Introduction In the recent decades, with the improvement of the living standard, people have been paying more attention to their own physical appearance. For example, when a person faces to a mirror, he or she will think about if his or her height, weight, body shape even the hair style are beautiful in nowadays’ society. Another example is many grandparents think their obese grandchildren are healthy, but a large number of adolescents themselves think as thin as fashion models are healthy. Obviously, different people have different body image in mind. In my view, the different culture backgrounds, genders, age groups or living environments all can cause different body images. This article will talk about how does the media impact people’s body image and some previous studies in body image will be shown. Literature review Media has become the main way for people to get information no matter is the ancient story or the latest news. However, the negative impact also comes out. For example, according to a meta-analysis of 25studies from 1979-2001 shows that people’s body images felt more positive after seeing a fat media image than viewing a thin media image(Groesz,L.,&Murnen,2007). Thus, the researcher sum up that the slender image can let people feel satisfaction. As a result, mare and more social or psychological researcher want to study that how the media influences people’s thinking and use the satisfaction to describe the measure of body image. Previous study one( body image study in adolescents) The researcher Hill, G.J. who is the assistant professor of Texas Christian University had a study focus on two main objects. First, to determine media images influence the body image among the collage students. Second, to find if the media effect collage students’ body satisfaction(Hill,G.J.,2009). According to him, the abilitiesof people realise body satisfaction and health behavior,are influenced by mass media images is very important for family and consumer sciences professionals to understand. In this study, there are 184 students who comes from a private university were attended this survey. The average age of student is 21. Both of the male (42%) and female (58%) students were given two sections which were the powerpoint presentation about the weighu management was developed and the questionnaires after the presentation. Firstly, these 184 students were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. The presentation gave the introduction about achievinh health weight, improving eating habits even the food guide pyramid.
The media has promoted a dominant view of how people should perceive beauty, and what consists of perfection in beauty. According to Dr. Karin Jasper, the media have women encouraging them to be concerned with their outward appearance and how others perceive them by surrounding everyone with the ideal female beauty. (Jasper, 2000) Body image has become a particular concern for young girls and women, often females work diligently to attain the perfect body image advertised in mass media. (Gibbs, 2010) When women are not able to obtain their ideal body goal, many develop negative feelings and become self-conscious about their bodies. Conversely, it is not possible for someone to look like a model in ads, someone without blemishes, scars, or pours. Another study conducted in 2012 showed contemporary media and culture has defined a women’s social desirability in terms of their bodies. For females, this has often resulted in comparing themselves to bodies shown in advertisements, commercials, magazines, etc. however not all body
This article examined the effect of media’s glorification of the thin ideal on women as self-objectification. The factors which triggered the beginning of the self-objectification were also stated as the woman’ emotional state and personality. Then the article discussed the experiment done, which compared the effect of intensive exposure of thin models magazines and magazines advertising products without people. Additionally, the author offered detailed description of how those effects, self-objectification, appearance anxiety, negative mood and body dissatisfaction, were measured. In the last section, the author illustrated the results, which showed that the group exposed to thin-idealized models scored higher number in all the previously-stated measures compared to the group exposed to products’ images.
Researchers have used various abstract foundations for examining the relationship between media and body image ( Holmstrom, 2004). Here I review the theory that has been used by researcher in the area. Bandura’s Social cognitive theory (1994) assumed that “people learn and model the behaviors of attractive others”. The supporters of this theory suggest that young women find slim models in the media attractive and try to imitate them through dieting which leads them to eating disorders.
Media contributes in a way we see our body such as in an attractive or unattractive way such as Rebecca J.Donatelle in “ Enhancing your Body Image” explains. The way we assume about our physical appearance can lead to health problems and other side effects we can come across throughout our lifestyle. For instance the body image myths that the author states in the paragraph shows some effects on how our society feels today. And the changes one can make to become better to be better therefore changing our life for the better can combat in a lifetime experience.
Why is this topic of utmost importance? Undeniably, the media now has become an essential tool for everyone in this era, be it for information and social networking (Shakeel). However, it has also become a platform for people to look up to – for both the good and bad reasons. Generally, most females look to the media as an example for an “ideal” body image. If so, what are the impacts? To what extent does mass media contribute to negative perceptions of body image by females? Does the amount of time spent using the mass media contribute to females’ perception of their body image? What factors influence why some females are affected by the images of the media and some aren’t? This literatu...
Media has a negative impact on females’ body image by promoting artificial beauty. Women often become dissatisfied with their bodies, which cause them to develop eating disorders. Body image affects a woman’s perceptions and feelings about their physical appearance when looking in the mirror. The media portrays unrealistic beauty of women who are thin with perfect hair and make-up. Many women who expose themselves to the unrealistic standards of the media often idealize, covet, and become very insecure. The many women who do not expose themselves would influence others to perceive their physical appearances as beautiful. “Many popular magazines for females tell women to focus on their physical, outer attributes (i.e. body shape, muscle tone, bone structure, hair, makeup, clothing, etc.) and rarely mention the importance of being smart, sophisticated, funny and/or possessing many other positive attributes that have nothing to do with physical attributes” (Sparhawk 1). Obviously, the media’s representation of the thin ideal connects to the majority of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders. In other words, the media’s use of unrealistic women sends a hidden message that in order for women to be beautiful they must be unhealthy. The importance of physical appearance is encouraged at an early development for most girls. For these reasons, the connection between media and body image is very important because low body image will lead to eating disorders and potentially death.
These inconsistent findings indicate that the relationship between media ideal body images and people’s self-esteem should be further studied. This study will study how media ideal body images influence people’s self-esteem by using the social learning theory, social comparison theory, cultivation theory, and cognitive dissonance theory. Through apply these different theories, this study hope to provide some different perspectives, such as media perspective and psychology perspective. And because this study focus on the general media body images, some it could provide information to other different subject, for example the media regulation, the advertisement...
Mass media has evolved over the years and is heard to have many effects on body image. Does mass media have an effect on body image? To answer this question, I have explored academic articles for different social science disciplines. This particular discipline is Psychology. The discipline of psychology will show how body images affect people and what causes them to be affected. The articles being reviewed are Barlett, Christopher P., Christopher L. Vowels and Donald A. Saucier. “Meta-Analyses of the Effects of Media Images on Men’s Body Image Concerns.” Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology. 27.3 (2008) : 279-310., Hayes, Sharon and Stacey Tantleff-Dunn. “Am I too fat to be a princess? Examining the effects of popular children’s media on
exposure to thin-ideal images on dieting and body satisfaction. Communication Research, 39(1), 79-102. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/socabs/docview/1023025691/550D920C734A43DCPQ/46?accountid=14771
Society is exposed to media everyday, and body image is included in this. Conception of body image varies from adolescents to adults, men to women, and different age groups of the same gender. The media gives off unreliable and impractical images sometimes that do not have positive affects on the public. Advertisers, parents, producers have a responsibility to portray positive information and representation to help benefit the public.
Men and women are primed from a young age through magazines, TV shows, social media apps and more to conform to the ideal standards of beauty. As people move through the different milestones of the human lifespan their body image expectations and motivations change. It is essential to study body image to understand the effect it has on our physical, emotional, and psychological health. Exploring body image though the categories of university students, ethnicity, pregnancy, and gender helps to gain a well rounded view of medias effects on body
Dittmar, Helga. "How Do "body Perfect" Ideals in the Media Have a Negative Impact on Body Image and Behaviors? Factors and Processes Related to Self and Identity." : Sussex Research Online. N.p, 6 Feb. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
The media have been criticized for portraying the thin women as “ideal” .This research plans to look at the effects of media on the body image of women. This cumulates the findings of empirical studies that observe the effects of media on body image. This study will also look at the different social comparison theories that relate media and body image. It will also investigate the different sources of media that have an impact on the body image of women. It also scopes to find out which sources have a greater consequence than the others. Furthermore it also researches about how the women could be prevented from comparing their body image from that of the models and actresses portrayed in the media.
Vargas, L E. (2013) The Negative Effects of The Media on Body Image. Personal.psu.edu. Retrieved 30 Nov. 17 from:
The media’s portrayal of the female body image has a negative effect on the female population, as shown in both literature reviews and this research. The dominant factors which affect body image are that of the frequent comparison to others, seeing models, celebrities, in the media as well as the general society around. The supposed ideal physical appearance and what is considered to be the ideal body plays a great role in the nega...