Media assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Media assignment - Essay Example t have been used in the media in the past to deliberately shape and direct the evolution of society at the same time that changes in society have functioned to shape and develop how it is reflected in the media. One major change that has taken place is a shift in social thinking that deems it acceptable for a woman to be found in the workplace in a role other than secretary or operator. This shift can be seen by comparing the ideas associated with the working girl in the film Working Girl released in 1988 and those communicated in the article â€Å"Get Yourself Noticed.† Both of these texts present a specific image of what the proper role of woman is perceived to be in the working world. In both cases, there is acknowledgement that a woman can succeed in the upper levels of the working world, but that this is the exception rather than the rule. In the film, this idea is conveyed throughout the storyline. The main character is Tess McGill, who spends her days commuting to work with a bevy of other women, all working as secretaries or receptionists in the city. When she discovers that her boss was only pretending to support her dream of entering the executive level in order to use her as a sexual plaything, she gets another job working under a female executive, Katherine Parker. Parker seems highly successful, very supportive of bringing more women like Tess into the executive level and is highly confident of her own abilities. This understanding that a woman can make a success in the upper levels of the company is the jumping off point for the articl e as two women, understood to be in the lower ranks of the secretarial pool, discuss the seeming meteoric rise of a third woman within their organization. Although the gender of the ‘boss’ is not mentioned in the scenario, the idea that the two women talking are of a lower rank is made clear in the way that they discuss how this third woman is already above them in the boss’s opinion. Because the article