Explain what is meant by 'collective identity' and the role of media in its construction.

Explain what is meant by 'collective identity' and the role of media in its construction.

Collective identity is an individuals sense of belonging to a group who share a set of traditions and values , part of personal identity. Any consideration of a 'cvollective identity' must take into account the role that representation plays within the construction of a media text and is deemed 'complicated and complex' by theorist David Buckingham. He also believes that 'the media do not offer us a transparent window of the word, but a mediated version of the world'. Mediation is the ways in which the media reconstruct reality and present a certain perspective to the viewers, often rejecting the truth. It contains three factors and ways in which content can be presented; these are selection objection, focussing and organisation.

For a long period of time gender has been a controversial subject, particularly with the ways that gender is presented in the 'feminist world' we are currently living in. The role of patriarchy and Gramsci's order on hegemony are very relevant to the representations of gender in the media. Patriarchy is a social system in which males hold primary power, predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property; in the domain of the family, fathers or father-figures hold authority over women and children. This can be supported through the statement by Guardian in 2011 which showed that 'The average percentage of the female reporters was 22.6% - compared to 77.4% of males' which can ultimately suggest reasoning for feminism in media as the majority of perspectives in the media will be produced by males, causing rather bias accounts.

Representations of women can be seen to be objectified. Objectification is a notion central to feminist theory. It can be roughly defined as the seeing and/or treating a person, usually a woman, as an object. In many modern entries, the focus is primarily on sexual objectification, objectification occurring in the sexual realm. This can relate to Scopophilia or scoptophilia which is deriving pleasure from looking. As an expression of sexuality, it refers to sexual pleasure derived from looking at erotic objects: erotic photographs, pornography, naked bodies. This furthers Laura Mulvey's theory on the 'Male Gaze' which is the view that the camera positions the audience in the perspective of a heterosexual male. The camera tends to linger on the curves of the female body. The movie Kill Bill (2003 onwards) includes a very strong and dominant women who isn't domesticated and restricted to the stereotypes. However, she still is presented in a sexual manner which can once again prove Mulvey's theory. There have been many modern contemporary texts which resemble the male gaze and feminism such as several LYNX advertisements including their 'Wash Me' and "Keep Control' campaigns. Often placing a female subject an objectified, sexual manner specifically in the 'Wash me' advertisement where the camera focusses on the sexual parts of the women's body whilst cutting her head out of the frame, giving her no identity and therefore objectifying her. In the 'Keep Control' advert, the female subject is further domesticated by being displayed to be carrying out domestic responsibilities. Domestic responsibilities include things revolving around housekeeping chores which require minimum physical ability. This is similar to the 1966 faire liquid advert where a women in presented in a stereotypical role to being a domestic housewife. Also a young female is shown to be learning the traits being passed down through generations.

Overtime, the roles and representations of women have gradually transformed to reach a much more sexual manner. It can be considered that the media has caused structuration through their representations which do not just simply reflect society, but imply a false representation. It in fact is shaping society through the representations it presents, providing a social norm to which people could potentially believe. This can relate to Anthony Giddens' theory that here is a social structure which shapes our lives but it relies on individuals following these structures. When they act differently the social structure can change and the process structuration occurs. This is where social structure is reproduced by the repetition of acts by individual people and can therefore change. This can be identified in the repetition of sexual representations of women increasing, ultimately causing individuals to believe or even follow the representations and gradually cause a transformation in the social structure.

Comparatively, Miriam Hanson and Gaylyn Studlar's theory on the 'Female Gaze' can be used to oppose the bias representation of women. This can be replicated through the Coca Cola advert in January 2013 where a group of women are having a picnic when a man is seen to be doing gardening (a domestic role). He then eventually takes his top off, placing him in a position to be regarded as sexual object. Similarly, the movies Fifty Shades Of Grey and Magic Mike (released in 2015) both focus on the sexuality of nudity of men. The male nude is having a cultural renaissance. Naked men have been largely ignored in the mainstream media for the last few centuries or so, thanks mostly to a frenzied occupation with the female form instead. The modern woman is decreasingly reluctant to express her sexual desires. The popularity of Magic Mike XXL is testament to the changing tides—a film which was greeted in its opening week by a 96% female audience, and which has already generated an enormous amount of commentary and discussion. It's a film that caters to the (presumed) sexual desires of women. In other words, a complete flip of the dominant cultural script. Fifty Shades of Grey is notable for its explicitly erotic scenes featuring elements of sexual practices involving bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, and sadism/masochism which similarly imply the sexual notion of men. However it still places women as a subject and object to man where she is physically and mentally strips of her independence and manipulated under the pretenses of “sexual liberation.”

Seeing someone as a sexual object or appreciating their beauty, sexuality is not necessarily reducing that person to no more than a sexual object. Society can see men and women as sexual beings without reducing them. However, objectifying someone reduces them to nothing more than an object, which means that person is not only not seen as intelligent, powerful, rich, confident not even seen as a person. This ideology is much more prominent in the views on women compared to the views on men in the media. This could once again relate to the aforementioned statistic that 77.4% of reporters are men, ultimately influencing the approach and perspective that is presented to viewers.