David Gauntlett and Identity Theory

Introduction

David Gauntlett is a British sociologist and media theorist whose work is central to the AQA A-Level Media Studies specification. His book Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction (2002, with later editions) provides a theoretical framework for thinking about how contemporary media shape, and are shaped by, audience identities. Where Mulvey focuses on textual structures of looking and Butler focuses on the philosophical production of gender, Gauntlett focuses on the relationship between media and everyday identity construction, with particular attention to Web 2.0 and participatory media.

Gauntlett's Core Arguments

Gauntlett's key claims for AQA can be summarised:

1. Media representations have shifted significantly over recent decades, offering a more diverse range of identity possibilities than in the past.
2. Audiences are active, selecting, rejecting, and combining media messages to build their own identities.
3. Identity today is constructed from a "pick-and-mix" of available cultural resources.
4. Web 2.0 participatory media democratise identity construction, enabling audiences to become producers.
5. Traditional representation theory (Mulvey, Hall) needs updating to account for these shifts.

Media, Gender and Identity

In Media, Gender and Identity, Gauntlett surveys mainstream media from the 1950s to the early 2000s. His key findings:

• 1950s-70s: Restricted, stereotyped gender roles dominant.
• 1980s-90s: Increasing diversity; contradictions emerge.
• 2000s onwards: Significantly more diverse representations, though stereotypes persist.

Gauntlett argues that contemporary media present "a number of different, sometimes contradictory, ideas about gender and identity". Women's magazines, for example, combine conventional beauty advice, feminist articles, career content, and self-help — often in a single issue.

Era (Gauntlett)	Gender Representation
1950s-70s	Narrow, rigidly gendered
1980s	Shifting, contradictory
1990s	Visible diversity, postfeminist irony
2000s	Pluralistic, pick-and-mix
2010s-20s	Further diversified, participatory

This is an optimistic reading compared to Mulvey's pessimism. Gauntlett does not deny persistent sexism or racism, but argues the range of available representations has expanded meaningfully.

Pick-and-Mix Identity

Gauntlett's most influential concept for AQA is the "pick-and-mix" approach to identity. Drawing on sociologist Anthony Giddens's idea of the reflexive self, Gauntlett argues that modern subjects:

• Are not handed a fixed identity by tradition, religion, or community
• Must actively construct an identity from available cultural resources
• Treat media as a "toolkit" of possibilities
• Combine and recombine elements in idiosyncratic ways
• Revise their identity over time

This does not mean everything is equally available — class, race, gender, and sexuality shape what one can pick and mix. But the principle of active self-construction is a significant shift from earlier passive-audience models.

flowchart TD
    A[Available Cultural Resources] --> B[Audience Selection]
    B --> C[Combination]
    C --> D[Ongoing Identity]
    D --> E[Reflexive Revision]
    E --> B

Role Models and Lifestyle Narratives

Gauntlett examines how audiences use media figures as role models — not by direct imitation, but by drawing selectively on examples of "how life can be lived". Magazines and TV offer:

• Examples of romantic relationships
• Career possibilities
• Parenting approaches
• Aesthetic styles
• Ways of coping with adversity

Audiences take what they find useful and leave the rest. This is different from early moral-panic worries about copycat effects; Gauntlett's audiences are selective consumers, not passive receivers.

Web 2.0 and Participatory Identity

Gauntlett's later work — especially Making is Connecting (2011) — focuses on Web 2.0. He argues that participatory platforms (YouTube, blogs, social media) transform identity construction by:

• Allowing audiences to become producers ("produsers" or prosumers)
• Enabling niche communities to form around specific identities
• Providing publishing tools that were previously the preserve of media institutions
• Encouraging "making and doing" as a form of self-expression

For Gauntlett, creativity and connection are closely linked: making things and sharing them builds identity and community.

Web 1.0	Web 2.0
Publishers broadcast; audiences consume	Audiences produce and share
Few-to-many	Many-to-many
Gatekept content	Open platforms
Stable identity consumption	Participatory identity making

Gauntlett and Other Theorists

Gauntlett explicitly positions himself in relation to other representation theorists: