How do young people form their 'collective identity' through reality TV?

In today's society there are now many reality TV shows focusing on young people and their lifestyles such as Made in Chelsea and Geordie Shore. These programs show us as the audience how these people live their everyday lives which therefore giving us in opinion of these groups.

Young people as a whole can now watch a reality TV show and feel gratification from it as they may be able to relate to these people therefore showing a way of them forming an identity of some sort. In the series Made in Chelsea, it focuses on the lives of a group of affulent young friends. As an audience watching this we may feel like we can relate to them if we were from a similar background or were going through the same things as they were. Their collective identity is created through their class as they are all from wealthy families for example Jamie Laing who is the heir to the Mcvitie fortune. Due to their class this brings them together and forms a collective identity becuase they would have been brought up in similar ways and used to a wealthly background. Due to the creation of this collective identity by audiences we therefore label them in perhaps a negative way because they are 'snobs' and 'stuck up. Them trying to break out of this label relates to Michael Foucault's theory as we can see them as trying to break out of their boundaries as in one of the episode, a boy refers to a girl as a 'bird' which is typically associated with the lower class. They also form their collective identity through their sexuality as they date each other and are romantically interested in eachother and a lot of the show revolves around their relationships.

In contrast to Made in Chelsea, the program Geordie Shore shows a completely opposite group of people. It focuses on a group of boys and girls from newcastle living in a house together. From first viewing we see them as coming from a lower class background as the boys are all topless and have tattoos which could be related to lower class and the girls are dressed in cheaper looking clothes. When watching Geordie Shore we see how different they are as they are portrayed as party animals, crude, loud and promisciuous. They create their collective identity through again class as they are all from a lower class, but also gender as the boys see the girls as 'objects' and want to be with as many as they can whilst the girls comply with this. Although like Made in Chelsea the characters in Geordie Shore can be seen to try to break out of their boundaries by wanting to have more money and trying to fit into a higher class society by the way they dress and through their image.

Having a collective identity can be seen as somewhat oppressive because according to Michael Foucault we cannot break out of these boundaries which means we are always labelled as that. For example if a girl who was a typical 'chav' wanted to become a goth she would struggle as she already has created her identity as a 'chav'. The Bolton News wrote:
Gary, for instance, says: “I have a degree in pulling women,” while Sophie adds: “I’m going to be a complete slut and put out. Her proud mum adds that she has a fantastic figure" this relays the idea of Foucaults theory as by reading this and then watching the program the audience would therefore stereotype and believe they were like this. The idea of reading and believing everything we read relates to the Marxist theory in the fact that they believe the media is an ideological tool and we take what the media give us.

In conclusion, through the use of reality TV many young people create their collective identity through various means but especially through their class, gender and sexuality. Although it can be seen as opressive these people can try to break out of any boundaries they are given but when the media has labelled you as something, its hard to ever subvert that as the media is a powerful tool!