This document outlines the key areas and questions to be addressed for an exam on media representations of identity. It discusses analyzing case studies of media texts, identifying themes around the construction of masculinity and identity. It provides guiding questions on how identity is represented in media over time, the social implications, and the role of media in understanding identity. Theories of identity and collective identity are outlined from thinkers like Lacan, Bakhtin and Butler. The impact of media on audiences and identity is also addressed.

2. Case studies
• Cover two media - How does it represent masculinity?
• Past and present/ contemporary (last 5 years)
• Identify key themes
• How is this text about the construction of identity?
• What does this text say about the construction of
identity?
• How does it deal with the construction of identity?
• How do audiences respond to these representations?
What are the effects of these representations?

3. Key questions
1. How does your
contemporary media texts
represent masculinity 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 identity
increasingly ‘mediated’?
• What themes/ narratives/
discourses are constructed for
masculinity?
• What effect do these
representations have on the
audience? What effect do they
have on society?
• Is media increasingly important
in the way we understand our
own identity and the identity of
others?

4. Collective Identity
• How are groups of people
represented?
• How are these representations
constructed?
• How do these representations
impact upon our sense of
identity?
• How do audiences use these
representations to create/
understand their identity?
There are two separate but related issues in this exam:

5. Identity
• Is identity something we construct or
something we discover?
• Is identity something we share with
others?
• How do media texts impact on our sense
of identity?
• Is identity fixed or does it change?
• Is identity something we are or something
we do?

6. Collective Identity Theorists
• Jacques Lacan
– The mirror stage
• Michel Maffesoli
– “The Time of Tribes”
• David Gauntlett
– “Identities are not
‘given’ but are
constructed and
negotiated.”
• Mikhail Bakhtin
– “the unfinalised self”
• Judith Butler
– Gender is what you
do, not what you are.

7. Collective Identity Theories
• What impact/ effects do media texts have
on audiences?
– Hypodermic Needle Theory
– Uses and Gratification Theory
– Active vs passive audiences
• Antonio Gramsci
– Hegemony/ shifting nature of dominant
ideology

8. Magazines and Gender Theorists
• Judith Butler
• David Gauntlett:
– "These [male] magazines are all about the social construction of
masculinity. That is, if you like, their subject-matter."
– http://www.theory.org.uk/gay-id.htm
– http://theoryhead.com/gender/discuss.htm
– http://theoryhead.com/gender/extract.htm
– Check Moodle also ‘Media, Gender and Identity’ David Gauntlett
– ‘Media, Culture and Society’ Paul Hodkinson

9. Useful things to do/ ways to revise
• Learn your texts
• Research your texts and find essays
• Read reviews/ analysis of your texts (Guardian/ BBC/
Daily Mail)
• Read reports about masculinity
• Learn a few quotes/ applicable ideas from relevant
theorists/ critics
• Ensure you can apply and comment on/ evaluate/
criticise the theories/ reports
• Ensure you can answer the four key questions on an
earlier slide

10. Mikhail Bakhtin
• Mikhail Bakhtin agreed individual people cannot be
finalised, completely understood, known, or labelled. He
saw identity as the ‘unfinalised self’, meaning a person is
never fully revealed or known. Many icons of the
postmodern age change and adapt their identity and
consequently can be seen in these terms: Marilyn
Manson’s manipulations of traditional binary oppositions
such as male/ female, beauty/ grotesque; Lady Gaga’s
manipulations of femininity; or Madonna’s consistent
reinventions of herself can all be seen as examples of
the ‘unfinalisable self.”
– From ‘Media Magazine’ April 2010

13. Examiner Response

14. Media influence on collective
identity
• The media must have some effect on
understanding of identity (Gauntlett).
• Media as ideological state apparatus
(Althusser).
• Moral panics (Cohen).
• Cultivation theory (Gerbner).

15. Limited Media influence on
Identity
• Identity is complex (Gauntlett) – including
collective identity
• Hall – audience response –
negotiated/oppositional
• Fiske – audience more powerful than
producers – no such thing as the
‘audience’.

16. The Argument
• The key to doing well in this question is to
develop an argument.
• Media texts tend to represent masculine identity
negatively. These representations reinforce
hegemonic values. Whilst the media has some
influence on our understanding of identity,
identities are complex and audience responses
will vary. Some contemporary representations
attempt to challenge dominant negative
representations.

17. Possible Structure
• Introduction – carefully chosen quote introducing
argument, focus and texts.
• Historical representation
• Contemporary Negative representations
• Contemporary Positive representations
• Conclusion – sum up argument, prediction for
the future. How/why might representations
change/stay the same?

18. Finally
• Refer to at least two types of media.
• Refer to historical and future.
• Most of essay should be focused on
contemporary (since 2009)
representations.
• Link to theory throughout.
• Clear, balanced argument in relation to
effect of media representations/link
between media representations and
collective identity.