Identity as an individual idea - David Gauntlett

"David Gauntlett", a professor of media and communications, explains his theory of identity as an individual idea by stating the fact that an identity itself is an abstract and complex concept that is often reduced to categories such as gender, ethnicity etc. Gauntlett argues that we should change this approach of categorising people to form their identities and that we should ask individuals themselves what identity means.


A key finding of the work by David Gauntlett is that people don't generally place much emphasis on the media as forming their sense of self/identity. However, when considering the use of social networking sites, its shows how individuals and their personal identity can reformed and reinvented to anything they desire, by the individual themselves through the use of new media, where their identity or identities can therefore be fragmented scross different platforms/sites. Gauntlett then suggests that this could be a truer reflection of identity itself being fluid, in a constant state of flux and being different depending on who you are representing to.