A2 Collective ID

Media and Collective Identity - EXAMINERS FEEDBACK

One very strong centre facilitated rich learning where candidates were able to utilise the ideas of Gauntlett on identity along with Judith Butler and a range of others very well in relation to film and magazines (with the exception of Lacan whose ‘mirror stage’ was usually misunderstood). There did tend to be an overwhelming sense of a prepared answer with almost all candidates beginning with ‘Gauntlett says ‘identity is complicated’) but whilst this may have been dull for the examiner after a while, candidates are not penalised for this approach. Other candidates considered the representation of youth and urban communities in music and other media and answers varied from sensitive and informed negotiations of the nature of subculture in 2010 whilst weaker candidates set up unhelpful and crude binary oppositions and crass generalisations about whole swathes of young people, ironically perhaps. Most pleasing was the ability of some candidates to take highly contemporary examples – eg the music of Dizzee Rascal and discuss them in theoretical contexts such as hegemony, democracy and representation and, again through Gauntlett, negotiated ‘self-help’ gender representation. A key piece of advice for centres is to move candidates away from generalised ideas of how ‘the media’ represent people and ideas and towards more ‘micro’ level discussions of how people give meaning to particular kinds of media in relation to their identities. 

Task:

• Highlight passage and copy to your own blog.
• Underline references and terminology which you do not understand
• Research to find answers and identify the sources which are unfamiliar - example Gauntlett
• 
  

You are the Teacher for this class set.
Username Prefix:	bsfga2media  (followed by the individual number I have given you)
Password Prefix:	bsfga2media (as above)

Task 2:

• Apply knowledge to write a paragraph about Guantlett's theories regarding collective identity.

HW 1

• What do you need to do to write a decent essay? Make a check list.

HW2

Media and Collective Identity

6  With reference to any one group of people that you have studied, discuss how their identity has been ‘mediated’.

7  “Media representations are complex, not simple and straightforward”. How far do you agree with this statement in relation to the collective group that you have studied?

Write a draft of an essay for one or other of the titles. Ensure that you use the ideas you have listed in your check list and that your essay explores your chosen area of focus in detail.