What Is Collective Identity And How Is It Mediated? (Essay)

What Is Collective Identity And How Is It Mediated?

Although there is no real definition for Collective Identity (CI) it is often described as a sense of one-ness or we-ness. In basic terms it is the traits and ideals shared by a culture and sub-culture. Examples of which are ‘British-ness’ or being a part of a group or gang such as an ‘Emo’.

 

In modern times CI has developed to a state where nothing is original anymore and that all things and ideals within the media are simply regenerations of past genres and identities. This is evident in modern day media where we see bands such as Arctic Monkeys who’s sound is similar to that of Brit Pop groups of the 1990’s and their image is also that of Rock and Roll greasers of the 1950’s that inspired individuals such as John Lennon who’s band the Beatles also adopted the CI of the 50’s greaser in their early stages of their career, for example their famous Hamburg performances between 1960 and 1962, which honed their performance skills and gained them wider recognition.

 

The ideals of nothing being ‘original’ anymore is commonly a Post-Modernist view. In sociology Post-Modernism (PM) “opposes each of the assumptions of modernist thinking: Relativism; there is no such thing as valid or invalid knowledge. Death of the subject; knowledge as control rather than liberation; Grand theories are inadmissible.” This is relative to Collective Identity and theories of Sub-Cultures as the members of a sub-culture wish to be considered different from everyone else. For example in This Is England (2006) the film follows a young boy protagonist and his journey to finding himself when he falls into a gang of ‘Skinheads’. The film represents the Skinhead community as a group of rejected members of society who decide to rebel against the conventions of 1980’s Britain and create their own subculture. However they are also shown as racists, drug takers and vandals and therefore are represented within a negative light.

 

This is relative of all sub-cultures within British society as many sub-cultures are shown to be young delinquents from the MODs and Rockers “battles” at Brighton in the 1960’s to the CHAVs of the modern day. Both are seen as violent, anti-establishment, wasters. The way this would mediate the CI of these groups is negative and thereby states that society is against collective identity and individuality. Another example of this negativity of CI within the media is Quadrophenia (1979). The film is about a young male protagonist who longs to be a MOD. The film shows MOD gangs and Rocker gangs fighting eachother, taking drugs and having sex. In one scene; the MOD’s are seen fighting the Rockers in Brighton, before trashing the town and rioting, fighting the police and eventually some MOD’s are arrested. Afterwards the protagonist, Jimmy, is kicked out of his house and finds that his friends and fellow MOD’s are growing up and moving on with their lives. This shows Jimmy’s dedication to his subculture to be much greater than his friends; he finds himself lost and alone and decides to take his own life by driving his Vespa over the white cliffs of Dover.

Quadrophenia, like “This is England”, is an excellent example of how sub-cultures and gang culture can consume individuals lives and how it can ruin them. Driving them to do scarring acts and deviant activities, as well as confusing the minds of these people and twisting their reality of what they see to be true and worthwhile.

The media mediates CI in films and music by showing protagonists losing their way and “finding” themselves via gangs and life changing experiences. However these can be glamourized and don’t show the true results of how people’s lives can be ruined by the things they involve themselves in or the views they internalise.

 

An example of this can be seen in the film “The World’s End”. The film portrays five friends who reunite to complete a pub crawl they began 20 years earlier at 16 when they left high school. The gang aimed to live their lives with freedom and flair and took inspiration from the quote at the beginning of the track “Loaded” by Primal Scream (A band of the Time). The quote goes as follows… “Just what is it that you want to do? We wanna be free, We wanna be free to do what we wanna do, And we wanna get loaded, And we wanna have a good time, That's what we're gonna do, No way baby let's go, We're gonna have a good time, We're gonna have a party.” However, typically, four of the five gang members grow out of the adolescent dreams of living fast, dying young, making alot of money from doing very little; all that is, bar one. The main protagonist, Gary King, fails to grow out of the views he had as a young man, he still owns the same car, wears the same clothes and has the same attitude as he did at 16, now 36 his friends are shocked to see him as the same Gary they left at high school.

 

This case study shows how people at a young age can have high ambitions of partying and being young forever, but how most grow out of this mold and mature into normal adults with average jobs, families and sub-urban houses. However some people never leave this longing to be young behind. And as they grow older, the less they do with their lives, the more they want to keep that young at heart state of mind. These are the types of people who would become innovators or retreatists according to Merton’s Strain Theory; meaning they would be the people who turn to crime to make money or drop out of society and take to heavy drinking or drug abuse. The media representation of these people however, always seems to result in a kind of hero label. The dropout protagonist, particularly in “The World’s End”, is made to be the coolest one of the gang and actually is the most appealing to young people. The ‘let’s get drunk and party attitude’ of someone like Gary King is extremely appealing to young people who, to quote Robbie Williams, don’t want to end up like their mum and dad. Therefore this over glamorization of people who over commit to their gangs and sub-cultures from a young age could have very serious consequences in reality for young people in the world today.

 

In contrast to this the media can show CI to be a good thing that we can all and should all share. For example the sense of “British-ness” we all felt in 2012 when the media was pumping patriotism into society like an engine with a millennium wheel for a cog, Big Ben’s for piston’s and oil leaking all over it bleeding red, white and blue; before being stamped with the monarch’s symbol and shipped too every house, flat and council estate in the country; 2012 was without doubt the most patriotic year this country’s seen since 1977, and the Sex Pistols weren’t around to steal the queen’s thunder. The media in 2012 had a field year, so to speak, the Olympics, Paralympics, Euro 2012, Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee and of course the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games was a showcase of how the British identity is rife amongst us all. Every house on every corner was draped in bunting like a British year round Christmas.

 

The media in 2012 was able to showcase true British CI. Union Jacks, Tea and Fish and Chips. The way the media went about this was plastering print production, internet newspapers and social media with “pride to be British”. The Diamond Jubilee concert featuring some of the best living acts Britain and the Commonwealth have known, such as the living Beatle Paul McCartney. The closing ceremony concert for the 2012 Olympic Games featuring a band for 2 generations, The Specials, New Order and, of course, saw the reformation of Blur.

 

The year 2012 serves as a prime example of how CI can be mediated in a positive way. It shows a large culture of people who all agree on being proud to be British, coming together and celebrating their country. However some would say this year posed as a distraction to focus the masses on waving union jack’s and getting behind their country to try and spearhead an economic recovery after the 2008 crash, re-kindle faith in the government after the London riots the previous year and to try and gain more support for the Monarchy of the United Kingdom. Neo-Marxists would believe the mass hysteria of 2012 was only serving as another way to repress the masses and make them get behind a system that was planning to abolish their NHS and was recovering from a government tax dodging scandal. Similar to the conspiracy theories of the September 11^th attacks of 2001 where some theorists believe that George W. Bush was able to use the mass patriotism to his advantage and manipulate the polls he was behind in before the strikes, to stay in office for another term and invade Iraq            which some believe to be a war for Oil as opposed to fighting terror.

 

In conclusion collective identity is the one-ness one can feel in a group or gang. It is the sense of belonging as well as being different and standing out, this can be seen specifically in sub-cultures throughout history like the MOD’s and Skinheads as mentioned, equally however can be seen in a wider sense like British-ness. It is mediated to mainly make people see into how people have lived and what can happen as a consequence of over committing one’s self to a gang or sub-culture and its views from such a young age and internalising these views later in life, which then leads to these rules being abided by for the rest of their lives. However it can also be mediated to perceive bad things as good and vice versa, this is seen in “The World’s End” with the glamorization of Gary; and also is seen in Channel 4’s ‘Benefit’s Street’. The media representation of people who live on benefits is that they are lazy, job-less, alcoholics or drug addicts; represented well in “Shameless” where on character, Frank Gallagher, lives on benefits and wonders around the estate drinking and getting into trouble with no interest of finding a job etc. However there were some who were thieves and the like, it showed that most of the people on the show were working one or two jobs with families and needed the benefits. The media can manipulate and influence public opinion and can be a base for people’s CI, the way they perceive things and the way they think. It is a very powerful mechanism and most people’s CI is born of the things they watch, listen and read in the media.

 

Luke Keeler