Project Proposal: Identity Development of Youth

 

 

The medium I chose is a workshop that will discuss the role media plays in developing the identity of youth, specifically African American females and the intersection of race identity, self destructive behavior. The goal of the project is to create a discourse using triggers words to get the audience to give honest answers about ethnic groups to be used as part of the development of a rite of passage program/or campaign to teach young girls about their identity, the importance of loving themselves, while at the same time, educating them about media influence and way’s to become agents of change.

In a recent film, an organization called Miss Representation highlights this unfortunate ideology promulgated by today's media sources (YouTube, 2011).

It is often suggested that media has potentially profound effects on the social identity formation of young people. However, understanding how media outlets affect the identity of adolescents takes understanding what "identity" entails. Part of identity formation is thinking about the type of person you want to be. Ideas, can either be enforced, or even corrupted, by a false sense of what the world actually is. Although this information may not be fully reliable, it still provides ideas as to how to act and form one's identity. (The Heart and Mind)

The constant persuasion of what is "reality" plays a pivotal role in young girl's development of negative self-image. Many girls are taught, through stereotypical portrayal, that women are nothing more than sexual objects; and, that intelligence is something to be ashamed of and hidden. Pay close attention to the last girls reaction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybDa0gSuAcg



Social Psychology: The Heart and the Mind  Aronson, Elliot, Wilson, Timothy., Akert, Robin M. HarperCollins Canada, Limited     

(YouTube2011)