Do media construct or reflect collective identity?

Opinion is divided between those who believe that media construct the collective identity of society and those who believe that all they do is provide a reflection of it. Those who believe that they can construct identity argue that audiences view media and see representations of themselves which, over time influence how they view themselves. According to this school of thought, collective identity is shaped by how the media present groups of people. Audiences will both consciously and unconsciously imitate what they see and seek to fit with the image of themselves that the media present.

The other side of the argument is the belief that all media do is reflect the collective identity of society. The representation of groups within only changes when the society’s collective identity does and the way those groups are presented does not affect how they see themselves.

The middle ground in the argument is the suggestion of media being able to enforce certain stereotypes or help consolidate changes in society’s collective identity by presenting groups of people in a certain way.

The belief that media only reflect the collective identity of society is supported by those who argue that television programmes, films and other media attempt to provide a reflection of society in order for audiences to have pleasures taken from the realism in the representation. Media will try to present something that the audience can identify with as this makes them more popular, which is profitable for them. Television shows can present identifiable material by successfully capturing society’s current zeitgeist. A programme that has achieved this is The Middle (2009-present), which presents the life of an ordinary middle-class American family during the current economic recession. Financial worries and necessitated self-imposed frugality that the family go through are things that audiences today can identify with.

 

Audiences enjoy seeing realistic representations of their lives on TV, evident by the success of programmes such as Modern Family (2009-present), and this is why media attempt to replicate as closely as they can the groups that they are presenting. In this line of thought, media respond to society and do nothing more than reflect the way it is.

The contrary view to this is the belief that media reflect a distorted image of society, which is taken by audiences as being the norm. These audiences will then work to adhere to the representation that they see of themselves. By doing this, media can construct the collective identity of society. Proponents of this view would argue that this can be clearly seen within media. Hollywood is often criticized for being too liberal in its presentation of society in media. Such representation could be seen by some as evidence of an exercise of enforcing its liberal agenda, with which it hopes to alter the collective identity of society.

In criticism of this belief, there are examples of television programmes which have not presented a straight reflection of the collective identity of society and have been rejected by audiences as being unrealistic. The American sitcom Soap (1977-1981) received criticism for its portrayal of the character of Jodie Dallas. In the programme, Dallas was a homosexual man who undergoes sexual reassignment surgery. Criticism was chiefly aimed at the conflation of Dallas as both a homosexual and a transsexual, which was considered by many to be offensive towards gay people. This could be taken as evidence that when media present something too far removed from what they are presenting, audiences will reject it, showing that media do not have the power to construct collective identity.

Whether one believes media construct or reflect collective identity, it can be clearly seen that audiences seek media that present their group in society. For instance, Friends (1994-2004), though hugely popular with white Americans, gathered nowhere near as much attention from the African American community. The show featured very few black characters and thus was not as popular with black Americans. The same phenomenon can be seen with the comedy-drama Sex and the City (1998-2004),which never achieved any considerable popularity with African Americans, ostensibly due to the lack of black characters in the programme. What was considered to be the show’s black equivalent, Girlfriends (2000-2008), was a hit with African Americans, strongly suggesting that groups within society seek out representation of themselves within media.

 

Both sides of the argument could take this as evidence. It could suggest that audiences look for guidance as to how to act, viewing representations of their societal group as how they should be. Through this, media can construct their own collective identity that audiences will take on. Those who believe that media reflect identity could take this to suggest that audiences only watch media that they can identify with. They do this because they seek the representation for audience pleasure and not for guidance, showing that media do not have the power to construct their collective identity.

The middle ground in the debate is the belief that media can go some way in influencing people’s identity, but it is limited to simply consolidating changes in society. According to those who believe this, media follow society and reflect its collective identity, reinforcing it. Positive depictions of homosexuals, for example, were presented by media once society became more accepting of homosexuality. This, in turn, reinforced society’s positive view of homosexuals. Media, in this way of looking at collective identity, cannot step too far ahead of society and can only provide an up-to-date reflection of it.

I am personally between this and believing that media only reflect collective identity. I think that people look for media that can provide a realistic reflection of their lives, for audience pleasure, and, because of this, media keep up to date with society so they can reflect its collective identity accurately. I don’t think that media can wholly construct identity as, even if people do look for guidance on how they should act, they would turn to media that will present them with an accurate reflection of their group’s collective identity. An unrealistic depiction of a certain group in society may well influence how other groups view that group, but it is probable that it will repel the group it represents, thus excluding them from its influence. For example, British sitcom Love Thy Neighbour (1972-1976) may have influenced white Britons with its portrayal of British Africans, but it is unlikely that black Britons looked to the way they were presented in the programme as how they should act.

Cultural hegemony

Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) was an Italian political theorist, politician and sociologist. He was influenced heavily by Marxism and was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of Italy. His writings focused especially on culture and its relation to class. In the 1920s, he developed his theory of cultural hegemony and recorded his work while imprisoned in fascist Italy. His works leant towards analysis of the capitalist system from a more cultural, rather than economic, viewpoint and he has been an influential figure in the development of Marxist philosophy, especially in relation to culture and media.

Antonio Gramsci, developed concept of cultural hegemony

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a hugely influential German philosopher, political economist and political theorist whose work formed the basis for communism. His two major works, The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Capital (1867), fuelled a surge in new ways of understanding class, society and the economy. He was highly critical of capitalism and believed that society should progress towards communism, with the ultimate aim being to eradicate class altogether and create a society in which the collective effort of all citizens maintains the state. His work had a substantial impact on Gramsci’s thinking, with Gramsci approaching the analysis of capitalist culture with a strongly Marxist point of view.

Karl Marx, developed theories that formed the basis of communism

‘Capital is dead labour,that vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks.’

Marx, Capital

Capitalism, which has been the dominant socio-economic system throughout the developed world since the early decades of the 19th century, has existed in basic form since the Age of Discovery in the 15th century, when world exploration precipitated a growth in trade. Merchants worked to make profit, the driving force behind capitalism. This basic form of capitalism progressed towards the modern system after the Industrial Revolution, during which industrialists replaced merchants as the primary profit-makers in society. In this framework, the means for producing and distributing goods belong to a minority within society and most workers labour for a wage. It is the elite’s imperative to receive as much labour as possible at the lowest possible cost in order to maximize profit. The assurance of free trade and of individual property rights are two fundamental principles within capitalism and the driving force within the system is the acquisition of profit.

Adam Smith (1723-1790), British political economist and philosopher, wrote influential works on the subject of free trade and competition as a driving force in the economy

According to Gramsci’s concept of hegemony (Greek, ‘leadership’), the elite within society are able to control the masses by influencing them into accepting their values. The minority elite project their views on the world, which are then accepted as ‘common sense’ by everyone else. Gramsci believed that in a capitalist society, where the means of production belongs to a small group who thereby have considerable power, so too will a minority be dominant culturally and be able to make subordinated groups accept their ideas and leadership as the norm. This does not necessarily require cultural indoctrination and the elite benefit by having the masses consent to their hegemony. This hegemony is usually maintained both by force, i.e. the military and police force, and by ideology, i.e. education and religion, with which the elite create justification for the status quo.

The masses are controlled with force…

…and with ideology

Gramsci said that for the system to change, there has to be new ideology introduced concurrently with seizure of the means of production by the proletariat. He believed that, while working-class control of the means of production and distribution would greatly further the Marxist cause, ideas are also extremely important and can change the infrastructure of society.

From a Marxist viewpoint, the media serves to help the elite maintain their hegemony and subject the masses to their ideology. Marxists have described the media as a force for constructing and maintaining the ideas that support the capitalist system. Media has a powerful influence on people and can be used to impress onto people certain values. It can be used to create a false consciousness, whereby people assume that the ideas that they are presented with via the media are reflections of truth, when they are actually constructs that support the system. Newspapers are examples of this. Although the purpose of a newspaper is to provide an objective review of events, in reality, newspapers have their own agenda and present news in a way that best fits with their political stance. Readers of a particular newspaper, for whom that is their only source of news will almost certainly have had their outlook determined to some extent by the way that the paper presents news. The Daily Telegraph, a conservative paper is likely to present certain items of news differently to something more liberal such as The Guardian. Similarly, a broadsheet paper will prioritize news items differently to a tabloid paper.

Media such as newspaper often fetishize and demonize certain groups of people. According to Marxist thought, this is done to reinforce existing ideas, supporting the current system and retaining the power structure. Groups of people are represented in the way that the system wants them to remain. By presenting particular stereotypes, the elite hope that the subjects of the stereotypes will view that representation as a reflection of reality and emulate it, thus maintaining the status quo.

Some groups of people, families for example, are fetishized, according to Marxism, to promote the values the system wants the masses to have

Other groups are demonized, for the complemental purpose of discouraging values the elite deem it harmful to the system for the masses to have