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Effect of mass media on individuals
Social effects of mass media
Social effects of mass media
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Nowadays, media has influenced the public and society especially on body image. Body image can be described as a representation of how a person feels about and sees their body. People’s self image can be affected by their own perceptions and by the feedback from the person of those around them (McVey, Murphy & Harrison, 2008). A poor body image can causes many negative psychological and physical effects. Today, not only western culture, people from all over the word has an obsession with being skinny, look perfect and also wanted to look like their idols that they have been admired especially from the media. Public should be aware that the mass media does not only give bad effects to the body image such as influencing people to change their appearances and wasting money, …show more content…
According to Just Say Yes Organization (n.d), due to the influenced from the media on self image, based on a research by Duke University, stated that 40% of the girls have started diet at the age of 9 and 10-year-old. Another survey by Rader Program, based on a survey that have been conducted by People magazine stated that 80% of women have answered that they feel insecure by the imaged of women on television and in the movies. Rader Program also stated that seven out of ten women felt more depressed and exasperated than previous when the view the images of female fashion models. These statement and research has clarify that media has influenced the people on body image in negative ways.
One of the negative impacts of media on body image is mass media influenced people to change their appearances. Due to dissatisfaction and they are not happy with their body, people tend to alter and change their identity and themselves in order to achieve their perfect and ideal body image that is same as the person that they admire and seen
We hear sayings everyday such as “Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep”, yet we live in a decade that contradicts this very notion. If looks don’t matter, then why are so many women harming themselves because they are not satisfied with how they look? If looks don’t matter, then why is the media using airbrushing to hide any flaws that one has? This is because with the media establishing unattainable standards for body perfection, American Women have taken drastic measures to live up to these impractical societal expectations. “The ‘body image’ construct tends to comprise a mixture of self-perceptions, ideas and feelings about one’s physical attributes. It is linked to self-esteem and to the individual’s emotional stability” (Wykes 2). As portrayed throughout all aspects of our media, whether it is through the television, Internet, or social media, we are exploited to a look that we wish we could have; a toned body, long legs, and nicely delineated six-pack abs. Our society promotes a body image that is “beautiful” and a far cry from the average woman’s size 12, not 2. The effects are overwhelming and we need to make more suitable changes as a way to help women not feel the need to live up to these unrealistic standards that have been self-imposed throughout our society.
In recent years, sociologists, psychologists, and medical experts have gone to great lengths about the growing problem of body image. This literature review examines the sociological impact of media-induced body image on women, specifically women under the age of 18. Although most individuals make light of the ideal body image most will agree that today’s pop-culture is inherently hurting the youth by representing false images and unhealthy habits. The paper compares the media-induced ideal body image with significant role models of today’s youth and the surrounding historical icons of pop-culture while exploring various sociological perspectives surrounding this issue.
In conclusion it is possible to see how the media promotes a physical and psychological disease among women through the usage of unrealistic body images as it urges them to change their bodies, buy “enhancing” products, and redefine their opinions. Such statements may appear to be ridiculous, but for young women who are seeking to perfect their body according to how the media portrays “good looks” it is the basis for corruption. Confidence, contentment and healthy living are the keys to a perfect and unique body image and no amount of money can advertise or sell as genuine a treatment as this.
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...
Holmstrom, A. (2004). The effects of the media on the body image: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 48(2), 196-217.
The media has had an increasingly destructive effect on young people who are becoming worryingly obsessed with their body image. The media is saturated in sexual imagery in which young people have to face every day. The sheer volume of sexual imagery in the media today has resulted in the vast majority of young people to become hooked on looking as near to perfection everyday by using the latest products and buying the latest fashions. This used to be enough but lately the next step to achieving perfection is cosmetic surgery. Everyone wants to look attractive, especially teenagers who are not only put under massive strain to succeed but to look beautiful and climb the ranks of the social ladder, and it seems that the only way to achieve the much desired beauty is to turn to drastic measures.
The media influences the way people view and think of themselves. Theres many factors that develop body image that reflects how one feels about their body. Such as historically,
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.
From newspapers, magazines, television, movies, and the Internet, people are connected to the media in so many ways every day. Media plays a huge impact on daily life, telling the public what the newest trends are, events that are happening in day-to-day life, and scandalous stories of elite individuals involving politics, fame, and money. From young children to middle aged adults, people are constantly fixated on the images the media portrays for how they should look. “Body image is defined as “perceptions of and attitudes toward one’s own physical appearance” (Burlew & Shurts, 2013, p. 1). The media has an impact on how society and individuals view themselves and each other.
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.
We live in a world where the media makes us believe that looking good is important, especially for women. Young women today, are caught up in their body image and some of them turn to eating disorders because they think it will help them get the body that “perfect” in the eye of the public. According to the findings of Reinkin and Alexander (2005), the number of female college athletes from 1971 to 2000 increased by more than 500% (Reinkin & Alexander, 2005). Female athletes are more prone to eating disorders than men because, they are expected to look a certain way and look attractive. In the research of Greenleaf, Petrie, Carter and Reel (2009) it states:
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.
Women and girls seem to be more affected by the mass media than do men and boys. Females frequently compare themselves to others, finding the negative rather than looking at the positive aspects of their own body. The media’s portrayal of the ideal body type impacts the female population far more than males, however, it is not only the mass media that affects women, but also influence of male population has on the female silhouette too.
Everyone care about beauty and media comes in the way to for its interest by using body image as a tool which only exists in people’s mind. It is unbelievable that how media is blamed for its actions. In the article, “How the Media Keeps Us Hung Up on Body Image” by Shari Graydon, the author claims that women are suffering from unhealthy and harmful disorders due to media influence. As strength, Graydon raises the attention of the readers by giving information on how media is affecting women through the usage of celebrities, professionals and researches’ data. However, Graydon’s argument unpersuasive because the author uses radical evidences to manipulate the readers, also blames only to the media regardless of other factors and the solutions to protect the people against the media are ineffective.
Have you ever come across a situation like this? Your little sister was so attracted to an advertisement of a Barbie doll in the television and she was so influenced by it that she keeps bugging your mother to buy one for her. After a long period begging, eventually your mother had to buy it for her. From this simple yet meaningful example, you can see the huge effect of media in our daily life as humankinds with needs and wants. Media affects us in all kind of aspects, from the biggest decision in our live for instance buying your home until the smallest thing that we need to do on a basis such as deciding to buy our garments or changing your hair products. Media is a word originated from the word medium and the meaning of media from Wikipedia is the storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information and data. In delivering information and data, media has it owns benefits and drawbacks. The advantages of media can be seen from its efficiency to spread news of all kind to gargantuan and various target audiences but on the other hand there are also some shortcomings of it. Media is indeed a very powerful path which can be conveying misleading messages and may divert young minds into the wrong direction and one of the most influential media affects is on body image. As you can observe from so many advertisements, weight loss programs and beauty pageants, all of them are promoting the perception of how important is your body image or in other words, it is important to have a thin body just to please and fit in the society. Eventually, most of the viewers will be affected by this perception and they are going to be fully influenced by it. The worst case to happen is they are leading society to suffer eat...