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REVISION PART 1

G325: Critical Perspectives in Media

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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’?

BLACK BRITISH COLLECTIVE IDENTITYKEY QUESTIONS

WHAT DO YOU NEED FOR THE EXAM?

• social group as a case study• at least two different media• understanding of and

reference to theory/cultural critics

• your own voice!

"Identity is complicated. Everyone thinks they've got one…”

David Gauntlett (2007).

“…collective identity [is] an individual's cognitive, moral, and emotional connection with a community… It is a perception of a shared status or relation, which may be

imagined rather than experienced directly, and it is distinct from personal identities, although

it may form part of a personal identity.

COLLECTIVE IDENTITY AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS. Annual Review of Sociology,

January 01, 2001, Polletta, Francesca; Jasper, James M

DESCRIBE OUR COLLECTIVE GROUP

Who are

they?

The important thing to remember about

this exam is that you are theorising the

concept of collective identity, what is? How

is it formed? And how do people use the

media to relate to an identity? Also

remember what collective group you are

talking about.

DESCRIBE OUR COLLECTIVE GROUP

• When referring to black Britain, in contemporary terms, we’re referring to a subcultural youth movement, which in its present state can be seen as a post-modern version of the collective group black British. Originally black British referred to those immigrants (with Caribbean and African heritage) who came from the Commonwealth countries to settle in Britain.

• Due to syncretic processes the make-up of what is described as black Britain has changed and evolved and therefore this description can be challenged. What we now have is a post-modern subcultural youth movement – any young person who is part of this post-modern collective identity can be from various ethnic backgrounds but the cultural materials - names, narratives, symbols, verbal styles, rituals, clothing, and so on that they associate themselves with are strongly grounded in black culture. This evolution in the first instance was instigated by young white people and first generation born black British, but its continual evolution, and the way in which this group are represented could be said to have significant media influence.

DESCRIBE OUR COLLECTIVE GROUP

• When referring to black Britain, in contemporary terms, we’re referring to a subcultural youth movement, which in its present state can be seen as a post-modern version of the collective group black British. Originally black British referred to those immigrants (with Caribbean and African heritage) who came from the Commonwealth countries to settle in Britain.

• Due to syncretic processes the make-up of what is described as black Britain has changed and evolved and therefore this description can be challenged. What we now have is a post-modern subcultural youth movement – any young person who is part of this post-modern collective identity can be from various ethnic backgrounds but the cultural materials - names, narratives, symbols, verbal styles, rituals, clothing, and so on that they associate themselves with are strongly grounded in black culture. This evolution in the first instance was instigated by young white people and first generation born black British, but its continual evolution, and the way in which this group are represented could be said to have significant media influence.

(Could we just call this group ‘Urban Youth’?)

DESCRIBE OUR COLLECTIVE GROUP

‘might discover common or parallel meanings in their blighted , post-industrial

predicament’ (Paul Gilroy)

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO DESCRIBE OUR COLLECTIVE

GROUP

8

Breaking the questions down

• 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’?

BLACK BRITISH COLLECTIVE IDENTITYKEY QUESTIONS

WHAT DO YOU NEED FOR THE EXAM?

• social group as a case study• at least two different media• understanding of and

reference to theory/cultural critics

• your own voice!

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

Breaking the questions down

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

• The question is essentially asking you to compare how different contemporary media construct (represent) your collective group in different ways

• Representation is an construction• So refer to your media forms; film and

music and compare how they construct (put across a representation of your collective group) – you should be able to comment on differences in their construction of the representation of your group and why that may exist.

Breaking the questions down

ESSAY STRUCTURE

What can you say about the media?

• Describe the media and support what you say with a quote

What can you say about the media?

• The media are in the business of describing things to us. They represent people and types of people to us so that we end up feeling that we know what they are like. We are often so used to this, that we take these kinds of representations for granted. ‘…a significant body of research suggests that the media, as a key transmitter of representations and as a major source of information within society, has the power to control and shape attitudes and beliefs held in the popular imagination.’ (Fatimah Awan)

Introduce your collective group

• This is something to take into consideration when entering into a debate on how contemporary media choose to represent a collective group. The collective group that I will be discussing is that of ‘black Britain’ but the black Britain that I am going to discuss is a post modern youth subculture. A collective of young people from different ethnic backgrounds who perceive themselves to have a shared status in society. Their identity is expressed in cultural materials, symbols and verbal styles that are heavily rooted in black culture. When referring to ‘urban youth’ or ‘black Britian’ throughout the essay this definition that I will be going by.

Introduce your collective group

Introduce your media forms

• Through film texts it’s quiet obvious to see how this group of people have been stereotypically represented. This is seen thorough a saturation of ‘urban youth films’ such as Kidulthood (Huda, 2006), Adulthood (Clarke, 2008), Shank (Ali, 2010) and Attack the Block (Cornish, 2011). All of these films portray a negative representation of ‘urban youth’. All of the characters talk with a vernacular that mixes patios with English and all but one of the films are accompanied by a grime musical soundtrack.

Introduce your media forms

• Provide textual examples that will back up what you have just said.

• Making sure to link it back to ‘media construction’ and the portrayal of your collective group

• If you can use quotes• Throw in an argument – why are these films

popular over other films such as Freestyle (Lee, 2010)?

Provide textual examples

• Film texts and the proliferation of negative images that we seem to see of ‘urban youth’ can be said to be under the hegemonic control of the media. This means that in the case of ‘urban youth’ they are represented as feral, rebellious criminals. ‘The hegemonic model acknowledges that much of the media is controlled by a relatively small group of people (who are generally male, middle class and white) and that the viewpoints associated with these groups inevitably become embedded in the products themselves.’ (Baker et, al)

My mini argument

Introduce your media forms

• Music can be said to sometimes be anti-hegemonic. The music genre heavily associated with ‘urban youth’ is that of grime. ‘Stylistically, grime takes from many genres including UK Garage, dancehall and hip-hop… lyrics of the songs incorporate not only biographical but socio- and political commentary.’ The lyrics are delivered using a cross between British slang and Jamaican patois.

Introduce your media forms

• Grime music can be seen as a way of ‘urban youth’ taking back the power from the music industry. The meaning of grime to young people today can be compared to the meaning of Ska to young people in the late 1970s. Both genres have links to reggae music and both genres have fans and producers from different ethnicities. But rather than focusing on Bob Marley’s imperatives of black liberation they centre instead on the ‘possibility that black and white young people might discover common or parallel meanings’ (Gilroy) in their predicament.

Introduce your media forms

• The ideologies of grime music remains intact when it remains in it’s organic form, but when marketed by the music industry it can begin to loose its meaning. Thus begin to represent ‘urban youth’ in a totally different way. The same thing happened with reggae music in the early 1970s ‘The gradual involvement of large corporations… in the selling of reggae stimulated important changes reflecting a conscious attempt to separate the product from its producers and from its roots in black life’ (Gilroy)

Introduce your media forms

• Provide textual examples that will back up what you have just said.

• Discuss artists and their songs (Devlin, Prof. Green, Dizzee Rascal and Nu Dubz)

• How do they represent ‘urban youth’ or not?• Has music industry got something to do with

the way they are represented?

Provide textual examples

• How do the contemporary media represent collective groups of people in different ways?

• Film vs Music• Fair portrayals or not• How does this affect the way the world sees

them/ they see themselves• Throw in some personal commentary

Conclude

• Define the media and their role – use quotes• Introduce your collective group• Introduce your media form/s• Provide textual examples that address the question –

use quotes• Introduce your media form/s• Provide textual examples that address the question –

use quotes• If you can provide some argument• Conclude

Rough Structure