Collective Media Identity

I have started to look at and study the representation of 'nerds' in today's media, and also the perception of the stereotype from when it started in the 1950's. I looked at a variety of different texts from TV and Film where nerds are portrayed in different ways. I examined clips from 'The Big Bang Theory' and 'The IT Crowd' to analyse the behavior of the people viewed as nerds, and why they might be viewed in this way. I found that the characters in the 'The Big Bang Theory' enjoyed things like comic books and Star Trek toys. They are also extremely intelligent and lack basic social skills. All these things come together to contribute to their social standing; which doesn't seem to be very high. They are often mocked and referred to as 'geeks', due to their intelligence and enjoyments. They wear superhero-themed T-shirts and regularly visit their local comic book store. One of the characters cannot speak to women, while another character lives with his mother at the age of 30. The characters in 'The IT Crowd' are quite similar as they possess a great knowledge of computers. They work in the basement of a massive company below all the attractive people who work on the upper floors of the building, where no one pays attention to them or appreciates them.

I also looked at the modern nerd-based films 'Benchwarmers' and 'Napoleon Dynamite'. The characters in 'Benchwarmers' are portrayed to be bad at sports, and are damaged by the bullying they suffered in their previous school days where they were teased and pick on due to their different sources of enjoyment and entertainment. The whole film is based on them starting up a baseball team to beat their former bullies' teams to give hope to all the young nerds growing up. One of the characters is too scared to step outside of his house, due to his fear of sunlight, while another always wear a helmet and wears his trouser way above his waist. 'Napoleon Dynamite' is a very random film, but the representation remains the same. Napoleon and his brother Kip are two classic nerds that wear glasses, have no sense of style and struggle in terms of social standing. Kip chats with strangers who he labels "babes" all day, while Napoleon possesses two friends and gets bullied at high school.

I also looked at an older nerd film named 'Revenge of the Nerds' (1984), where the idea is very similar. I studied the film to see if i could identify any differences in how the nerds were portrayed in this film, as oppose to the more recent films such as 'Benchwarmers' and 'Napoleon Dynamite'. They were all portrayed in the same light, apart from the fact that intelligence about the latest technology didn't come into the stereotype as much. This is due to the fact that computers weren't as advanced as they are today, and so a characteristic of today's nerd is that they play console or computer games 24/7. I identified the turning point of people's perception of nerds to be the introduction of modern technology, such as advanced computer games and games consoles.