Theories of identity (David Gauntlett): media offer a diverse and contradictory range of representations that audiences actively use as a 'pick and mix' of resources to construct and negotiate their own fluid identities.

What this dot point is asking

Within representation, David Gauntlett's theory of identity shifts the focus from what media show to what audiences do with it. His claim is that media provide a diverse set of representations that audiences actively use as resources to construct their own identities. This is a set theory for the representation area and connects to the active-audience strand of the framework. The exam skill is to treat a set product as a pool of identity resources and explain how an audience might use it.

The answer

Media as resources for identity

• A pool of representations. Media offer many models of identity, not one, and audiences select among them.
• Pick and mix. Audiences take useful elements from different sources and combine them, rejecting others.
• Identity as a project. The self is built and revised over time, with media as one important resource.

Diversity and fluidity

This does not mean every representation is progressive; it means the range has widened. A set product can be read for the models of identity it offers and placed against this shift: does it extend the diversity of available identities, or reproduce a narrow, traditional one? Reading the product historically is a strong move for the higher bands.

The active audience

For analysis, the question is not only "what identity does this product show?" but "how might an audience use it?". Treating the audience as active, and the product as a resource rather than an instruction, is central to applying Gauntlett well.

Limits: power and persisting stereotypes

This is the counter-weight the "how useful" questions reward. The diversity Gauntlett describes is real but partial: some groups are still under-represented or stereotyped, and not everyone is equally free to construct identity from media. Holding the optimistic account together with these limits produces a judgement, not mere agreement.

Using the theory in the exam

1. Name Gauntlett and the idea of media as resources for identity.
2. Identify the identities, role models and values the set product offers.
3. Explain how an active audience could pick and mix from them to construct identity.
4. Place the product in the historical shift toward more diverse, fluid representations.
5. Judge, recognising the limits set by power and by persisting stereotypes.

Examples in context

Reading a set product through Gauntlett. Suppose a set product, a lifestyle magazine, an online influencer text or a television programme, offers its audience particular models of identity: ways of looking, behaving, relating and aspiring. Using Gauntlett, the analysis treats these not as instructions the audience obeys but as resources it can draw on. The product is read for the range of identities it makes available, then the focus turns to use: an audience member might adopt some values, reject others, and combine elements of this product with models drawn from elsewhere, building a personal identity in a pick-and-mix way. The product can also be placed historically: does it extend the diversity of identities Gauntlett says has grown, or reproduce a narrow, traditional model? A confident answer then judges the theory's reach: the active account fits a diverse media culture well, but the freedom to pick and mix is limited by structural inequality and by representations that remain stereotyped, so the theory is powerful but partial.

Try this

Q1. According to Gauntlett, how do audiences use media in relation to identity? [2 marks]

• Cue. As a pick-and-mix of resources to construct and negotiate their own fluid identities.

Q2. What historical change does Gauntlett identify in representations of identity? [2 marks]

• Cue. Representations of gender and identity have become more diverse and fluid over time.

Q3. Using Gauntlett, explore how one set product offers resources for identity, and assess how useful the theory is. [15 marks]

• What the marker wants. The identities on offer treated as resources for an active audience, the historical shift considered, and a judgement weighing the theory against the limits of power and stereotyping.