It has been said that media representations often reflect the social and political concerns of the age in which they are created. Discuss.

Media representations of racial groups, gender or even sexuality has always reflected the social and/or political concerns of any age. Whether it be one person's perspective on groups or to create moral panic, representations either play into an age old stereotype or subvert the stereotype to give the audience something different to respond to. My case study can directly relate to the idea of representations as I am studying the representations of gangsters throughtout the ages.


One prime example of representations reflecting the social and political concerns in society is the representation of women. Gender has always been a big issue when it has come to representation in the media,the women usually portrayed as submissive with the males being dominant. On historic representation of women in the media is the femme fatale in the 1940's/50's. As there were already many sexist portrayals of women in the media (being subserviant to men, used only as sex objects) the femme fatale offered an alternative reading to the female gender in media as they were the ones displayed as dominant. Mnay phallic symbols in films such as cigarettes or guns now belonged to the women as a display of rebellion and power over their gender counterparts such as the woman in "Double Indemnity". The 1944 film noir presented women as cunning and manipulative. Another text that reflected an intimidating female was Xena: Warrior Princess. Although Xena was self objectifying herself dressing in short skirts and revealing garments which sexually gratified the mainstream male audience, this text portrayed women as very dominant.


As deadly as these femme fatale were, they still fell victims to the male gaze, as mentioned by Laura Mulvey. They were still objectified as they were desired by a male audience who still saw them as sex objects. Mulvey mentions two modes to the gaze, seeing women as "madonnas" and "whores". As these are the only two catagories women in media can fit in, this gave them little choice in what roles they can play. This is why gender must be a performance, Judith Butler argues. Women being objectified purely becuase they are women is a reflection of misogny and to escape this sort of objectification gender must be a performance.


Celebrity culture has also chaneged througout the years. Before celebrities were viewed as untouchable being but due to the birth of reality TV in the 1990's i.e. Big Brother, the celebrification of celebrities has been smashed as almost anyone can be a celebrity in the public eye now. Naturalisation in reality TV has only made it more more popular as audiences can easily identify with the characters on the show. Social and political concerns are always voiced in reality TV as people within the show are not script directed, giving them a chance to voice their opinions.


As my case study is based around texts that represent gangsters, there has been a dramatic change of how they are represented throughout the ages. In the 40's/50's gangsters were presented as one-dimentional characters who only served as antagonists. Movies such as Gun Crazy and Scarface: Shame Of A Nation reflected these gun-toting criminals as society viewed them, the scum of society. Films such as "Adulthood" which was released in 2008 portray young black males to be nothing but hood rats that roam the streets. The props in the mise en scene are all instruments that can be used to inflict pain such as guns, knives and screw drivers. However recent gangster shows such as The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire have revealed another side to the gangster genre. It's shown us the humane side, the side which shows audiences how gangsters live their daily life, the moral dillemmas they are put through and the tough decisions they have to make.