Mediation, collective indentity, representation and Hegemony essay

Create an essay.

Highlight what collective identity is

And distinguish between “collective identity and  representation.

Why is mediation important with regards to representation.

In what way does hegemony influence mediation

In media, there are many concepts which are available to use in critical debates in context with current events in the media. For example, mediation, which is how we select, shape and create meaning from an event. This varies from Representation, which is the way something, for example a group of people, or an event, is depicted in mass media. Relating to this is collective identity, which is an individual's sense of belonging to a group. Something which can relate to all of these is hegemony, which is dominance or leadership by one state or social group over another.

Collective Identity is something that can be linked strongly to representation in media. Collective Identity can be used to describe a personal sense of identity that is achieved from being part of a wider group. An example of collective identity would be youth subcultures, for example mods and rockers during the 1960s. Members of these subcultures could be described as having a sense of collective identity, in that your identity involves belonging to a group that share traditions, interests and values. This example can link to representation in the media, as these groups were heavily demonised in the media, portrayed as hooligans and as being wild. However, the wildness could also be considered part of their collective identity; they all share the characteristic of having a wild lifestyle.

Mediation is almost always used in representation, as the leaders of the mass media prefer to shape an event as what they perceive it as so that they can show this representation of an event to the public, which will lead them to believe it is a true representation. It is important to a lot of leaders of the mass media as they usually shape a news story to present their own view on it, or the view of either left or right wing politics, depending on the publication. Hegemony is often a large part in how media is mediated due to this. For example, there have been some very negative attitudes to Islam in the West following several terrorist attacks in Europe. It could be said that this has created a general hegemony of Right Wing news owners over the muslim community, which is showed through many anti muslim publications through newspapers such as The Sun.