Media Essay

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

In today’s modern society, mostly all media texts portray certain types of representations. In general, representations can either have a positive impact on individuals and society or a negative impact. There are many reasons for why different representations are created depending on certain age groups. For example teen knife crime specifically targets the teenage age group of 13-19 year olds as they are stereotypically represented and associated within this subject area along with being the most involved in knife crime.

Issues such as teenage knife crime create major social concerns within society. For example, news reports on the increase in street knife crime amongst teens, creates a moral panic within societies, especially the cities in which these crimes are taking place in. By creating moral panics, a great deal of awareness is made public and therefore more crime prevention acts will be put in place in order to calm the anger and fear of society members. However on the political side, the government could be held responsible as it could be argued they are not doing enough to keep our streets safe and give more opportunities to youngsters so that they do not resort to extreme measures such as committing crimes. This will then question the reliability of the government as they would be seen as the real culprits and therefore will cause ripple effects within society as it could become dysfunctional and cause anomie. This in comparison to historical representations of teens differs majorly. Back 30 years ago teens were essentially represented as ‘miniature adults’. They were given households and family responsibilities at an early age and were expected to earn good with a job in hand. Whereas in today’s society, teens are mostly dependent on governmental initiatives such as EMA, Job seekers allowance etc causing them to get involved in unnecessary problems. This stereotypes them as rebels as they are causing un-needed trouble as a result of being caught in the spirit of age (Zeitgeist). Therefore, political and social concerns are represented in a negative light for the specific age groups of teenagers.

On the other hand, women are represented in a negative light as they are sexually objectified for example in The Sun page 3 or magazines such as Lads Mag and Men’s health. Here women are represented as deviant as they break away from the typical traditional values that women are expected to have. For example, they are expected to have motherly natures and self respect, whereas in today’s day and age women are sexually objectified for other men to take pleasure from. However this is a result of self objectification which is why women can be represented as deviant as they are objectifying themselves out of their own will. This intertwines with the ‘femme fatale’ which was introduce in the 1940’s where women were breaking out of the typical values of a women as they were housebound. Whereas, the ‘femme fatale’s’ did the total opposite as they were represented as being “mysterious, seductive and deviant” like shown in double indemnity in contrast to how they are expected and should be which is “simple, caring, and obeying” this caused major social concerns, especially for men as their masculinity was at risk causing them to build misogynistic opinions regarding women. This is because women were doing things that only men should have done, in the sense of dressing up in suits, smoking cigars etc. Also, this caused concerns for women as members of society feared that other women will be influenced and therefore anomie will be caused within society. Judith Butler talks about gender performance being “undone”. This refers to in some aspects, becoming the opposite sex, in which case is true of the femme fatale.

In addition, magazines such as the “Lads Mag” is aimed to gratify the needs of visionary pleasure for men. This promotes voyeuristic behaviour as men are tending their needs without the other person knowing they are looking at them. This causes social concerns within society as people are accepting this type of voyeurism as they are doing all of this is covertly, and forming typical representations of women, by stereotyping them as sexual objects. This then will effect in influencing their minds where in effect they will treat women according to the opinions they form of them therefore will cause major social concerns within society.