1. RECAP…. MEST 3 This is the exam unit for your A2 year and accounts for 50% of your A2 grade (25% of your overall qualification). As with the AS exam, this unit is split into two sections each with different objectives for you to complete. AO1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates. AO2: Apply knowledge and understanding when analysing media productions and processes to show how meanings and responses are created Section A will require you to analyse two previously unseen media texts and answer three questions. This will focus on AO1. Section B will ask you to choose one question from a bank of four. You must answer this question with relation to one of your case studies and it will focus on AO2.

2. Learning Objectives

3. Identities and the Media The new MEST3 pre-set topic of Identities and the Media incorporates aspects of representation, audience and new and digital media. It focuses on the role of the media and audiences in the construction of identity, the impact of recent changes in the media and a wide range of debates about identity.

4. You could study the following: the mainstream media’s role and influence in the construction of identities audiences and identities, including audience uses and responses, self-representation, role playing, collective identities the impact of social media on identity and the role of the individual as producer power and resistance, debates about the power of the media and audiences, including the media’s influence, varieties of audience uses and responses, campaigning debates about dominant and marginalised identities identity politics, including diverse, fluid and multiple identities, changing identities, alternative and queer identities ideology, the ideas and values communicated by identities.

5. Identity is the way we see ourselves and the way different groups in society see us. We have a cultural identity, in that we belong to particular cultures and groups, and a personal identity including, for example, our age, gender, sexuality, race.

6. Identity is not fixed, but constructed over time. It is continually updated, revised and changed, a story we create about ourselves. Giddens called this, ‘the on-going story about the self’1. Identities can be complex and contradictory and an individual can also have multiple identities. For example, our online identity might be very different from the one we have at college, work or home. People also need to present or display their identity as part of its construction.

7. Identity is now seen as less fixed and more fluid and complex. In earlier, traditional societies people would be provided with a clearer and more fixed role and identity. In society now people have a greater role in constructing and negotiating a role and identity for themselves.

8. The media is one of the important ways of constructing identity. In a media saturated world, audiences use a range of media representations and ideologies to construct their identity. Audiences use the media as a set of resources or tools to construct their identity and also to present or to display it.

9. It is argued that the identities offered by the media are varied and diverse. There is not one simple, clear identity, but one which is often complex and contradictory. Similarly, audiences recognise that there is a wide range of resources to use in constructing their own identity. They do not feel that there is just one fixed and clear identity they must have. There is now more diversity in the media with alternative representations, ideologies and identities.

10. There are a wider range of identities but there are still dominant identities. It can be argued that there are only a narrow set of identities in the media, with repeated ideas about, for example, gender. Gauntlett argued that the media, "offers possibilities and celebrates diversity, but offers narrow interpretations of certain roles or lifestyles".2

11. Some would argue that the media is a force for progress and change, and both reflects and influences society by communicating liberal values and ideologies, for example, about sexual identity. However, others would argue that changes have been limited and that the media encourages people to have traditional and narrow identities.

12. Marxist ideas would argue that there are more fixed identities that suit the needs of capitalism and have negative effects on audiences. In contrast, pluralism would argue that there are a wide range of identities that individuals are free to choose from and adapt to their own needs.

13. So your job…. You should explore the media representations and ideologies that could be used to construct identities. You should study the mainstream media’s role in constructing and influencing identities and examine how identities are constructed across different media producers, for instance: what is the role and influence of mainstream media? how do the identities compare and why are they different or similar?

14. Students have the opportunity to explore how active audiences use the media to create identities. Audiences respond to and use these identities and different audiences can respond to and use them in different ways. This could include examples of individual and collective identities and self- representation and how similar or different these are to the identities offered by mainstream media. They should also explore the important role of social media and the role of individuals when they are producers.

15. They might also debate the relationship between the media and audiences, and consider how powerful the media’s influence is on audiences. They can also examine what power audiences have, including how active audiences use the media and can create alternative identities and organise campaigns. They also need to consider how the media constructs and positions audiences. They should also examine the possible effects on audiences.