What Is A Social Construction Of Identity?
Constructing identity in today 's media saturated world is not an easy task. For with a simple flip of the television channel or a turn of a magazine page there at our disposal is a vast array of possible identity models. In modern society identity is perpetually unstable it must be chosen, created and constructed with reference to unavoidable surrounding media culture. Considering the frameworks surrounding the construction of identity by theorists including Louis Althusser and Anthony Giddens, this essay will argue that identity; is a social construction governed primarily by the contemporary media, it is created in relation to others and is fluid not fixed thus it is continually being altered in order to keep up with the changing society.
…show more content…
Via the mass media we are told about ways in which to improve the 'self '. We buy books, we watch lifestyle programs, and read articles in the newspaper, for example; the 8weekly lift-out in the Herald Sun entitled Mind, Body and Soul. The mass media provide us with the ability to transform, create, re-create and mass produce identity. Foucault 's idea of the "technology of the self" illustrates that the media allows us to transform the very way we think of ourselves, for that reason it allows us to become and be seen the way we want to be. As demonstrated in Benjamin Franklin 's autobiography, a guide to improving one 's self, the private self is the mere skeleton on which the public is layered onto. Franklin 's text appears typical of most capitalist style technologies of the self. These technologies are not so much concerned with transforming a given private identity as constructing a public …show more content…
Giddens, A., Modernity and Self-Identity, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1991.
Gibbins, J.R., and Reimer B., The Politics of Postmodernity, Sage Publications, London, 1999.
Gurevtich, M., Bennett, T., Curran, J., and Woollacott, J., (eds.), Culture, Society and the Media, Methuen, London, 1982.
Hall, S., "Cultural Studies: two paradigms" in Approaches to Media, Boyd-Barrett, O., and Newbold, C., (eds.), Arnold, London and New York, 1995.
Laclau, E., (ed.), The making of Political Identities, Verso, London and New York, 1994.
Laclau, E., and Mouffe, C., Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, Verson, London and New York, 1985.
Lapsley, R., and Westlake, M., Film Theory: An Introduction, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1988.
Miles, S., Dallas, C., and Burr, V., "Fitting in and Sticking out ': Consumption, Consumer Meanings and the Construction of Young People 's Identities," in Journal of Youth Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1, Carfax Publishing, United Kingdom, 1998.
Morley, D., "Theories of Consumption in Media Studies", in Acknowledging Consumption, Miller, D., (ed.), Routledge, London and New York,
Via the mass media we are told about ways in which to improve the 'self '. We buy books, we watch lifestyle programs, and read articles in the newspaper, for example; the 8weekly lift-out in the Herald Sun entitled Mind, Body and Soul. The mass media provide us with the ability to transform, create, re-create and mass produce identity. Foucault 's idea of the "technology of the self" illustrates that the media allows us to transform the very way we think of ourselves, for that reason it allows us to become and be seen the way we want to be. As demonstrated in Benjamin Franklin 's autobiography, a guide to improving one 's self, the private self is the mere skeleton on which the public is layered onto. Franklin 's text appears typical of most capitalist style technologies of the self. These technologies are not so much concerned with transforming a given private identity as constructing a public …show more content…
Giddens, A., Modernity and Self-Identity, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1991.
Gibbins, J.R., and Reimer B., The Politics of Postmodernity, Sage Publications, London, 1999.
Gurevtich, M., Bennett, T., Curran, J., and Woollacott, J., (eds.), Culture, Society and the Media, Methuen, London, 1982.
Hall, S., "Cultural Studies: two paradigms" in Approaches to Media, Boyd-Barrett, O., and Newbold, C., (eds.), Arnold, London and New York, 1995.
Laclau, E., (ed.), The making of Political Identities, Verso, London and New York, 1994.
Laclau, E., and Mouffe, C., Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, Verson, London and New York, 1985.
Lapsley, R., and Westlake, M., Film Theory: An Introduction, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1988.
Miles, S., Dallas, C., and Burr, V., "Fitting in and Sticking out ': Consumption, Consumer Meanings and the Construction of Young People 's Identities," in Journal of Youth Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1, Carfax Publishing, United Kingdom, 1998.
Morley, D., "Theories of Consumption in Media Studies", in Acknowledging Consumption, Miller, D., (ed.), Routledge, London and New York,