Explain what is meant by ‘collective identity’ and the role of media in its construction.

Collective identity is how an individual fits to a certain stereotype, to the extent that they no longer have their own personal identity but share the same identity with others designated to the same group. This classification of groups in society as presented in the media is vast, ranging from ethnic grouping to youth. Youth are usually presented in a highly negative manner across the media, gaining a bad reputation which is reflected in everyday life.

The Clockwork Orange is a film which includes content such as murder and vicious sexual activities while presenting them throughout the film in a highly artistic manner. This is achieved through the use of setting and costume with a very futuristic approach by using brightly coloured wigs, eccentric artwork and wallpapering and unusual clothing. This could be interpreted as a representation of how a teenager perceives life, the gang’s peculiar setting matching their deranged minds.

Mise-en-scene is also used in the Clockwork Orange to present teenagers as highly sexualised. The gang leader known as Alex lives in a house in which graffiti is often evident within multiple shots. The graffiti on the walls is significantly sexual in nature, often including in shots behind the characters to present the idea to the audience that both are intimately linked. In addition, the paintings within various houses within the film are highly sexual in nature, with paintings of the naked human form, particularly in the scene in which Alex’s friends deceive him when he visits a woman’s house. This creates this idea that youths are overly sexualised from a young age and have little else in their mind apart from committing immoral crimes.

This idea of being immoral is again developed through mise-en-scene with the use of Alex’s pet snake and the ornament of Jesus nailed to a cross. Close up shots of Alex’s pet snake are shown in the scene where you are introduced to his home, alluding to the idea of first sin in the Garden of Eden. This biblical imagery is furthered through the close-up shots of an ornament of Jesus nailed to a cross, the several shots running in time with the crescendo of the music. These biblical images are used to build tension for the audience, giving a highly negative perception of youth today.

Waterloo road is also another programme which represents youth in a negative manner. In series 8, episode 13, a blonde girl is introduced as having materialistic values of caring more about her appearance than school as she threatens to drop out. The way in which she dresses emphasises this idea, the high quantity of makeup paired with her rebellion against school rules by not wearing proper uniform presents her as a shallow person, which again shows youth negatively.

This negative representation that dominates the majority of media is a common occurrence can be explained through the theory of hegemony by Gramsci. Hegemony is the idea that ideological beliefs of the upper class are forced onto inferior classes in society which we accept to the point that the representations become the norm. The presentation of youth can therefore be explained by Giroux as this idea of creating moral panic among lower class citizens of their anxieties of a particular culture. To raise the public’s concerns about youth is viewed as unacceptable by Women in Journalism at the conference entitled ‘Hoodies or Altar Boys?” who expressed “deep concern” about the “serious image problem” that teenage boys in modern day society face in the media. From extensive research into various news articles, they found that a “group of 14 year old boys […] doing positive things in this area” were ignored by journalists who stated that “that’s not the story people are interested in” documented by the Morning Chronicle. This furthers the idea that youths are exploited in media, potentially to the point in which they become outcasts from society.

The cultivation theory states that repeated exposure to the same message can have an effect on the audience’s attitudes. This accentuates the idea that these reoccurring negative images of youth could cause issues within society through influencing audiences to agree with bias attitudes of adults who are expressing anxieties about this group of people being highly violent.