Media Theorists
David Gauntlett – Identity Theory (2007)
Identity is complicated. Everyone thinks they’ve got one. Magazines and talk show hosts urge us to explore our “identity”. Religious and national identities are the heart of major international conflicts. Artists play with the idea of “identity” in modern society. Blockbuster movie superheroes have emotional conflicts about their “true” identity. And the average teenager can create three online “identities” before breakfast.
David Buckingham – Identity (2008)
One the one hand, identity is something unique to each of us that we assume is more or less consistent (and hence the same) over time.. our identity is something we uniquely possess: it is what distinguishes us from other people. Yet on the other hand, identity also implies a relationship with a broader collective or social group of some kind. When we talk about national identity, cultural identity, or gender identity, for example, we imply that our identity is partly a matter of what we share with other people. Here, identity is about identification with others whom we assume are similar to us (if not exactly the same), at least in some significant ways.
Stuart Hall – Encoding/Decoding Theory
-Texts are encoded by the producers to contain certain meanings and representations which are then “decoded” by the audience.
-Audiences may interpret different meanings than intended by the producer.