images 

- The Male gaze and its impacts

-Magazines offer an unrealistic image

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.
A bunch of people in which they share the same ideologies and views which make them into a group of people who are then eventually categorised into a group.

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?
-Tea

-chips

-colonisation

-powdered wigs

-old people 

They all show the stereotypical things that British people are often associated with and their history. 

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

At the time he was popular many people who would have watched him would now be at their 30s -40s and would otherwise find him nostalgic from his reviews of toys such as the legos and Plasticine.

4) How has new technology changed collective identity?

They are seen everywhere with lots of beauty standards in which people are not able to achieve by natural means and because a lot of people see this they then start to think that this is the normal standard people need to have in which is sets into them.

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

"To make and contact agenda"

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

They create a community in which they learn from to better themselves and to show and share their experience and the film and how they loved it, someone even learned a new word in which they say that that's where they learned it from.