More handpicked essays just for you.
Effects of mass media on the individual
Effects of mass media on the individual
Effects of mass media on the individual
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Effects of mass media on the individual
Does the media manipulate our perception of beauty? Introduction (Not Done Yet) In the media beautiful women are used all the time to market products to women. The large amount of exposure the media has is influencing what is considered beauty in the eyes of men and women. It brings to question whether or not this should be seen as the standard of beauty since every image in the media is retouched in one way or the other. Why Are Images Being Manipulated (Body) (Still building it up) Images in the media are being retouched frequently to meet the standard of beauty that has been set by the media, some images are manipulated so much that the original person in the image becomes unrecognizable in the finished result. By using these manipulated images frequently it is giving a false idea out to not only adults but young children who see them, it is demonstrating an unrealistic ideal of what beauty is and should look like, even though most of these images are not real and can not be reached (Kee & Farid, 2011). Magazines and advertisements with the help of computer based photo-editin...
Beauty is often described as being in the eye of the beholder. However in modern western culture, the old adage really should be beauty is in the eye of the white makeup artist, hair stylist, photographer, photo shop editor, and advertiser. Beauty and body ideals are packaged and sold to the average American so that we can achieve vocational, financial, social, and recreational successes. Mass media and advertising has affected the way that women perceive and treat their own bodies as well as their self-concept. Women are constantly bombarded with unrealistic images and hold themselves to the impossible beauty standards. First, we will explore the role of media in the lives of women and then the biggest body image issue from a diversity stand point, media whitewashing.
Today society has never been more aware of the impact the media has on what is considered to be an attractive person. Those who are most vulnerable by what they observe as the American standard of attractiveness and beauty are young females. Their quest to imitate such artificial images of beauty has challenged their health and their lives and has become the concern of many. As a result, advertisements used in the media are featuring more realistic looking people.
One of the ways photo manipulation in the media is ruining lives is by destroying the image of female beauty. Through all forms of popular media women are being bombarded with image...
Who sets the standards for beauty? What must one do to truly look beautiful? What does feeling beautiful mean? When considering the concept of beauty one must differentiate between the universal and relative perception of beauty. Among the components of universal beauty are harmony, symmetry and utility. However, perception of beauty is also relative, when it is defined by the standards of the time that are subjective to the socio economic values of the era. One of the ways these values are communicated is through images portrayed in art and in modern times through the media. ‘Fashion’ is the carrier of theses values though physical appearance and self-image that define power, rank, acceptability and belonging. Having ‘fashion’ as the medium of these relative values bring advantages and disadvantages. Although there are benefits of matching the fashion of the time, positive self-image and satisfaction with a feeling of acceptance these are temporary because fashion is ever changing. On the other hand not conforming to the contemporary standards can have a detrimental impact on self-image that leads to feeling a sense negative self worth and marginalized. Eating disorders are a powerful manifestation that fashion has on the psyche. The underlying idea of what fashion ‘is’ is value. Amongst all the change of fashion, value remains ever present.
The concept of beauty is a subject society speaks on through many channels. Social media plays a tremendous role in how society measures beauty and how to achieve these impossible standards. People from all walks of life have become obsessed with the idea of beauty and achieving the highest level it. In many cases, those who do not meet societal views of what is “beautiful” can become very resentful to these predisposed notions of beauty. David Akst in his writing “What Meets the Eye”, is bitter toward women and their ongoing obsession with beauty.
In modern society there is more and more digital editing without the knowledge of consumers. Currently there are various reasons for why women develop negative body image, low-self-esteem and eating disorders. According to Naomi Wolf in her novel “Beauty Myth”, one of the many reasons women obtain concerns with their bodies is due to the universal images of young female bodies presented through advertisements in fashion magazines. Advertisements in magazines are altering and shaping the desires of men and women. Magazines sell viewers images of beautiful, skinny, flawless confident young women. When people are constantly antagonized with the magazine industry’s ideal of “perfect beauty” the viewer’s then, subconsciously believe these images to be true and begin to form biases about what they themselves should look like and what other people must also look like. People who view magazines get mislead by advertisers because they are unaware that all the images displayed are digitally altered through Photoshop and airbrushing. Today’s magazines are formed completely on false ideals of flawless beauty and unattainable body images, to prevent women and men from falling victim to the magazine’s deceitful images we as a society need to become aware and educate ourselves.
The idea that women are subjected to an unfair amount of pressure as a result of the fashion world and other media outlets is hardly new, but Naomi Wolf takes this claim to a new and absurd level. Her essay is as unorganized as it is impractical. Her ideas are presented in a smorgasbord of flawed logic. Particularly disturbing is what she calls the “beauty myth.” What I disagree with is the word myth. According to Wolf, women in magazines and advertisements have approximately 20% less body mass than that of the average woman, creating an unattainable standard. This fact in no way supports her claim of a “beauty myth.” The existence of a myth suggests something to be untrue in nature. Magazine companies and advertisement agencies are not in the business of showing an average woman. They are in the business of selling a product. Of course they are going to use beautiful people. These companies completely regard the fact that most women do not in fact look like this, but they know that their product would be less appealing if they displayed average or unattractive women. Therefore, they do not deserve scrutiny over the fact that they do not present a typical woman. They in fact do the same for men. Wolf says, “The beauty myth is not about women at all. It is about men’s institutions and institutional power” (page 485, first new paragraph). How does one begin to say how warped this impression is?
The use of today’s photography technology invites many controversial arguments among the public. Some people have no problem with manipulated pictures, others believe that editing the picture of human being means not to appreciate human as God’s creature. It is commonly known that the majority of the pictures in magazines, billboards, and advertisements in public areas must have gone through the professional photo editing process to be maximized in effectiveness. The pictures are retouched so that it looks much more lively and delightful than the original ones. Using today’s photography technology, we are able to manipulate picture’s appearance into anything we want; it can be extremely fascinating or conversely. For example, you can transform people’s bodies to be as thin as a twig or as fleshy as an elephant.
In this age, media is more pervasive than ever, with people constantly processing some form of entertainment, advertisement or information. In each of these outlets there exists an idealized standard of beauty, statistically shown to effect the consumer’s reflection of themselves. The common portrayal of women’s bodies in the media has shown to have a negative impact on women and girls. As the audience sees these images, an expectation is made of what is normal. This norm does not correspond to the realistic average of the audience. Failing to achieve this isolates the individual, and is particularly psychologically harmful to women. Though men are also shown to also be effected negatively by low self-esteem from the media, there remains a gap as the value of appearance is seen of greater significance to women, with a booming cosmetic industry, majority of the fashion world, and the marketing of diet products and programs specifically targeting women.
Alexandra Scaturchio, in her article “Women in Media” (2008) describes the media’s idea of beauty as superficial. She supports her argument by placing two pictures side-by-side; a picture of a real, normal-looking woman and her picture after it has been severely digitally enhanced. Her purpose is to show young teenage girls that the models they envy for their looks are not real people, but computer designs. She also states, “the media truly distorts the truth and instills in women this false hope because…they will live their lives never truly attaining this ideal appearance”. Scaturchio wants her readers to realize the media’s distorting capabilities and feel beautiful about themselves, even with flaws.
How mass media is using both Ideology and Popular Culture to develop societal expectations and social identities. This essay will look at how Ideology, Hegemony, and Popular Cultural Theory shape common values and expectations of society and media’s influence and compare and contrast differing approaches to understanding the relationship between media and society. The discussion will be contextualized through the use of gender roles and expectations, and how these theories develop and affect the female social identity.
The media is comprised of false depictions. Constructing thin, flawless and unblemished representatives in order to promote business is one of the most widely used tactics different industries have become practicing. The large variety of photo-editing applications available has enabled businesses to recreate their models to such an extent that these models appear so perfect they cannot even be considered physically human. In an interview with Tim Lynch, a professional photographer and retoucher of 26 years, he estimates that 99.9% of all photographs are retouched in advertisements today. Although consumers are becoming more aware of this practice, allowing them to assume the majority of images they see have been altered, there are still many unaware—many of which being adolescents. With the explosive amount of popularity social media has gained among adolescents, this type of media has become one of the most valuable platforms businesses have begun generating money on through advertisement. However, the constant exposure of these edited advertisements has developed major issues. In this paper I will discuss the faults associated with photo-editing and argue that it is one of the main causes of body image dissatisfaction present among young women. In addition I will discuss why social media networks, specifically Facebook, should either change their policy and refuse to promote any edited advertisements on their networks or simply reject the advertisements that don’t clearly state to the public that they have been edited.
The fulcrum of humanity, media systems are widely acknowledged as the binding knot between citizens and the political, cultural, social and economic structures of their society. In its capacity as the powerful ‘bringer and giver’ of information, there has been significant conversation on understanding our interactions with media as well as substantial theories and studies about both “what the media do to people as well as of what people do with the media”
The attempt is made with this advertisement to define beauty with images of starved and malnourished models which Estee Lauder claims to be the standard for beauty. Estee Lauder presents its view of beauty to the consumer as the defining truth. The issue with the advertisement is the acceptance by the consumer that the Estee Lauder definition of beauty is truthful and factual. The targeted audience for this advertisement is women of all ages. Beauty is something extremely important to women and is constantly being reinforced in the society of today.... ...
Our mass media has developed drastically over the last century, and each change has influenced American culture. Understanding media and the role it plays in society is key to forming educated opinions and having control over the media’s influence and the information it presents. It is for this reason we must ask ourselves, “Are we in control of the media, or is the media in control of us?”. Popular culture itself now helps shape our world views and create a basis of judgment otherwise absent from our personal experience. Besides, people who were tuning in to the radio, watching television, and reading the newspaper were now exposed to more marketing campaigns, visual violence, sexuality, suffering and relief, and celebrity idolization than ever before. As of today 90% of media that we read, watch, or listen to is controlled by six media super giants: Time Warner, Viacom, Disney, NewsCorp (i.e. Rupert Murdoch), Comcast, and CBS. Compare this to almost 30 years ago in 1983 where as 90% of media was controlled by over 50 different companies (Critchfield). This gross lack of diversity in public opinion and information exposure has steadily diminished the perception of minority populations by failing to give equal and fair representation. The key components presented in this paper will address further the history of unequal distribution of power in the media, ask whether different races are being fairly represented as individual groups, and discuss the power of media over our culture and the difference in coverage between countries. In addition, I will help to provide a subsequent plan of action to relinquish its influence in our daily lives.