Wednesday, 2 March 2016

Exam Prep: Section B

Media and Collective Identity

- How do the contemporary media represent: nations, regions and ethnic/social/collective groups of people in different ways?

- How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods?

-What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?

-To what extent is human identity increasingly mediated?

Candidates may analyse the representation of and/or the collective identity of one or more group(s) of people

National cinema, television representations, magazines etc.
gender, youth and youth culture, post -9/11, Representation of Islam, absence/presence of people with disabilities in at least two media.

Explanation/Analysis/Argument (16-20 Marks)

Show examples of collective identity, analyse the example and show how it relates to media theory relating to representation and Collective Identity. - Must use historical (5 years +) and contemporary texts (Less than 5 years).

Use of Examples (16-20)

Be very clear in the examples used e.g "Calvin Klein 1994 advertisement of CK-One shows gender ambiguity"

Examples of theories, texts and industry knowledge are clearly connected together in the answer. Compare past to present!

Use of Terminology

Use contemporary media theory and the command of the appropriate conceptual and theoretical language is excellent.





Whichever question you answer, you must refer to examples from at least two media areas in your answer. You should include reference to historical, contemporary and future media.
Media and Collective Identity
6. Explain what is meant by ‘collective identity’ and the role of media in its construction. [50]
Extract from Candidate Script 1
I have been researching teenagers and their identity. I’ve been looking into how the media shown teenagers.
I will relate this to Misfits and Fishtank, and explain their collective identity.
Misfits is a british TV series based on a group of teens who are all facing community service.
We learn all there individual identity’s and are made to believe they have no hope. We meet 5 teenagers who are all stereotypically shown with anti-social behavior. In the group there is a party girl, sports runner, cocky one etc.
Tajfel and turner quote that ‘people tend to categorise themselves into groups which they then build their identity’s’. I disagree with this as these have been emerged together as they have all been in crime. These include drugs, drink driving, fighting etc.
Historically this can relate to Skins and grange hill, these are all school based although skins covered more controversial issues. We see petty crimes which aren’t as serious as the ones in misfits. Tajfel and turner quite is related to skins as they are all a group of friends and they build there identity together.
Fishtank a 2009 film, teenagers are portrayed differently. We get to see Mia a 15 year old girl who has no hope. She has a dream of dancing but with young single mothered mum who shouts and swears at children she has a poor family structure to help her. David Buckingham quotes that the media don’t just offer a transparent window of the world but a mediated one.
Mia smokes, binge drink and has underage sex. The audience are made to believe that all teenagers are like this. He young mother who gets a boyfriend, he wants to help Mia and find her identity. He often asks her to dance to his favourite song although when she does we see them having sex. David Buckingham quote can be related to misfits, we are made to believe that all teenagers have convicted crimes. In Bullett Boy we see a gang of boys who are all involved in drugs and crime. The media show teen culture in a very bad way. Misfits is released on TV past the water shed times as they all swear etc. It is shown on both E4 and channel 4, their website contains games, podcasts, blogs etc. On the blogs you can communicate with other fans. They have a facebook and twitter page with all individual accounts. David Gauntlett explains that identity’s are complicated however everyone thinks they have one.
In Fishtank her mothers boyfriends finds a dance event she can attend Mia then believes she made have found her identity when she gets there she is called up on stage for which she didn’t know it was pole/lap dancing.
The media then show how teenagers have no hope or luck.
Historically this could be related to Dawson’s creek as we are made to look down on the anti-social behaviour teens. It could also relate to Waterloo road which is a tv series on a school who the youngens follow the action of the olders.
We then get to see the mother having a party in her council estate flats with family and friends. Her two children aren’t invited an stay upstairs. This shows the lack of family structure at home. We meet Mia’s little sister tyler with a friend both who are swearing and smoking.
The audience are left to believe all young mums live in broken britain and teenagers have no hope at all.
Mia was kicked out of school and they receive a letter which is accepting her to a place in an anti-social behaviour school.
In both misfits and fishtank the media have stereotypically shown teenagers and portrayed them very negatively. We are made to believe that all teenagers are into anti-social behaviour, drinking, drugs, smoking etc. The media will only shown the negative sides of teen culture so everyone will believe teens do this in everyday life not the positives that they do.


Level 2 - 23 marks? The answer attempts to answer the question but is limited in the theory used and the explanations. However, there are a range of examples used.

Level 2
Explanation/analysis/argument (8–11 marks) 8
Candidates offer a response to the topic area with limited ability to adapt to the specific requirements of the chosen question. A partially coherent, basic argument is presented.
Use of examples (8–11 marks) 10
The answer offers some examples of theories, industry knowledge and/or texts and debates, with some basic evidence of an attempt to connect these elements. Inclusion of history and/or the future is limited.
Use of terminology (4–5 marks) 5
Some of the material presented is informed by contemporary media theory, articulated through a basic use of theoretical terms.
Some simple ideas have been expressed in an appropriate context. There are likely to be some errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar of which some may be noticeable and intrusive.












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