Media Cultural Idenities

Running Head : Cultural identities

Cultural Identities

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Cultural identities

Culture can be defined in many different ways , and consists of several concepts such as , identity , difference , relations of power , centres and margins . To begin with , one may start to investigate the meaning of culture , but to achieve this we must get a definition "Culture is one of two or three most complicated words in the English language (Williams , 1976 Barker 2000

In modern western society , we tend not to view the discourse of

culture as an agriculturally derived 'buzz word ' but instead link it to what may be described as many sub-cultures within , for example , our western culture (Langton 2003 ) These may include cultures within football teams , pop culture , office culture , and refined entertainment such as museums and classical music to mention a few

Addressing the concepts surrounding culture displays that people are different but all bring valid ingredients to the recipe that is the human race . Culture does mean different things to different people , but it is tolerance and respect for others that enables us to combat ignorance and xenophobia . This is the key to achieving a balance in the relations of power that will inevitably always exist in many societies as we have all too often seen intertwined throughout events in our history

In the study of history it is always extremely important to scrutinise a source with the utmost care . This is especially true when examining autobiographies . Autobiographies can give an extremely useful insight into a historical subject . For example Hitler 's 'Mein Kampf ' would be extremely useful for a historian of cultural identities studying Nazism to gain an insight into Hitler 's beliefs . But it is now widely accepted that much of the information contained in Hitler 's autobiography was inaccurate . This illustrates the need for such caution when using the genre , but also this reflects the presence of advantages and disadvantages to the use of autobiographies . Both should be taken into account

So what advantages do autobiographies allow the cultural identities historian ? Firstly , it enables the individuals to give themselves an identity . It allows the author to develop their beliefs motivations and personality into writing in such a way perhaps only rivalled by letter writing in terms of personal expression (Derne 2002 Beynon 2002 ) This is particularly useful for historians of cultural identity as figureheads of certain identities often write the most relevant autobiographies . For example Nelson Mandela 's 'A Long walk to freedom or Gandhi 's 'My Experiments with Truth . These figureheads offer an excellent insight into the identity of their followers through that of their own . However even this statement should be treated with some caution , as this is not always the case

With this use established it is then possible for the historian to make other observations about the individual . Explicitly it is possible to examine the childhood and adolescence of the author . It is widely accepted by psychologists such as Freud and historians alike...