Media Self Image

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECTS SELF IMAGE

Self-Image - the way you think about yourself and your abilities or appearance. In a modern popular culture, body image norms are perpetuated by fashion and the media, by better selection of "good looks" in selection of a potential mate, and by the association of reduced potential in individuals not portraying "accepted" body proportions. In my paper, I describe and support with evidence how the media contributes to poor body image in individuals. Body image has been defined in many ways. One definition is that it is the perceptions and attitudes held by an individual in relation to his or her own physical characteristics (cash &Fleming, 2002). The term body image has been used in research interchangeably

This study used a cross-sectional design to examine age and gender patterns in self-esteem and to explore how contemporary social influences relate to adolescent self-esteem. Self-reported influences on self-esteem involving the media, sexual harassment, body image, family and peer relationships, and emotional expression were evaluated with 93 boys and 116 girls in Grades 5, 8, and 12. Girls reported lower self-esteem than boys in early adolescence, and late adolescent boys reported lower self-esteem than younger boys. The predictors as a set accounted for a significant portion of the variance in self-esteem, while the best predictor of self-esteem varied by age and gender. Large gender differences were present for emotional expression, with boys becoming more restrictive across adolescence. Girls reported more negative body image and media influence scores than did boys in late childhood and early adolescence. Body image appeared to mediate the relationships between certain predictors and self-esteem for girls, while gender and grade appeared to moderate the relationship between media influence and self-esteem for girls and boys. There have been differences found between television and magazines in the way the messages are processed by viewers. It has been argued that the two media outlets required different levels of involvement by the viewer (Tiggeman, 2003). In her study conducted with 104 undergraduate females, Tiggemann (2003) found that magazines and television operate in different ways. Participants were presented with a list of popular magazines and television shows and were asked to indicate which they had read or viewed. Participants as completed scales assessing body dissatisfaction disordered eating symptoms, awareness and internalization of body shape ideals, self-esteem, and BMI (Tiggemann, 2003). Results of the