Collective Identity Research Task

Task – Youth Culture Research

Select a media text of your choice and prepare a fact file for the rest of the class on the way youth culture is represented through the characters it features. Select at least 3 characters

Part One

Using the statement below identify which elements of American Culture are either present in the text you have selected (if it is a NON AMERICAN text) or in British society. Think about all elements from music, fashion, activities, speech, attitudes etc.

When I was 14, I wanted, more than anything else on earth, to be an American. More accurately, I wanted to be an American student. I wanted to go to high school. I wanted the tuxedo to wear to the prom. I wanted the photograph in the yearbook. I wanted to date the cheerleaders. Everything I thought I knew about young Americans came from Hollywood films.
- Sarfraz Manzoo


Now give specific examples where these influences can be seen and felt in British texts.

Part Two

Select at least three characters and highlight how the representation is constructed. Break your points down into

1. Appearance
2. Behaviour
3. Medium.
4. Comparison

Part Three

Using the same characters now decide which of the following categories your characters fall into. You must explain using clear and specific examples from the text

Dominant the main way a group are seen in society.

Alternative a different way to show a group, either by the group itself or by the maker of the image.

Redundant when a group is shown often enough, in the same way, the image no longer has any power.

Absent When a group is not really shown in society.

Entropic

Next evaluate how an active audience might interpret this representation using the active audience categories of

Preferred
Oppositional
Negotiated

Part Four

Use this Marxist view of representation to assess the purpose behind the representations in the text you have selected

“generational relations are planted in traditional standards that support the authority and capacity of adults to socialize [sic] adolescents into adult roles.” Richard Rosenfeld

Write a 250 word response to this task either in support of or against its supposition.

Part Five

Jurgen Habermas didn’t agree with Rosenfeld. He thought the media sought only to entertain

“Mass culture has earned its rather dubious name precisely by achieving increased sales by adapting to the need for relaxation and entertainment on the part of consumer strata with relatively little education, Jurgen Habermas

Do you feel your text ultimately has no influence over your behavior? Explain your answer.

How you will be marked

• 20 marks for Explanation, analysis, argument


• 20 marks for use of examples


• 10 marks for terminology (including ‘theory’)