4.1 Media and Collective Identity “Identity is complicated. Everyone thinks they’ve got one”. – Gauntlett, 2007.

IDENTITY

- “A focus on identity requires us to pay close attention to the diverse ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life, and their consequences both for individuals and for social groups”. – Buckingham, 2008

- “Identity is complicated. Everyone thinks they’ve got one. Magazines and talk show hosts urge us to explore our ‘identity’. Religious and national identities are at the heart of major international conflicts. Artists play with the idea of ‘identity’ in modern society. Blockbuster movie superheroes have emotional conflicts about their ‘true’ identity. And the average teenager can create 3 online ‘identities’ before breakfast … Thinking about self-identity and individuality can cause some anxiety – at least in cultures where individuals are encouraged to value their performance uniqueness. Each of us would like to think – to some extent – that we have special personal qualities which make us distinctive and valuable to other people in our lives”. – Gauntlett, 2007

- ‘On the internet nobody knows you’re a dog’ – relates to how we can construct an alternative identity.

- Clothes worn, media consumed, people we like.

- ‘the presentation of self’ – Goddman, 1990.

- Minority groups cause complaint about how assumptions are made about their identity.

BEHAVIOURISM AND MEDIA EFFECTS

Effects Model: hypodermic needle. Audience is duped and doped – addicted. Media is the opium of the masses.

Gratifications Model: Power to the people. Audience can read, adjust, and subvert media texts for their own good. Texts are used to gratify needs and interests.

- Social, moral, political objective

o Measure power of media affect – how people think, feel and act.

- Commercial objective

o Measure effectiveness of advertising and publicity campaigns.

Cumberbatch and Howitt, 1989

- ‘The history of mass communication research is conspicuously lacking in any clear evidence on the precise influence of the mass media’.

- Effects debate issue revived in the 1990s (Baker and Petley, 2001).

Laswell’s Chain of Communication, 1971

- Any form of communication can be dissected into 5 processes:

o WHO control analysis

o SAYS WHAT content analysis

o IN WHICH CHANNEL media analysis

o TO WHOM audience analysis

o TO WHAT EFFECT? Effect analysis

Total Conductance:

At every stage, information can be misunderstood or altered. This is like Chinese whispers, and is called ‘modified conductance’ or ‘no conductance’.

Propaganda:

It’s only effective if it can tap into the meanest as well as the keenest of intelligence. This must tap into latent public opinion within the society it aims to influence.

Violent Media

Wertham, 1955.

‘The quantity of violence in the media is stupendous’.

- Analysed crime comics and TV.

- Children shown images and asked to interpret them.

- Children also asked to finish stories.

- Tests are deemed crude and artificial (Gauntlett, 2005).

1) Passivity – comics + TV make children passive.

2) Misconceptions – TV teaches children unhealthy values.

3) Imitation – children copy what is seen on TV.

4) Identification – children see themselves as the strong character, even if it’s the villain.

5) Desensitisation – high volume of violence desensitises children.

Warshow, 1957.

‘To blame comic books … is simple minded’.