The media has replaced family, society and religion as the main source of collective identity.

In a highly media saturated environment, the mass media has become a dominant power which governs the construction of collective identity; I believe it is easy to see how the media may have replaced traditional values such as family and religion as the main source of identity construction. When you consider how the key components of popular culture: music texts, film, advertisements and magazines form an image of youth culture or 'urban tribe' that young people mediate in the construction of their identity. Carl Rogers said that " magazine texts and adverts are encoded specifically to represent an aspirational lifestyle, offering audiences images of an ideal self and ideal partner” what this theory suggests is that it is not that young people are now forming their identities from representations in the media but that the mass media is specifically encoding certain images and ideologies about sub-culture, social class, acceptable behaviours, appearance etc. to construct collective identity. 

David Buckingham said that "adolescence is about becoming rather then being" and as it is a developmental stage in the construction of our identity's young people are vulnerable subsequently it has become obvious that young people are most susceptible to the messages from the media. A good example of this is the popularity of celebrity culture which portrays glamour, fame and material goods as essential, compared to traditional ideologies of hard work, morality, and good behaviour constructed by family values and religion an article by the Guardian said that "The Big Brother and X Factor generation has grown up not only with the tantalising prospect of acquiring ever more desirable accessories, bling and technology, but also with the mistaken expectation that they too can be celebrities, be rich, be famous, with little effort or talent required."  This demonstrates that the ideals of working hard and having good behaviour enforced by family and religion to achieve success which are often associated with post war golden eras like the 60's are not relevant to the youth of today, and by using recent and very popular examples like Big Brother and The X Factor which has viewing numbers of 12.6 million it shows that these are the dominant ideologies. 

In the past the ideals of family values and religion acted as a control measure for young people and often imposed many restrictions, regulating the construction of youth identity using Marxist methodology in that they only expressed one way of living. The media however is the binary opposition of this idea and the emergence of web 2.0 and social media have given young people a new avenue to express themselves and the freedom to develop their collective identities. In the London riots young people were using social networking sites such as Facebook as well as Blackberry messenger to rally others and forming groups. A Guardian article on the London riots commented that "the benefit of smartphones and messaging is they can mobilise a sufficient mob to make it possible to help themselves with little difficulty and little fear of any consequences." The online media could be thought of as the postmodern media because it has created a social order in which the importance and power of the media is so strong it can govern all the other social relationships, during the riots young people used social networking sites to ignore the rules of society and form groups and gather members to go rioting it is apparent that the influence of these tools such as online media had become dominant as the press had labelled the government as "floundering with a lack of grip". Also with the use of social networking sites young people can escape the normal rules of society and social interaction because of the anonymity of the online world they feel liberated and people who may have low self-esteem in reality may now be able to interact socially with a huge number of people Henry Jenkins said “Teens are constantly updating and customising their profile online, adding photos and song posting on each other’s virtual walls” by sharing music and interests online young people are using web 2.0 to join sub groups and form collective identity more easily then in society and even in a contemporary example like the London riots young people “ are the centre of attention and stars in their own drama; no wonder any sense of reality or acceptable behaviour seems to have vanished. And they are filming themselves – mobile phone videos of their latest exploits are being shared and admired between the protagonists as if they are immersed in their own Xbox version of Mortal Kombat or Grand Theft Auto- The Guardian”. In some cases young people are taking this sense of freedom from the online and projecting it into reality and this can be seen in cases like the London riots where they are fighting against social order.

It is true that the media has become a crucial element in the lives of everybody and it is always affecting us, however even if we are surrounded by media messages it is up to the individual. David Gauntlett said that “audiences have their own opinions but the media’s repeated messages have a subtle effect even if they don’t overpower it” this shows that even if the media does have an effect on the collective identity of young people it is more up to ourselves to decode and mediate these broadcasts and not let them overpower us especially as for many the teachings from family and religion come earlier in our lives then the messages from the media and are very important in conclusion the media has become a power that can rival society and religion but can never truly erase them.