David Gauntlett and Identity

David Gauntlett

David Gauntlett is a British sociologist and media theorist. He is dedicated to studying contemporary audiences of media, the making and sharing of digital media and the role media takes on identity and self-expression.

He graduated from the Universty of York with a degree in Sociology in 1992 and in 2006 joined the School of Media, Arts, and Design as Professor of Media and Communication. He has taken a focus on the way digital media is changing the experience of media for audiences. In 2007, Gauntlett published 'Media 2.0' online. This argues that the classic media studies don't fully define when the categories of 'audience' and 'producers' merge and that teaching method need to change. He blames the wide use of web 2.0 for blurring the lines between the audience and the producers, as due to websites like YouTube, the audience can now become the producers, creating and distributing content themselves. As a result of this, we can create our own identity and influence the identity of others.

Due to this change and web 2.0, things like gender identity have become much less restricted, unlike previous representations. The use of web 2.0 allows us to create our own idea of identity that doesn't have to conform to the traditional concepts of gender. This freedom created by the internet means that it is now far more acceptable to be different and accepted for our individuality.

In 2008, Gauntlett put forward a proposal to rework audience studies. He argued that audiences have changed to become more active towards media rather than passive like they were before. Nowadays, it is virtually impossible to tell how an audience is going to react to a piece of media, so this could influence the way a media product is done, as a company or distributor might want to mimic what has been done by a previously successful product. This can also be used to explain why so much money is spent on audience research by advertising companies, as they need to be sure that the product that they are advertising attracts an audience that would be interested in what they are selling.