Media Use and Identity Construction - Essay Example

? Words: 2076 Introduction Popular media such as the television has experienced a significant amount of technological expansion within the last century. With a mere flip of the TV channel, individuals nowadays have at their disposal a considerable collection of potential identity models. Similarly, television is equally of significant influence on the construction of identity among both children and adults alike. For instance, there are numerous complaints raised relating to the depiction of thin model within TV programmes on fashion that clearly stimulate young women to desire to be thin as the fashion model they view on the TV. Similarly, the adverts employed in TV, plus the imagery utilized in the advertising campaigns impacts on how young people construct their identity. The paper explores the connection between television output and television viewing to issues regarding representation and identity. There are two arguments advanced on the significance of representation: first, individuals desire to see people like them; second, it is critical that people view other people unlike them. This drives the logic of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ representation in which good representation educates and poor representation considered injurious. In both cases, there is a perception that television output can shape how individuals view themselves (their identities). Television output/viewing impacts on viewer’s perceptions, feelings, and opinions (Howarth 2002, p.145). The notion of viewer’s choices derives from identities such as gender remains well established throughout representations of media. Content analysis demonstrates that TV viewers may sometimes be driven by characters reflecting analogous characteristics such as same age. Media use and identity construction Culture is a primary force and represents a way on which individuals make sense of or award meaning to things. The social aspects of television can be regarded as the influences that the medium has had on society. The perception that the impact has been profound has considerably been unchallenged within media theory; nevertheless, there is considerable dispute regarding as to what the effects are, how severe the ramifications are, and if the effects are more or less evolutionary with human communication. In the contemporary society, the development of personal identity can be perceived as a bit problematic and complex. Largely, young people remain enveloped by influential imagery, especially that generated by popular media (Warren 2000, p.162). As a result, it is almost impossible for an identity to be developed simply within a small community and only be impacted on by the family alone. Presently, almost all things enveloping people’s lives perceived as ‘media- saturated’. Hence, it is apparent that, in constructing identity, most people utilize the imagery derived from popular media such as television. The wide and frequent access to popular media such as TV, the internet, and magazines and the mounting interest in the television content has been at the centre of shaping the manner in which individuals behave or dress in response to the form of imagery that people derive from television viewing. These represent all the aspects that work towards constructing an individual’s own personal identity as people, largely young people, make use of the imagery that they derive from television in the development of their identities. First, it is essential to outline what comprises an identity, especially among young people, whereby identity represents a state of being a distinct person or thing: individuality/personality. This implies that an identity reflects something that manifests to an individual such a ‘state’; nevertheless, identity can be outlined as something constructed overtime, and which can be continually updated or altered entirely (Howarth 2002, p.145). As such, most young people alter their identities throughout puberty and frequently possess diverse identities. The television allows individuals to constantly, creatively, and actively sample the accessible cultural symbols, rituals, and myths as they generate their identities. For the majority of young people (teens), mass media, in this case television, is at the heart of this process given that it avails convenient origin of cultural options. This demonstrates that a majority of young people will actively pursue the imagery accessible to them through the television when they are developing their identities. The development of an identity within the contemporary media-saturated world is difficult (Warren 2000, p.163). This derives from the fact that there are numerous examples of identity manifest within the mass media and some people may encounter difficulty in distinguishing between the diverse sorts. Moreover, the society piles pressure to individuals when constructing their identities given that there exists distinct expectations heralded by the society that individuals may be expected to ‘live up to,’ regarding what is a tolerable identity to sustain and what is inadmissible (Moragas, Nancy and Nuria 1995, p.76). In line within this notion, it is essential to remember that identity is not a rigid component and is equally complex to sustain one as it is in developing one. The mass media avail a broad range origin of cultural opinions and standards to individuals compounded by the varying examples of identity presented. As a result, individuals would have to explore and spotlight those that they perceive as most favorable, worthy of adopting. The meanings and representations derived from the media do not have to be ultimate, but are susceptible to reshaping and refashioning so as to match an individual’s needs, and subsequently, identity. Televisions form part of the domestic space allowing viewers to sit and watch programs that mirror their own ways of life. Television output featuring domestic programs employed to mirror identity and generate a sense of citizenship. Television has surpassed mere reassertion of identity and has enabled citizens to be highly active in their own identity formation. Given that there are numerous channels available for niche audiences, there is an infinite amount of cultural meanings accessible for viewers to interpret and derive meanings that are instrumental to their identity (McCracken 2008, p.3). Discourses regarding people’s identities through the television are not homogenous and standardized, but instead are dynamic and relational. This implies that in some contexts individuals contest discourses regarding individual identities and its representations within the media. The present theories on media and identity appear to be categorized as per the dichotomy between powerful media, and frail identities, or alternatively, powerful identities and weak media. Television is gradually evolving both technologically and structurally. Television has gained a prominent position within the daily life in the contemporary society. Media Representation Theory Representation delineates the construction of within any medium (such as the mass media) of aspects relating to ‘reality’ such as people, objects, places, objects, and events, and cultural identities, as well as abstract concepts. Representation relates to the manner in which individuals, ideas, and events are represented to individuals’ via media texts and represents the process of construction, vigorously constructing meanings regarding the world and re-presenting them. Representations can be informed by genre, institutional context, audience, and dominant ideologies within the society. The representations may be in writing or speech, as well as moving pictures. The term refers to processes engaged, as well as to its results (Warren 2000, p.162). For instance, with regard to core markers of identity such as age, gender, class, and ethnicity, representation represents how the identities may be shaped (constructed) within the text, as well as how they are structured within the processes of production and reception by individuals whose identities remains differentially marked in line with such demographic factors. A prominent concern within the study of representation relates to the manner in which, representations may be rendered to appear ‘natural.’ Media representations do not merely reflect of society, but instead that they are significantly selective and constructed portrayals that shape and structure individual’s perception of the world. The limits, opportunities, and meanings derived from a certain TV representation may be informed by its production and consumption, and the manner in which it is encoded and decoded. Media representations play a critical role in shaping the manner in which individuals comprehend social, cultural, racial, and ethnic differences. For instance, television representations of gender have intense effects on individuals, the society, and economics. Scholars assert that how individuals can be perceived or seen partly determines how individuals are treated; the manner in which individuals treat others based on how they see them (Gray 2004, p.2). As such, media representation can outline part of the “gigantic web of racial projects,” which arbitrate ‘between the representational (discursive) means where race is highlighted and implied, on one hand, and the institutional and organizational forms in which it routinized and normalized on the other. Although, the media has had significant positive roles, it has also generated a number of downsides that have raised concern within the society: the depiction of ethnic diversity, the depiction of crime, and violence. Exposure to TV content may yield to changes in values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. One of the prominent concerns within the contemporary society details the numerous attempts undertaken to deal with gender, race, and racial inequality. The culture’s representations of individual identities such as gender have changed along with consensual notions, in an intricate relationship of response to, shifting cultural notions of roles and identity. Given that racism comes out as a perception that hinges on negative or stereotypical images, debates regarding race have frequently centered on the issue of representation with prominence awarded to TV as the image-maker within the culture of the society. One of the challenges associated with media representation relate to the challenge of media invisibility and stereotyping. Stereotypes, in this case, are not essentially false and/or negative and in the same way as identities, they may be socially constructed; however, this does not translate to the thought that they are fictitious. In the same way that stereotypes are neither intrinsically good nor harmful, judgments regarding what counts as ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ representation hinges on political questions that ought to be interrogated as such (Gray 2004, p.3). Findings from various surveys and experimental studies indicate an association between exposure to televised depictions of ethnicity/race and the subsequent stereotyping. Research indicates that as television consumption rates increase viewers are highly likely to report veracity of the portrayals. Cultivation theory stipulates that the media appear to cultivate acceptance of the beliefs, perspectives that it portrays, and values as wide cultural levels. Social learning theory respond to how individuals come to emulate behavior observed within the media and establish mental primes and scripts from material relayed on the TV which, can in turn, shape later behavior. Cultivation theory stipulates that long-term exposure to TV selective images alters viewers’ perception towards TV version of reality, irrespective of its accuracy (Miller 2003, p.34). The representations of ethnic groups within the media cover a broad range of groups such as individuals with disabilities with the focus being on the depiction of issues such as discrimination, racism, and asylum seeking, which are high profile issues within developed world. The other facet of presentations of ethnic diversity details how conflict between the diverse ethnic groups is depicted. It is commonplace that the media presents simplistic uni-dimensional analyses of conflict in which ethnic difference is depicted as a source of conflict. Conclusion Media representation possesses both positive and negative social implications for a certain group. The illumination of what may be perceived valuable or harmful hinges on the subject’s point of view and politics. As such, TV output can propel negative and repetitive stereotypes that the audience learns. Usually, media representation remains closely related to identities. Media image can be perceived as a form of institutionalization of certain discourses on identity. Identity in this case is not perceived as singular and consistent, but rather partial, fragmentary, and unbalanced. Identities are essentially numerous, overlapping and content-sensitive. It is evident that popular media such as the television pervades all spheres of life; consequently, the imagery carried by the television infiltrate into people’s lives. This is particularly evident among young people actively engaged in the process of developing their identities. Through the TV, individuals possess a significant source of resources that they can employ to construct their identities, and how they structure their selves. Nevertheless, despite the role played by television within the construction of identity and representations, there cannot be one rigid identity given that it is negotiable and probable to manifest numerous identities. The identities derived from the TV allow individuals to fit within the pressures presented by the society, yet accommodating them to be dramatically unique from the next person. Television viewing does have an impact on young people’s perception of body image, although, there may be critical aspects that shape the material, and motivation for TV viewing. References List Gray, H. (2004). Watching race: television and the struggle for blackness, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press. Pp.2-8. Howarth, C. (2002). Identity in whose eyes? the role of representations in identity construction, Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 32 (2), pp.145-162 McCracken, G. D. (2008). Transformations: identity construction in contemporary culture, Bloomington, Indiana University Press. Pp.3-4. Miller, T. (2003). Television: Critical concepts in media and cultural studies, Vol 1, London, Routledge. Pp.34. Moragas, M., Nancy, R. & Nuria, G. (1995). Television and the construction of identity: Barcelona, Olympic host", in Miquel de Moragas & Miquel Botella, The Keys to Success: the social, sporting, economic and communications impact of Barcelona’92, Barcelona, Servei de Publicacions de la UAB. pp.76-106. Warren, R. (2000). Construction of audience and identity: Children, elders, and television, Journal of Communication 50 (3), pp.162-167. Read More