The nature of people and the nature of the media world are quite similar. In the sense that, likewise to people, the media world is constantly constructing itself and developing on a day-to-day basis. With that said, in this contemporary world one could say that the human relationship with media is one that can be considered as co-dependent. Media consumption has become a daily practice in people’s lives, from when we are young, we’re watching shows on our favourite TV channels, creating social media accounts, and subscribing to streaming services. Correspondent to the saying ‘we are what we eat’, it can be acknowledged that our own media consumption shapes the person we constantly developing into, therefore ‘we are what we consume’. In retrospect, to demonstrate this relationship between people and their media consumption, this essay will reflect on my own media consumption and how it influenced my own lived reality.
According to Tomlinson, the media we are drawn to depends on our living context and the meanings we get from the media we consume then impact on how we understand and make sense of our lived situation (Strelitz, 2008). This is a theory of which I can identify within my own upbringing.
It therefore makes sense to start at the very beginning of my life, which would be to analyse the way in which I grew up and the media I consumed at the time. When providing a general outline of my media consumption as a child, especially in South Africa, I believe race, ethnicity, and class (as well as family dynamic) play an influential role on what media you consume. I grew up female, in a black household, with both parents, my grandmother and two siblings. I mention this because, as a second born child a lot of the media I consumed at a very young age was determined by either my older sister, my parents or commonly my grandmother. My childhood media consumption and identity formation evolved from a surplus of local television. Therefore, SABC shows as well as YoTV shows such as Takalani Sesame (put the titles of these shows in italics) and Hi-5, were amongst the shows I constantly watched, and with the influence of my grandmother Generations, Isidingo, and Bold and the Beautiful also became a part of our daily media consumption.
This makes sense when considering the context of which I grew up in. Unlike my grandmother, the media I consumed fell on the cusp of interests based on the people I was around. What I mean by this is that the South Africa I grew up in is more integrated and diverse, therefore exposure to different races and having access to diverse media content allowed for me to have interest not only in black African shows, but also English shows too. Media by the time I was child was less limited as well, in the sense that I grew up in a more privileged black household that had DSTV, of which had numerous amounts of TV channels. My media consumption when growing up then slowly came to a point of transition, when I began deciding what I wanted to watch, my media consumption turned into a surplus of Disney channel shows, Nickelodeon shows and well as Carton Network shows.
This allowed for me to have interests and relatability in more than one arena when consuming media. African languages such as isiZulu and Sesotho were spoken within the household, which was common within the shows I watched regularly with my grandmother therefore, highlighting my language relatability to the shows. Additionally, having gone to English speaking schools, it extended my understanding of English shows and the identities around them as well. However, the appeal to shows such as Generations, notably were more relatable in the sense that the show represents numerous classes within South Africa as well as representing numerous struggles of which real people go through within a South African context. Strelitz (2002) speaks to this notion by saying “Media stories and images provide the symbols, myths, and resources which help constitute a common culture for the majority of individuals in many parts of the world today”.
As a young African female child, learning the basics of identity came at a young age. Having attended a primary school, that had it’s fair share of diversity (sentence is incomplete). When pinpointing my identity in relation to media consumption, I learnt that as an individual the media I consumed allowed me to relate to a diverse group of peers, due to the fact that the shows I watched consisted of an integration of African languages as well as the English shows. However, I very quickly learnt that was not the same amongst my white friends. In the sense that it was not common that they could relate to shows such as Generations, and other African based shows that appeal to black people. Strelitz (2002 page number) allowed me to understand this in more in depth level, by addressing this as a result of apartheid, “the classification of people into different race groups and their segregation into different residential areas, educational systems and public amenities” (you must give the page number when you reference direct quotes) is the reason for why white people in South Africa struggle to resonate or find appeal towards SABC shows such as Generations. The living context of a white South African, isn’t one that resonates with the living contexts typically portrayed in shows such as Isidingo or Generations, and therefore creating a sense of divide within that identity.
Likewise, it becomes evident that media we consume contributes to more of our identity than we are aware of. Äccording to Miller (1997:26 in Strelitz 2002))… a century ago the identity of individuals was rooted in the production – as workers or owners- today it is consumption which confers identity. This is because consumption is the one domain over which individuals feel they still have power.”
Social sciences additionally highlight a different perspective in understanding people’s relationship with the media that we consume.(Babbie and Mouton (2001 page) explains that “The phenomenologist [tradition] emphasizes that all human beings are engaged in the process of making sense of their life (life) worlds. We continuously interpret, create, and give meaning to, define, justify and rationalize our actions”.
To me this not only helps describe my own media consumption and identity, however, further explains why my white peers grew up watching different shows than I did. Having spoken to a fellow student Paloma Giustizieri, who grew up in a white household in South Africa, she explained how having had European relatives and a mother that grew up in Italy, South African shows were never played in her house, and therefore her media consumption and relatability that reflected her “nuclear family”, always came from international shows generally from channels such as BBC.
Progressively, there then came a point in my life when the world that was around me was evolving and becoming heavily dependent on technology and social media. I was no longer influenced by only my local media consumption, but additionally was influenced by international media productions. As I grew older, I found myself straying away from local media completely and indulging in a lot of Disney channel related shows, for example Hannah Montana, Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Wizards of Waverly Place. Was there anything significant in this shift. What were the reasons for this and did it bring about any shift in your identity? Once this was a phase I grew out of, I came of age and the era cell phones took over. Not only was I consuming international media on shows that I watched, but I also additionally grew up and had access to social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, and Pinterest. Media consumption and identity formation is something I see most clearly within the social media world. Its taught me how technology has created a global village, where people all over the world can be active participants in each other’s lives and have influence within the identity of others. Strelitz (2005 page) speaks about this by referencing the term symbolic distancing, of which speaks to “the attraction of global media for local audiences is that their consumption often provides meanings that enable ‘the accentuation of symbolic distancing from the spatial-temporal contexts of everyday life’.” What this also means is that “it enables individuals to take some distance from the conditions of their day-to-day lives”, not in a literal sense but in a way that is vicarious of the media we are consuming. For example, watching international shows or seeing the way in which people live abroad, may be of attraction to you and therefore of interest, which further acts as an influence on your identity. So how has this impacted on your life?
This can further be seen through the idealisation of the western world alongside coloniality. We watch all these shows that portray cultures outside of our own but is glamourised and practiced in the shows and the media we have been consuming for years, therefore we watch them and are able to see the lived realities of other people, which differ from our own and we find ourselves wishing that it was the life you lived. Likewise, to Strelitz (2005 page), which speaks about the exposure of young people in a Moroccan town “to an increasing array of western media’, of which resulted in “rapid social change to re-imagine many aspects of their lives, including a desire for more autonomy, for more variety in heterosexual interactions, and for more choice of job and of a mate”. This is a clear display of globalisation in the media and how it influences and translates into the lives and identities of its consumer. How does this relate, if at all, to your life?
Social media can also be a good resource in analysing our media consumption and the identity it has shaped in us, as it reflects an algorithm of media content of which we tend to resonate with and participate with the most. For example, based on my current identity and media consumption, my Instagram and Pinterest commonly offer me, roller-skating content, black empowerment, and feminism content as well as spiritual and astrological affirmations. This is because this is the media, I choose to interact with on a day-to-day basis as it resonates with my lived reality and the aspect of life, I want to incorporate into my identity the most So, how does this content speak to your identity?. Another example of this could be Netflix, of which also consists of an algorithm, the streaming service offers me a lot documentary content and fictional series as, real life documented content and fictional content are both contributing factors to my identity and are the media content I enjoy the most.
All in all, it becomes evident how the more we evolve as individuals correspondently the more our identities and media consumptions is a part of that is well. This is because of how prominent media is in our daily lives, it inevitable how it’ll influence not only our identities but additionally how we see the world. Globalisation has impacted us all in the sense that local content cannot be the sole influence in a person’s life anymore, we are now raised by our parents, influenced by our siblings as well as being influenced and shaped by the media of which we grow up watching and what we chose to interact with, as this has become the common way to make sense of our own lived realities.
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