Mass Media

Creating an identity in today's media drenched world is not a simple task. With a turn of a magazine page or an easy flip of the TV channel there at our disposal is a huge array of potential identity replicas. In contemporary society, identity is continuously unstable; it must be selected, constructed and created with reference to inevitable surrounding media traditions. There are a variety of mediums from which people can pick and access information from such as radio, TV, Internet, or even cell phones. Consequently, the media holds a very powerful capacity to set a social issue for mass audience to assume and talk about. Often, media do not intentionally set the agenda and resolve the pros and cons of that particular matter, so it repeatedly causes terrible consequences towards public as well as establishes 'moral panics', which can sometimes direct to mob violence. This writing will argue that identity is a social construction, managed primarily by the contemporary media and created in relation to others and is it continually being changed in order to keep up with the altering society.

An individual's identity is formed by society in which media plays a predominant role. There is a daily interactive relationship between the subject and the object, that is, human agents and the conditions of their subsistence, respectively. Theories of the individual emphasize on differences between people and deem these differences as natural. Individuals are "constituted" as the possessors of positions throughout the effects of social relations. Alternatively, other theories of the topic concentrate on people's general experiences in society through watching TV, surfing the internet or reading the newspaper. It is these general experiences that are the most significant way of distinguishing who we are. Thus, subject identity is a social construction, not an ordinary one.

When we connect with the media, we act and are acted upon, use and are used by the system. Ideology is not precise, but implicit in images, structures, and sign systems evident in the media which task is to establish the individual's as subjects. We have social identities conferred unto us, mainly through the mass media. For example, take the popular medium of magazines. Magazines are an easy way of targeting the exact audience that has been set out to be.

This is important as not only are individuals capable to choose which magazine they would desire to read but they are also capable of utilizing it to assemble their own identity. One of the most outstanding images found in magazines is that of the thin and beautiful model, numerous females would glance at these images as a source of inspiration as to what their bodies should look like and would think that they were inadequate if they do not look like the models featured. For example a perfume by Giorgio Armani called "Sensi", saying that "I sense, therefore I am" and a model lying across a table giving the impression that one must need this perfume in their everyday life, and the emphasis on women's fragrance. Our society today has been affected in such a materialistic world that it is so easy for advertisers to promote any old debris and still be assured that consumers will buy into it, regardless of the cost of the product. The media has us "brain washed" very well, and know how and what to promote to us in a very effective way.

It is through the modern media apparatus that people achieve a sense of identity. There is no doubt that contemporary media is a culture possessed with the "self". Via the mass media we are told ways in which to develop the "self". We buy books, read articles in the newspaper, and we watch lifestyle programs. The mass media supply us with the talent to transform, create, re-create and mass produce identity. The media permits us to transform the very way we think of ourselves, for that reason it allows us to become and be seen the way we desire to be.

A popular contemporary medium for transformation is found in the ability of an individual to build a web page on the internet. It offers a unique opportunity to write one's self on a global stage and for the author to believe about their identity. Generating such pages offers an exceptional chance for self-presentations in relation to several dimensions of social and individual identity to which one chooses to allude. We seek to be as straightforward as we would like to present ourselves to the human race. This technology is greatly about viewing ourselves a certain way, as it is about having other people view us. By abstracting oneself onto a web page, one sets a target to which one must stand true.

It is understandable that due to the contemporary media with which we engage it is more likely that instead of achieving, experiencing and learning our identity, we are more likely to purchase and use our identity. Since 'personality' is largely a subject of outward behavior and appearance, individuals begin to use consumption as a means of creating a "social self". Thus identity becomes constructed, rather then exposed and variable, rather than preset. A fundamental support in the construction of identity is fashion. The problem with this type of construction is that by dressing a certain way, the fashion industry offers a "new you". In acquiring certain styles of fashion and particular brands, people consequently relate themselves with the meanings embedded in those goods. These modified meanings thereby become piece of the perceived "self". It creates a fake ideology, a mask for one in which one can change who they are by means of changing the way they dress. For example, Jerry Seinfeld is backing up American Express Michael, Paul Reiser wants you to use AT&T, and Jordan is selling you Gatorade. Why do these famous stars emerge on commercials and show up in ads? The idea is to subliminally give the product traits that it never even deserves, like wealth, fame, and even success. When you see Michael Jordan drink that Gatorade and then go for a 360 slam-dunk, they desire you to think that, "Hey maybe if I drink Gatorade, I can turn into as great a basketball player as Michael Jordan". Now when you see someone like Jerry Seinfeld with American Express, they want you to think, "If somebody as prestigious and successful as Jerry Seinfeld adores American Express, then it MUST be a great card to have". Besides the less obvious, there is just the fact that someone needs a famous celebrity to present and sell their product, rather than some ordinary person who holds no social figure in society.

Society and mass media are primarily split between different desires, interests, and engagements, and so is the subject. There is an essential lack between