How far does the representation of a particular social group change over time?

David Buckingham says that "Adolescences progression is about 'becoming' rather then 'being' adolescence is about what you will become"  what this quote suggests is that young people are at the initial stages of their identity construction and this transitional period will be their start of discovering who they are, we can apply this theory to the whole social group of youth as well as I think that think it means not only is adolescence a period where individuals develop their identity’s but as these young people begin find what they enjoy they find other similar people and form sub groups which links with Henry Jenkins theory on identity construction; and with the development of the media both mass and social the representations of youth change in turn, this evident in the examples 'Rebel without a cause (1955)' and 'Kidulthood (2006)'.

Both films depict the lives of rebellious youths who could be considered to be a part of negative sub cultures however I believe the representation in rebel without a cause is that of a counter culture in that they are trying to subvert the norms of the society behind them by going against the traditional proper middle-class ideal ology of their parents; the protagonist Jim Stark is presented as being displaced and different as he neither fits in with the majority of characters and has conflict with the local 'bad' group. This is similar to the set of main characters in Kidulthood as they are part of a social group that is neither with the majority of 'normal' students but still has conflict and is oppressed by both a more powerful social group and greater society; in both films the interaction of characters is centred around Henri Tajfel's theory on 'in and out' groups and we can see in both films the existence of distinct groups where the 'in group' clearly tries to raise their self-esteem and self-worth by bullying and discriminating against the 'out-group' and in this sense both films equally raise and present social issues to the masses.
Though both films do present social issues I feel that Rebel without a cause' is presents its protagonists as being a part of a counter culture whereas in Kidulthood a Y2K film even though they don’t adhere to the rules set by regular society they are represented as violent and taking part in anti-social behaviour; which reflects the way that youth are often negatively depicted in the media in present society for example the way that during the London riots young people were depicted as being 'savage', 'violent' hooligans. there was also racial profiling by the media as most of the hooligans shown were of black decent this is also the case in Kidulthood whereas in Rebel without a cause the characters are predominately white although this is probably mostly due to the difference in time periods however the image presented by the media has definitely become more extreme and graphic. In Kidulthood there are often scenes of heightened and graphic violence between young people often accompanied by incessant swearing and crude language as well as depicting the characters to be promiscuous and very sexually active where the female character are often portrayed in the hegemonic view of submissive females as they are often seen merely as sexual objects by male characters and are seen performing sex acts. Whereas by comparison rebel without seems extremely watered down which shows that in that time representation of youth was not as graphic and was more reserved whereas now the representation is more graphic although it may be that now it is just that the representation is a more realistic portrayal and its not that young people have become more barbaric it is just that the representation of them in films like Rebel without a cause is not as realistic.

The representations from 1950 have completely evolved to the representations from the Y2K era in that the representations have become more graphic and often quite negative youth are now often portrayed as being mindlessly violent in comparison to the way were shown to be rebelling more against their parents in films like Rebel without a cause. This representation is bound to change as the times do and as young people construct their identity's both collective and personal and I personally believe that the representation now is often more realistic then it was in the 50's however i also feel that the mass media has flipped that on its head and rather then the more realistic rougher image of youth being held back like in Rebel without a cause the mass media is often used to create a sense of hysteria by overemphasising and blowing young people behaviours out of proportion.

How do people form their collective Identity through reality TV shows?

Collective identity is the idea that a set of indivudual's feel a sense of belonging to a group or collective and it is from this group that the indivdual derives or shapes a part of their personal identity. The way collective identity is formed can be from hobbies or a shared interest in music, art, sports, film but in a lot of cases for our generation which has grown up with the strong influence of social media it is easy to see that young people form a part of their collective idenitity through TV shows. Especially as the emergence of reality TV shows has increased rapidly recently with the surge in popularity of shows such as Geordie Shore, The only way is Essex and Made in Chelsea.

Michel Foucalt says that "We are born with a basic identity we then mediate that personality for who we meet"  according to this theory our identities develop via the influence of others around us and will continue to change with our environment and influences. With that in mind the main reason these types of shows are so popular is because they show the viewers social extremes, for example Made in Chelsea is a show that stars around the lives of a group of socialite youths who are all the heirs of affliuent companies and enjoy an extravagant lifestyle driving the best cars, wearing the most expensive clothes, living in an upper class area and enjoying the finest lifestyle without worries. The characters of the show share a collective identity and have clearly influenced the devlopment of their identity's they use the same colloquialisms, have similar interests in fashion, cars, sex and go to the same places. It is this similarity that gives individuals a sense of belonging which we can see from the way they express themselves, an interesting quote from the show is." Capitalism makes you beautiful"  this shows that it is their fortune that defines their persona and to viewers this is a very powerful statement because it brings in Henri tajfel's social theory on in and out groups that says "the groups we are part of transform into a source of pride and self-esteem and in order to increase our social identity, we enhance the status of the group which often leads to discriminating against another groups". Young people that view the show will regard the stars as the in group and aspire to be like them and in order to not become a part of the out group will begin to emulate their lifestyle which is in turn forming their collective idenitity.

However this idea of in and out groups can change depending on your persepctive, for example the group from Made in Chelsea would consider the cast of rival reality show Geordie Shore as an out group because they are frequently loud, crude and obnoxious and engage in sexually promiscuous behaviour, heavy drinking and partying whilst paying little attention to social norms such as working or family responsibilities. Though this social group differs they have formed their own collective identity and this type of behaviour constructs an image and it is this image that viewers can identify with. The image of this free lifestyle is very appealing Merleau Ponty's theory that "we have an embodied experience with naything in which we use our bodies to create new things for our identity" and by choosing to watch Geordie Shore viewers are having an embodied experiece and developing a sense of belonging and identity.

The influence of reality TV shows is quite significant I believe that the representations we see on the screen are extremes of normal social groups which creates a sense of reality and because people can often aspire to be like the representations which leads to forming a collective identity with the people on screen as well as others who aspire to that lifestyle.

To what extent does social media give us a sense of collective Identity

In modern society the youth use social media as a part of and as a means of constructing their identity's. They use social networks as a means of developing or 'updating' their own identity, the theory on social media by Henry Jenkins states that "teens are constantly updating and customising their online profiles by adding songs, pictures and by posting on each others walls". By interacting in this way they are able to build up a shared social identity on Facebook each user creates their own personal page which displays interests, favourite music or film, relationship status and the area in which you live etc. not only do users define themselves by creating such profiles but young people by commenting on or seeking out people who have similar interests or live in the same area as you they are using that social network to gain a sense of collective identity. This idea is what is meant by Merleau Ponty's theory that 'we have an embodied experience with anything in which we use or bodies to create developing new ideas for our identity's' which is what users do every time they engage with others using social media whihc suggests that websites like facebook are key in devlopment of collective identity in the youth generation. 


Youth and popular culture are indefinitely interlinked and popular culture is a huge part of social media, websites such as twitter and tumblr which are frequented constantly by young people are centres of pop culture on these social networks young people comment, reblog or retweet on anything from popular music, fashion or celebrities and post and reblog pictures and images that they share a common interest in and it is in this behaviour that online communities that are allowing the youth to connect with others far quicker and easier then before and by creating these virtual communities that young people have grown up with and instinctively use a new collective identity is formed.


This relatively new idea of social networks and youth using the social media as a means of creating a social identity is interesting because it subverts the Marxist theory that takes the concept of collective identity to its extreme and for many socio-economic reasons argues that there should be only one world view. Using these social mediums as propaganda instilling ideals and forcing a collective identity instead of allowing us to create and develop our own identities, this shows that the extent of the affect of social media on identity is large and can also be used negatively. 


To relate this to a recent case study during the London riots there was heavy new coverage and the main focus of may of the reports were the violence, misconduct and criminality of youths during the incidents. In all mediums the press reported young people in a negative light making use and playing on the fears of other social groups by using racial and social profiling they created a sense of hysteria and forced a negative collective identity for young people this discrimination forced them to become the 'out-group'. 


Social media is a strong power and is able to strongly influence our idenities with social networking sites it has become easir to interact with people of similar nature and form groups and then a collective identity, although it can slo be used to force a suggested collective identity onto a group because in present society we are always exposed to messages from the media. in conclusion the extent of the impacts of social media on collective identity is huge.