Media and identity

How do you identify yourself? And, what is the most important part of your identity? Is it your
gender, your race or ethnicity, your sexual orientation, your class status, your nationality, your
religious affiliation, your age, your physical or cognitive abilities, your political beliefs? Is there one
part of your identity that stands out from the rest, or does your identity change depending on who
you’re with, what you’re involved in, where you are in your life?

The answers to the questions above clearly depend on many factors. They prod us to think about our
identities in singular terms (I am female), but also as multiple and intersecting parts (I am a Latino teenage
girl from South Los Angeles). Most importantly, these questions lead us to consider the meaning of identity.
Beyond “who am I?” these questions frame our individual identities in a broader social historical context
and in relation to other groups.  Part of understanding our identity, therefore, means understanding how we
fit in (or don’t) with other groups of people. It also means being aware of the fact that some groups have
more social, political, and economic power than others.

Self-concept, or self-identity, is the set of beliefs and ideas an individual has about themselves. Identity is a
socially and historically constructed concept. We learn about our own identity and the identity of others
through interactions with family, peers, organizations, institutions, media and other connections we make in
our everyday life.

An imagined community is a concept developed by Benedict Anderson in his 1983 book Imagined

Communities, to analyze nationalism. Anderson depicts a nation as a socially constructed community,
imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group.

The media also creates imagined communities, through usually targeting a mass audience or generalizing
and addressing citizens as the public. Another way that the media can create imagined communities is
through the use of images. By showing certain images, the audience will choose which image they relate
to the most, furthering the relationship to that imagined community.  As Anderson puts it, a nation "is
imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-
members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their
communion". Members of the community probably will never know each of the other members face to
face; however, they may have similar interests or identify as part of the same nation. They hold in their
minds a mental image of their affinity: for example, the nationhood felt with other members of your
nation when your "imagined community" participates in a larger event such as the Olympic Games.
In a modern society, life is not a predetermined path with limited options based on location, family or
gender: it is full of possibilities, but the individual is given little guidance on what is the best option. The
role of the family, religion and traditional authority has declined and the constant drive of change within
modern institutions and social life makes everything uncertain and flexible. The process of finding oneself is
enforced upon all individuals – a process of continuous transformation. Self-identification becomes a
reflexive project of each individual in modernity, whereas in pre-modern settings self-identity was largely
given, as opposed to made. Individuals create and reform their identities through choice, and due to the
reflexive nature of modern self-identification, everyday decisions and behaviour become more relevant in
this process than they were in traditional societies. Increased choice has its advantages, for example it makes
possible new dimensions of self-development; but it also has its flaws. People experience anxiety because
they have troubles choosing between available options and fear that they are not making the right choices,
whereas in traditional societies people experienced anxiety due to lack of possibilities and because of
feelings of wrongdoing. There are therefore both new possibilities and new problems that modernity brings
to self-identification.

Baby boomers – 1946-1964

Generation X – 1965-1979

Generation Y (Millenials) – 1980-1996 (give or take a few years)

Generation Z (Gen Tech, post –Millenials, Zoomers) – late nineties – 2012/15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9Ks6d57H4w Generation Z – identity of young people today

When we think about identity, we may focus on cultural markers (things like clothing) or biological and
physiological markers (things like skin color); however, it’s also important to understand that our identities
are comprised of shared ideas, ideologies, biases and ways of seeing the world around us. Our identities,
therefore, are socially constructed, and our biological attributes are only one part of who we are.

But, where do these shared values or ideologies come from? Again, the answer is not clear-cut. In many
cases, we’ve learned and internalized these values over the course of our lives from family, peers, role
models, school, organizations, government, etc. The media also plays a prominent role in creating meaning,
shaping our values,  defining who we are, and establishing norms. These values are powerful because they
generally come from places of power, but also because we internalize them and take them for granted; they
seem natural and the way things should be, and in turn, shape the way we see and understand the people,
objects, practices, and institutions in our lives.
Our gender, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, disability, religion, and age can play a significant
role in determining whether or not we have social, political and economic power. While many assume that
anyone can build up social, economic and political power if they have talent, ability, and work hard (the idea
of meritocracy), we also need to acknowledge the way historically ingrained prejudices are built into
existing institutions and structures, and consider how they create barriers and limit opportunities.

Identity and the media

The media can be a site of change, but also fundamentally a site that perpetuates ideologies and norms. The
media uses representations—images, words, and characters or personae—to convey ideas and values. Media
representations, therefore, are not neutral or objective. They are constructed and play an important role in
imparting ideology.

One question we might ask, then, is whether media produce ideologies or simply reflect them, mirroring
what’s already happening in society. This is another difficult question to answer. The line between mirroring
reality and producing reality is difficult to discern. Regardless of where ideologies originate, the media plays
a key role in conveying ideas and giving them weight or power.

With the media, we tend to see the same images and representations over and over again. Media rely heavily
on genres, conventions and stereotypes. As certain images and representations are repeated, they become
familiar and natural. But are these representations really “natural”?
What do you see when you critically examine this cartoon? The media uses stereotypes to provide a
simplified view of cultural groups. This view is often inaccurate and self-perpetuating. Here men are
stereotyped as tough but unreasonable; women are stereotyped as nurturing but nagging.

Social media and reality television work to shape our perception of self and others. Media literacy, however,
applies to all forms of the media, not just the mass-mediated images that people see on television. Becoming
media literate means that you develop a critical eye for how various media forms—recordings, radio,
movies, newspapers, magazines, and new media technologies—function as a cultural socialization agent in
terms of how people view the world around them. The increased awareness that comes with media literacy
will never eliminate media effects, but it can help to diminish the negative impact that the media has on your
everyday life. In terms of intercultural communication, becoming media literate enhances the potential for
media consumption to lead to greater understanding of how other cultural group members are both different
from and similar to ourselves. Viewers who practice media literacy must understand how the images are
produced to maximize profits and how the meanings and values presented in the media vary across national,
regional, gendered, classed, and religious contexts.

Think about what goes on behind the scenes in fictional media. Screenwriters, directors, casting agents, set
and costume designers all make choices that help audiences understand who a character is and what they
care about. These behind-the-scenes players use clothing, hair and makeup, the way characters speak, and
how they move as shorthand in their storytelling. It’s important to look at these elements of the story, rather
than take them for granted. There are also deliberate storytelling choices and frames for non-fiction
storytelling (in news, documentary, “reality” programming, and advertising). It’s also important to consider
whether or not characters or representations of particular groups are complex or seem more like caricatures
and stereotypes.

Understanding and critically examining the decision-making process behind a piece of media can help us see
that media representations are constructed. If identities in the media are constructed, should we accept them
at face value? Or can we (should we) question them? And, even change them, and create our own identities?
Note that most of the media examples and the overviews are written from an American perspective or vision
of the world. Once you familiarize yourself with the critical tools to analyze identity in the media, you can
apply your knowledge and approach to any number of examples, including media from across the globe.

The role of the media in lives of individuals and societies

The world in which we now live is profoundly distinct from the one inhabited by people of previous periods
in human history. Some salient features of the older social world have ceased to exist, others have changed
conspicuously and new ones have emerged. In particular, the modern world is different from the world of
pre-modern times in a twofold way: 1. it is a single world with a much more unitary framework of
experience than was possible before, due to globalization and increased mediated experience; 2. yet at the
same time it is a world that creates deeper forms of fragmentation and levels of distance between individuals
than any other that may have existed before in human history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tJKGZ_xSZ0 - an artist’s approach to who we are; identity as a

creative process, life events that make us who we are, identity in multiethnic families; four case studies

The young

In adolescence, identity formation is an important developmental task. Adolescents have to establish more

autonomy from parents, define close friendships anew with other peers, develop romantic relations, and
acquire more definite values and beliefs. They also exhibit more anxiety about their body image than other
age groups. It has been noted that music is a source of information as well as entertainment and provides
cultural background that influences identity formation. Listeners may be influenced by lyrics, attitudes, and
ideas expressed by artists. There is also more subtle identification with the image projection of an artist or
band. Additionally, there is a symbiotic learning relationship with other fans that appreciate the same type of
music. During adolescence, young people may experiment with different styles and dress codes and
consequently their demeanors and attitudes may be subject to change. Notably, research has established that
from age 12 onward music taste is remarkably stable, thus forming basic codes influencing adolescent
identity. Radical changes in identification thus set are rare.

At the stage where a young adult becomes an emerging adult, individuals are especially influenced by
(social) media. Psychologists study methods of self-presentation to determine how a user's patterns and
media participation affects their own identity. Young adults, through media literacies, can also find their
identity as a part of social group, such as feminists. Due to their fluency in media literacy, young people
often contribute to these larger social identities through their networks, and unique style of communication
when sharing information. College is a time when students are in an environment that encourages the
development of their identity because of the wide variety of experiences available to them.

The elderly

New ways of communicating with the elderly (in terms of technology) should be appropriately tailored to
the needs of this age group. In the context of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the media provide especially for
the middle level, which is membership. They do not fully replace the real, direct contacts with family and
friends, but give a sense of connection with people remaining in a similar situation, enabling them to express
their needs and keep contact. This is all the more important as the ability to maintain contact with others is
an extremely important aspect of the quality of life of seniors. In the era of redefining family ties, migration
and loneliness this seems to be a vital part of building a positive image of old age. Today, significant
deficiencies are visible in the area of mass communication tools tailored to the needs and capabilities of
elderly consumers, including an insufficient number of specialists with appropriate knowledge and
sensitivity in this area. Psychologists, sociologists, economists, media experts and representatives of medical
science should pay particular attention to building knowledge about the linkages between creating the image
of the elderly, their participation in the media, and the effectiveness of media messages whose beneficiaries
are the elderly. At the same time, an increase in awareness of the relationship between the media, shaping
attitudes towards the elderly and associating them with specific social roles would help in establishing a
more accurate policy to fully use the potential of the elderly, and their non-discrimination.