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

Over the years, media representations have been constructed in order to reflect the zeitgeist of different years. The media often play on stereotypes to make representations easily identifiable to audiences. However, these representations change over time as the way that groups of people are viewed changed and the media has to keep up with this. Also, issues and debates to do with the ways that groups of people are perceived changes the way that they are represented in the media to avoid controversy.

In the film noir era, women were mainly represented as femme fatales. This was because of the threat to patriarchy that they posed after the Second World War as they had more power after doing jobs for men. As the media is a male dominated industry, the representation of women changed from showing them as housewives to showing them as evil seductresses to be aware of. The earlier representation of them as housewives showed women the role that men decided that they should be in, and the later representation of the femme fatale showed men the dangers of women with power. Femme fatales were shown to use their sexuality to lure men. As Goffman states, "Men are shown in positions of intelligence. Women are physically portrayed in sexual or reclining poses with blank or inviting expressions", and this was shown in the film noir era, and is still being shown now.

After the feminist movement came post-feminism. Since the 1990s, women have self-objectifying themselves and using their sexuality. This is shown through lads mags, as although it can be said that women are being subordinated, they are still in power as they are the ones who decide what the men can see in photographs.

Another representation that has changed over time is the representation of the working class. The working class used to be represented in films and the news as a separate group of people who the hegemonic society look down on. However, after the rise of reality TV in the 2000s, the working class are given more of a chance to represent themselves positively. The majority of Big Brother contestants are working class, and it is these people who the public vote for as their winners. When there are higher class people in Big Brother, they are less admired by the public and are evicted early. This challenges hegemonic values as the working class are shown to be more likable than the higher classes.

Reality TV has also shown a change in the representation of different races. In the famous Big Brother race row, the public sympathised with Shilpa Shetty, the Asian, and Jade Goody, the white character, was represented as the villain. This is partly due to mediation, as Shilpa Shetty was shown as a victim. This could be because in current society, race is an issue so representing the Asian as the villain would have been risky as it could have been controversial.

Media representations do reflect the age that they are created. The representations of both women and the working class have changed over time, and reflect the views of society at the time.