MIGRAIN: Representing ourselves - identity in the online age
Task 1: Media Magazine article
1) Read the article and summarise each section in one sentence, starting with the section 'Who are you?'
Who are you?
constructing an image to communicate our identity. We have complex ideas about our selves; there is a difference between the person we think we are, the person we want to be and the person we want to be seen to be.
I think, therefore I am
How we perceived ourselves and 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.
From citizen to consumer
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’.This consumer boom was based on convincing people that it was no longer enough simply to buy what you needed to survive.
The rise of the individual
Dominant values help shape how we see ourselves; and by the late 1960s and 1970s the notion of individualism began to take hold, reacting against what can be seen to be the more conformist values of the past. During the second half of the 20th century, people began defining themselves as individuals, and so wanted to express their ‘difference’ and ‘uniqueness’; they
were empowered by being encouraged to ‘be themselves’.
Branding and lifestyle
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.
Who will we be?
In 1998 Chandler observed that:...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.
2) List three brands you are happy to be associated with and explain how they reflect your sense of identity.
koka noodles- since young I have eating this brand of noodles since I was young as my dad would always make it for me and my brother and I don't eat any other brand but that one. it gives me a sense of identity as it reminds me of my childhood favourite food and I still love it and eat it to this day.
pretty little thing- this my go to clothing brand when I don't have anything to wear when I'm going to go out I'll order something. also a lot of my clothing is from here and I didn't personal identity as without it half my wardrobe and style is gone.
ikea(mattress) I love ikea as I loved going there with my parents when I was young and I loved their cookie and food at the end when leaving. I also love their bedding and mattress which is weird but also very important to be because I love sleeping and it is a huge part of my identity as if I don't sleep enough I'm not myself and if my sleep is not nice and I'm uncomfortable ill be moody and have a bad day.
3) Do you agree with the view that modern media is all about 'style over substance'? What does this expression mean?
This notion of self-image being defined by brands and products, rather than by authentic human experience, has generated some criticism. Postmodern critics see the construction of identity through media representations as being shallow, leading to a culture that values ‘style over substance’.
I agree with this as i believe that people can make designer into there whole personality and i also believe that people that have the money for designer brands will buy designer for the sake of it being designer rather than the actual product and it could be hideous and they look stupid however they will say its designer brand so it is nice. i think if there was the same extract top in Primark which he extract same design and it was ugly people would call tit ugly however if Gucci sells it people would buy it and hype it up.
4) Explain Baudrillard's theory of 'media saturation' in one paragraph. You may need to research it online to find out more.
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?
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. The influence of the media in providing the images, the products, the role models and the ideas that we use to help construct an idea of identity. Baudrillard believed that society had become so saturated with these simulacra and our lives so saturated with the constructs of society that all meaning was becoming meaningless by being infinitely mutable; he called this phenomenon the "precession of simulacra".
My social media doesnt relfect my peronality at all. I think my social media shows that I go out a lot because I only post when I go out somewhere nice otherwise I don’t see a point of posting my day-to-day life. But if I post a post myself and not the actual going out. Obviously my social media just shows my looks, but I don’t think it shows my personality. I am quite a private person. I don’t like people knowing much about me so I think by my social media just showing my looks I’m quite happy with that as it will be a nice video of me dressed up about to go out, but it doesn’t show where I’m going out what I’m doing who I’m with. On my TikTok and Instagram is more just videos of me dressed nice ot looking nice. however, for my Snapchat, I have a private story, which shows a little bit more about my life, but not too much at the same time. I have 3 private stories. One shows me again dressed nice and maybe the nice places that I go to however I don’t post until I’m at home because I don’t like people know my location either. And then I have one very close private which has about 10 people on there, which sometimes I’ll post videos of me and my friends are funny and just things that may be the only they would understand. And overall, my social media with my close friends shows a bit more of my life. However, they are part of that life and they’re always there and the rest of the people just see the way I dress and the way I look.
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 do sometimes find this creepy, but however I do think it’s quite useful and it is a smart way of advertising as a search app something that I’m interested in buying and if I don’t find something that I quite like sometimes something similar would pop up on my Instagram and I want to buy it so it’s convenient that I can find what I’m looking for, but it is a bit of invasion of privacy.
task 2
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.
Gauntletts believs that social media refects a persons identity but it doesnt create an idneity
-“Identity is complicated; everyone’s got one."
-"identites promoted to men are relativly consrained
-"pick and mix"
-"western media culture"
-"male gaze"
Task 3
1) What is collective identity? Write your own definition in as close to 50 words as possible.
A collective identity is a persons identity that is influenced by a group of people that share similar or same traditions, values, culture and people who can understand a induvial and relate towards them. Due to them feeling that they can relate as an collective as fit in with a group a people.
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?
-pub
-fish and chips
-chavs
-council estate
-roadmen
-nike tech
-drill/grm music
-adele
-tea
-rich discuits
-eastenders
-winterwonderland
3) How does James May's Top Toys offer a nostalgic representation of Britain?
Being targeted at a
slightly older audience means that the toys also become metaphors for the sense of Britishness that May explores, that of ‘nostalgia’ or a feeling / longing for the past where life was perceived to be simpler. This can be also described as a mythic England that resides in the mind of many older people in this country: warm beer, cricket on the green and cups of tea. 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?
In other words, 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. The creation of such video hosting websites such as YouTube means the traditional passive audience can now write original stories or songs about the shows they view, make art or costumes based on the films they watch, edit videos or produce film parodies or do podcasts, develop websites or engage in a broad range of other expressive practices.
David Gauntlett (2008) states that ‘Identity is complicated; everyone thinks they have got one.’
6) How does the Shaun of the Dead Facebook group provide an example of Henry Jenkins' theory of interpretive communities online?
A fan has created this group in support of the fact that he has ‘learnt’ a new word from the film. The recognition of ‘Hey, I also learnt that word!’ means fans from around the world can then share their experience of watching the film and supporting the identity created within it.it. The key aspect of this group is the fact that the collective identity created is one which has no national barriers to the understanding of the cultural identity created. The British identity of the film thus becomes one that is recognized and supported by a global institution, namely Facebook. Most of the wall posts are quotes from the film that are repeated for anecdotal evidence of ‘love’ for the film. The creation of this group conforms to the following ‘repeated’ view from Henry Jenkins: ‘fan genres grew out of openings or excesses within the text that were built on and stretched, and that it was not as if fans and texts were autonomous from each another; fans created their own, new texts, but elements within the originating text defined, to some degree, what they could do’.
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