Fluidity of identity – an identity that has the potential to be changed and shaped frequently in many directions. 

This is often due to different representations of men and women in media and as a result people find themselves adapting and changing their identity’s in order to reciprocate said representations they are exposed to.

Constructed identity – an identity that has been built upon experiences, relationships and connections. A persons identity will differ depending on:

• where they’ve been brought up
• how they have been brought up 
• who they have been brought up with 
• their financial state and/or social class 
• a persons faith 
• life experience

The list if different influences is endless and each factor can also be affected by one another.

Negotiated identity – the process of which people reach an agreement of their identity and well as their relationships with other people’s identities – once the agreement is established, people are expected to remain faithful to their identity.

This establishes what people can expect from one another and therefore reinforces the inter-relations that holds relationships together.

Collective identity – cognitive and affective attained from belonging to certain groups (ethnic, gender, class, sexual orientation ect…) creating a sense of belonging to that group for the individual.

It seems that if someone begins to reciprocate certain practices of a group, such as they way they dress, their mannerisms etc, they will become part of that persons own individual identity and will develop a sense of belonging within that group. This can sometimes take over other aspects of a persons individual identity.

Traditional and Post-Traditional Media Consumption: Anthony Giddens

‘The notion of who we are is heavily determined by long-standing social forces’

Too often, people are basing their identity on what they are told is ‘right’ by surrounding influences such as institutions, media, family members, friends, religion etc, rather than how they actually want to present themselves. Although…

‘We are transitioning… to a distinctly different phase that he calls ‘late modernity’.’

meaning that certain social constructs of the past are relaxing and people are coming to realise that they have control over their identity and have the power to shape it themselves, despite what other influences tell them otherwise. However, in my opinion, as traditional conventions begin to die out, more conventions begin to appear which quickly become seemingly hard to exceed.

Reflex Identity Construction: David Gauntlett

‘audiences are now in charge of the remote control’

Whilst media attempts to influence our identities and encourage us to look and act in a certain way, it is actually up to us as consumers to decide how far we let those messages influences and therefore it is us who control how we want to look and how we want to act.

Media manufactures ‘narrow the the interpretations of certain roles or lifestyles’

Gauntlett suggests that the media does not present every aspect, good or bad, of certain identities which creates a huge issue when it comes to interpreting these representations as it can cause people to feel insecure in terms of how they perceive themselves as they begin to wonder – why doesn‘t my hair look like that? or, why does she look like that but i don’t? etc…

With regards to the power of media narratives, we can ‘borrow from these stories when shaping our narratives of the self’

He highlights a positive aspect of media, the way in which TV characters or video game characters influence they way in which we build upon our own character and often how we can become someone thing better. however, in some situations the power and influence of media narratives could be negative, depending on what type of characters you are exposing yourself to.