In what ways can an image's context change over time?

Post-Modernism is a way of thinking that proposes that the meaning of a work of art, media
message is not fixed and in fact can have multiple meanings, this is known as polysemy.
"The meaning of each image are multiple(...)"
Sturken, M. Cartwright, L. Practices of Looking, p25.
There are the basic levels of meaning, the denotative and the conotative. In simple terms, the
denotative is what that image is and the conotative is what is the deeper meaning of the image,
and this is often decided through interpretation
"This process of interpretation is derived from semiotics(...)”
Sturken, M. Cartwright, L. Practices of Looking, p28.
Barthes' concept, based on Saussure: every image has a sign. The signifier i.e. the sound, and the
signified which is the thing that the sound makes you think of, together to form the sign (Sturken
and Cartwright, 2001, p.29.) the meaning is what is signified.

The main argument for this essay is the depiction of American presidents, I must show how they
were depicted before their images and media appearances started to get remixed and repurposed.
The President of the United States is supposed to be the figurehead of American societal values.
Someone to be looked towards in times of crisis to resolve the situation effectively. This can
certainly be said of presidents such as John F. Kennedy, whose quick and decisive measures
during the Cuban Missile Crisis helped avert a possible nuclear holocaust. Antonio Gramsci offers
the theory of Hegemony. It was Gramsci's belief that Capitalism kept control also through
hegemony, where values became common sense. (Gramsci, 1930's, The Prison Notebooks.)
Hegemonic views could certainly be applied to Kennedy, but Presidents that lacked in their
leadership qualities or cleverness such as George Bush would become subjects of ridicule and
criticism through remixing and repurposing.