Media and cultural identity

The technological innovation of contemporary forms of communication has been one of the most startling developments of modern times. In living memory for many contemporary citizens is a world before the Internet, DVD players, downloading music, blog sites, multichannel television, real-time global communication and digital cameras. Perhaps more so than any other area of our shared cultural life, communications technology has changed very quickly. This then is the fi rst media saturated society. Yet, as we shall see, it is very easy to get carried away with a sense of change and transformation. Here I shall argue that if the media landscape has indeed changed and is continuing to change, there is no need to assume that the critical project in respect of the media of mass communication has entirely altered. Previous generations of critics from Walter Benjamin to Raymond Williams and from Jürgen Habermas to Bertold Brecht have sought to press for an agenda of a radically democratised communications system. The terms of this debate may have radically altered, but its essential features have arguably remained the same. Here I shall argue for the critical recovery of a diverse tradition of thinking that spans both critical theory and cultural studies and that remains central to the future of a more emancipated system of media power. This agenda has radical implications for the ways in which we understand our shared identities as democratic citizens and consumers of media cultural identity more generally. In terms of the relationship between media and cultural identity, the important question remains the extent to which we are able to perceive ourselves as civic actors in an increasingly complex mediascape. To what extent, then, does the media of mass communications aim to foster democratic and critical identities amongst its citizens? This raises a number of inter-related questions which are crucial to the formation of contemporary identities. That is, despite the recent pluralisation of the media of mass communication, the crucial questions in respect of media remain related to voice, autonomy and empowerment. Here I shall seek to investigate the extent to which questions of ownership and control, the technological development of modern media, the mix between public and private media, the commodifi cation of the media and the development of a genuinely citizens’ media might all be said to impact upon questions of media and cultural identity. Here we need to ask to what extent citizens are encouraged to view the media as a means of democratic communication, and alternatively to what extent they are positioned as passive consumers of information within a centrally controlled communication system whose

priorities are largely determined by the respective roles of the economic system and the state. Here we might wonder to what extent media can become a voice for civic protest, alternative perspectives and projects other than those sanctioned by the powerful and infl uential. In this respect then I shall investigate the role that the media of mass communication plays in respect of the development of social and cultural identities.