How are identities are being constantly being mediated?

Characters in Television and Films are constantly being mediated and being portrayed as archetypes rather than unique characters which go against the common character conventions portrayed in different genres.
The Character 'Gene Hunt' in 'Life on Mars' is portrayed as the ruthless cop. 'Life on Mars' is set in the mid 1970s and therefore the character archetypes which we would expect would be different to our modern day archetypes. Reflecting back on the past often means that we expect the stereotypical archetypes such as 'The ruthless cop' rather than a more common and accurate portrayal of a 1970s cop.

However the Character 'Alfie' is not mediated in the same way, as of the time. Alfie represented a new archetype in cinema because of the changing attitudes and ideas, to relationships and marriage, which came about in the 1960s. This archetype would have been uncommon as this type of male archetype would not have been widely representative of the male gender. Although this was new archetype in it's era, modern day audiences have viewed this archetype in many different forms since the film was created. i.e. James Bond represents a similar archetype, who does not care about relationships - therefore this has now become a mediated archetype.

Portrayal of social class has changed since the 1960s, nowadays the working class has been more widely represented in different forms of media. in Tyrannosaur we see a common modern day archetype being portrayed. This archetype is of a unemployed working class male. We see 'Joseph' as a un-employed, alchoholic and violent. the mise-en scene portrays him as working class because of the clothes he wears such as the tracksuit which he wears. this costume is synonymous with working class and 'chav' lifestyle. which is a often archetype of modern media.