The Media Do Not Construct Collective Identity; They Merely Reflect It

Youths seem to be portrayed constantly as a negative in society, especially in print media such as tabloids and broadsheets. However, there is a slight difference.

David Gauntlett explains that identity is complex and everybody has one. This is further backed up by Michael Foucault’s theory that we each have our own identity and this mediates when we meet new people and changes as we grow older, which is what makes identity complex. We all have interests and influences and some of them may be the same as others. This is known as a collective identity, something that many people share in common with each other, whether it is favourite activities or having the same aspirations as someone. Michael Foucault also said that being part of a collective identity can be negative in some respects as this influences the creation of stereotypes. These stereotypes are then taken by the tabloids and broadsheets and exaggerated in their articles.

When looking at tabloids such as The Sun and The Daily Mirror, we read articles that make us think in new ways. This persuasion of our minds has got to do with something called moral panic. This is where the media exaggerates certain aspects of the people involved or the event itself, which in turn allows their readers to develop a certain opinion about those involved and the begin to mould their lives around what they have just read. Moral panic can then be said to contribute towards post modernism and the construction of our view on youths.

The Sun had an article about a girl gang (ages 14 – 16) who had been continuously causing havoc at a bus shelter in the evenings. They have been described as “louts”, “animals” and “…worse than guys”. The Sun have shown these youths in a negative light through the words used by the reporter, which may now have an effect on the public as the article could have now caused moral panic within the area of Oldham, Greater Manchester. Members of the public may have acquired a fear of female youths and thus the media has created a feared collective identity and has shaped their view of reality, showing that the modern press can govern our social order. This all contributes to post modernism of the modern press, which have shown youths as violent and to be feared.

Unlike the girl gang article, the London 2011 Riots are in favour of print media’s opinion on youth. The moral panic used by the tabloids made it even worse by exaggerating the actions committed and created a sense of fear within their readers through their choice of words and pictures. Here, the media has created another collective identity to be feared but in this case, it’s all youth on the streets. The Sun often refer to youths as “yobs” and “thugs” which emphasised that youths are one of the biggest problems to society and the more shocking they can make their articles, the more they sell. Tabloids have become less about the factual information of the news and more about exaggerated descriptions and celebrity gossip. Tabloids have been a major influence on the hegemonic view of youths but broadsheets seem to reflect what is being presented to us by tabloids.

Broadsheets tend to give a more factual and realistic overall view on youths. This could be a result to their type of target audience being middle to upper class, whereas tabloids tend to have a target audience of working class. Broadsheets do not have pages dedicated to celebrity gossip and “tips on how to lose weight” articles are written without the inclusion of moral panic. An article in the Daily Telegraph was informing readers about the increase of youth crime by a third. They didn’t refer to youths by another name or even try to exaggerate and did not refer to anyone involved in particularly, therefore, not attempting to form any sort of feared collective identity. The article also included the adult conviction rate which would make people think about the difference between the two instead of just seeing that youths commit crime. Broadsheets reflect the idea of youth by being realistic and fair. They do not generate moral panic to change readers’ opinions and alter their view of reality.

If we look at Stuart Halls encoding and decoding theory, it explains the media encodes messages in their texts for us to decode into our own ideas and opinion. However, this is different for broadsheets and tabloids. Tabloids construct our view of youths by using moral panic and thus we are more likely to think negatively of youths. Alternatively, broadsheets reflect the view of youth that the tabloids provide and we are more likely to think less negative about youths. We also decode things within the media and relate it to our lives. Strinati describes post modernism as the power of the mass media shaping our reality, which includes social order and relationships. Using these messages to understand the world around us is another example of how media controls our reality hence, supporting his theory.

In conclusion, the media does both construct and reflect collective identity’s such as youth. Tabloids like to produce moral panic to help sales and contribute to post modernism whilst promoting their view as the correct view and ultimately leading social order. On the other hand, broadsheets reflect this view and offer more realistic and fair observations to cause discussions amongst people without holding a biased opinion on youth. The more the force of media dominates society’s views, the more Karl Marx’s Marxist theory becomes true; if we are all fed the same information to believe, we would all eventually have the same view about types of people, behaviour, activities and interests leading everyone to have very similar views on reality. In the future, this will possibly end with people attempting to break the newly formed views and this will result in newly formed collective identities which will reject the post modernistic view the media is trying to force upon us.