Starting on our Media theory

We read into some media theorists beliefs and considered how their theories would help us in answering our prompt questions...
1. How does the media represent nations, regions and ethnic/social/collective groups of people in different ways?
2. How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods?
3. What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?
4. To what extent is human identity increasingly mediated?

We came across a theorist called David Gauntlet, a professor of Media and Communications at the University of Westminster. His theories commonly express the idea of identity being a fluid concept "Not only is there more room for a greater variety of identities to emerge; it is also the case that the construction of identity has become a known requirement. Modern Western societies do not leave individuals in any doubt that they need to make choices of identity and lifestyle- even if their preferred options are rather obvious and conventional ones, or are limited due to the lack of financial (or cultural) resources" The part of David's concept which we can relate our research on collective identity to is the part where he discusses how the gender in the present day has changed and created new identities for people within society. For example he discusses how some social identities have changed such as the women's stereotypical identity in the early 1900's would have been viewed as a 'housewife' but he claims that this has now been improved to a more individual identity. Clearly he would argue this is a positive change within society , however we could argue that identity can be a 'fluid concept' because it is easily adaptable but our collective identity 'British teenagers' have had their stereotypical identity changed into a more negative light. 


David Gauntlet is a good person we can use for research into media theory for our first question 'How does the media represent nations, regions and ethnic/social/collective groups of people in different ways?' because he discusses throughout his book ; Representations of gender in the past, Representations of gender today, Giddens (theorist) modernity and self-identity, Michel Foucault: lifestyle analyst, Queer theory and fluid identities, women's magazines and female identities today, and diections for living: Role models, pop music and self - help discourses. These are all generalised subjects about the identity of people within society and would provide us with a lot of information which relates to our questions asking us about the media and representations of different people.