Collective identity is a concept that refers to a set of individuals' sense of belonging to a social group or collection. Over the years the media has had a massive role to play in the tarnishing of certain individuals through their representation within media. This can have massive implications for those who are being represented and can often result in bad attitudes, stereotypes and a pollution of ideas about reality.
Films such as Ill Manors (2012) reflect a gritty interpretation of a broken Britain. Within the film we are introduced to a number of characters who are all criminals in one form or another. The audience can see drug taking, sexual activity, harassment and violence stem from the same social group. Since it is a common stereotype to associate underclass people living within London to be taking part in these activities, they are often subjected to a constant criticism and hate from the public. Other films such as Fish Tank (2009) and Attack the Block emphasise ideas about this collective identity, reflecting them as poorly spoken, uneducated criminals. This representation culminates to cause anyone involved with these social classes to be subjected to the same stereotypes despite them not being true. This coincides with Grebner's cultivation theory which states that "the more time people spend 'living' in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television'. An earlier example of a collective identity being affected by media representation can be seen within films such as Quadrophenia (1979) in which they portray gang culture of the Rockers and the Mods. All of the youths within the film are seen taking drugs, committing crimes and having mental disorders. This film represented anyone associated with this culture as dangerous individuals. This had bad implications as it singled them out from the rest of society because of their representation. Gidden's structuration theory can be used in this instance as it claims that social structure is established through traditions and established ways of doing things which requires the individual to follow these structures. In examples such as Ill Manors, the social structure is shaped by the representation of youth within the film, causing stereotypes to become apart of the social structure by causing the audience to assume this is the "established way of doing things" resulting in a poor representation of youth overall.
Another collective identity that has fallen victim to poor representation within the media is women. Within the 1950s, companies such as Fairy Liquid would only show a sexist representation of women as they were often depicted as stay at home mothers who's husband would be out working. The adverts would always feature a woman within a kitchen environment or with a child in order to further enhance these stereotypes. Other adverts would use women and their body image in order to sell products to a male audience. This coincides with Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory which actually reflects the sexism of the time as advertisement would only focus on the male audience instead of the female audience. The stereotypical representation of women during this time made it impossible for them to rise above anything other than an accessory of a man. As media has progressed, some issues within the female representation has eased down. Women are still shown within sexist environments but as advertisements such as the Persil campaign depicting two men arguing over the washing up shows, the issue has reduced considerably. The issue with body image has developed into something more now as assets such as Photoshop are now being used in order to airbrush women in order to create a model that is deemed perfect by the media. There have been many examples of this within brands such as Calvin Klein and Cosmopolitan and have changed appearances drastically. As a result, the media is held responsible for the further objectification of women as they are being digitally manipulated in order to appeal to the male audience and what they deem 'attractive'. The construction of this collective identity can also have drastic effects on those who are being represented as they feel they are not apart of a group causing them to adopt bad eating habits and risk their lives in order to achieve a media body type. This links to Baudrillard's theory of hyperreality which causes audience to not properly distinguish between the world that the media sets up and its consequences, and the one in which we live in.
Islam is also a culture which suffers greatly with its representation within the media post 9/11. Islam is a word which wrongly conjures connotations to terrorism. Existing ideas about Islam was enhanced by the bombing of the world trade centre. This stemmed an idea that our enemy was hidden among us and as a result caused the world to often segregate people within this religion. This mass hysteria has been a wide source of influence for the media as they attempt to direct their messages towards those who fear this, targeting Islam as the enemy. Examples of this ruthless targeting by the media include newspapers such as the Sun who released an outlandish statement, claiming '1 in 5 Brit Muslims' sympathy for Jihadis'. This statement was after the recent Paris shootings in 2015 and was an attempt to target a large percentage of the public who were experiencing hysteria, similar to how they were feeling during 9/11. This targeted representaion would allow for more people who feel affected to purchase a copy of the newspaper. The term Jihad immediately draws connotations to terrorism, mainly because the media such as the Sun and The Daily Telegraph have used this term at every opportunity. The literal meaning of Jihad is struggle and effort, which is often misunderstood as solely a holy war however, there are three kinds of struggle, the first being an internal struggle to live out the Muslim as well as possible. The second struggle is to build a good Muslim society, the third is a holy war to defend Islam with force if necessary. This third idea is a concept that causes mass confusion as the media constantly label all Jihads under this idea. It can have drastic effects for those who are peaceful as they are singled out as if they have committed the crime.
To conclude, collective identity is massively dictated and victimised by the media, causing those concerned with the group to be singled out from the public. It becomes clear that the media creates all of these negative stereotypes about different social groups purely for the benefit of whatever media that is being sold. The public promote the media's depictions of these collective identities as they love to watch gritty British films depicting street life, they buy magazines with models that are being objectified, and they give in to hysteria by purchasing newspapers and promote hateful ideology.
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