How do young people form their collective identity through reality TV?

From a young age we start to develop our own identity and as we grow older we then form our collective identities (our sense of belonging). Their are many way in which one can form their collective identity, either through music, hobbies and interest, style or even the same beliefs. Some however, develop their collective identities through reality television, which is what will be discussed further.

Reality television programmes within television show how youths develop their collective identity. Such shows as Made In Chelsea, The Only Way Is Essex and Geordie Shore are examples to use as they all include their own unique group of youths to have helped each other form their collective identity. Michael Foucalt said that you are born with a primary and basic identity that builds as they get older and meet new people. According to Michael Foucalt, your collective identity changes based on the people around you and their opinions too.

If we look at Made In Chelsea, who's group of youths are related by some sort of fame, they all have an upper class appearance and mind set. They wear expensive clothing and seem have materialistic values and care mostly about how they can spend their money than how they can actually use it wisely. As a group, they all have similar interests and in that respect, this is where they acquire their sense of belonging. Being around people with the same personality (and even lifestyle for this show) can help youths to connect and form their collective identity. With a sense of belonging, comes a social identity. Henri Tajfel said the groups we are part of become an important part of our lives and transform into a source of pride and self-esteem and in order to increase our social identity, we enhance the status of the group.

When enhancing the status of our own group we tend to discriminate other groups according to Henri Tajfel. This then promotes the idea of having an 'in' group and an 'out' group. The 'in' group is seen as the 'right' group and the group we believe to be correct in some respects and the 'out' group is the group we believe to be wrong and the cause of a problem. For example, the 2011 London Riots was covered by the media. The media portrayed youths in a negative light and even caused youths to be feared by older members of the public. In this case, from the perspective of the youths, joining the riots were the 'in' group and the news was incorrect and from the perspective of the people watching the news, the media was correct and therefore the 'in' group. If we look at the behaviours of the cast from Made In Chelsea, they would never mix with the cast from Geordie Shore.

The group from Geordie Shore has their own collective identity, which is different to the sense of belonging one may feel with the group from Made In Chelsea. The group from Geordie Shore all have an interest in dressing up, going out and partying all night and having sexual encounters along the way. The element that brings this group together isn't their fame or values for materialistic things but that they are trying to promote themselves and improve the status of their group by being popular.

Having many different collective identities is what contributes to the social identities of the world but it can be hard to change groups once you are in one. This will create stereotypes. These stereotypes come from the people watching the show and how the media portrays the cast from Made In Chelsea or Geordie Shore. People who watch the show may think many people from Chelsea act in the same way or even upper class youths act the same way as observed in the programme for example. Michael Foucalt also said that forming a collective identity can be seen as negative in some respects because when you become part of a group, you stand for something as a group which creates stereotypes of others who are related to that group. This makes it difficult to 'change' groups and show your uniqueness and own social identity. In Made In Chelsea, some of the cast members use colloquialism even though raised by upper class parents. This can be seen as the cast members trying to break their stereotype and an attempt to subvert from being classed as posh.

To conclude, young people form their collective identity through reality television such as the cast of Made In Chelsea and Geordie Shore by having similar personalities, values, behaviours, interests and dress style as each other. This all comes together to give each of them a sense of belonging and collective identity.