Gauntlett's Identity Theory

Gauntlet's Identity Theory

The first part of the theory is that he likes often get a sense of their own identify from the media products that they consume.

The second part of his theory is that he believes that in older media products... in the past what generally tends to happen was that they used to portray a very straight forward a very simple representations of identify in particular of gender. Which created very simple stereotypical representations of men that used to have to be strong, brave, they would have to go to work, and take care of their wives and their children in financial terms, with the idea of being strong, muscular, and tall. This was a very one-sided representation of men, in the same way that in the past representation of women tended to be on women being housewives, mothers, they tended to have to be very caring and emotional, they would often stay at home, as well as little independence. And that was the very simple straight-forward portrayal of women in older media products.

David Gauntlet believes that in newer media products we tend to get much more diverse rangers of representations particularly of gender. Which means its no longer those binary opposite representations, but what we get is a whole range of representations and identities so that when audiences watch them, its not these very simple straight forward messages about identify anymore, but its complex, and diverse, as well as challenging.