The Effects Of Media On Body Image - 1484 Words

Media has developed to become omnipresent in the day to day lives of the westernized societies. The media is considered a gigantic umbrella that houses a plethora of different outlets underneath it such as television, music videos, magazines, commercials, video games and social media. In this paper, the effects of media and various media types are examined to understand their potential outcomes. Focusing on how and if media affects body image in girls and women, the themes of dieting awareness, thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction and behaviours are a few of the themes that reoccurred throughout various recent journal articles. Since the media is an ever-growing presence, it potentially has negative effects not only on our†¦show more content†¦The internet is also considered to be the most dangerous since there are many opportunities to actively seek out thin-ideal, dieting and eating pathology encouraging websites since the user is in control, whereas in magazin es, television and video games have the content already curated and cannot lead to anything other than what is being shown (Tiggemann Miller, 2010). Conversely, media exposure was linked to dieting awareness and body dissatisfaction for younger girls who watched more music videos on television and were exposed to magazines aimed at an older audience (Dohnt Tiggemann, 2006). More studies evidently need to be conducted to strengthen one side of the argument. The media type that is related to causing the highest rates of body dissatisfaction is likely to be the media type that people utilize the most and that has a high number of thin-ideal images. The Thin-Ideal Most if not all of the articles mention a term along the lines of ‘thin-ideal’ which is the idealistic female body set by society or ‘thinspiration’ which is something or someone used as motivation to achieve a low body weight. After further research was conducted, thin-ideal and thin-ideal internalization were found to be detrimental to body image. Exposure to ‘thinspiration’ can predict the severity in which people relate themselves with the thin-ideal models and images (Lewallen Behm-Morawitz, 2016), exposure to these images encourages people to compare andShow MoreRelatedEffects of Media on Body Image855 Words   |  3 PagesEffects of Media on Body Image Discussion This study was conducted to analyze the impact of media, mainly fashion magazines, on how women perceived the idealized body weight and shape as well as the impact of media on the decision to diet or initiate an exercise program. Twenty working class women were given questionnaires at different times. The exposure to fashion magazines was assessed by determining whether the participant was a high level frequency viewer of fashion magazines, viewing themRead MoreMedia Effects Body Image1656 Words   |  7 PagesKoenig April 6, 2014 The Effects of Mass Media on African American Women Body Images Over the past 10 years, mass media and the access to social networks has evolved substantially causing the effects of negative self-image and what is considered beautiful. Body image expectations for both African-American male and female share the battles of society’s expectations, yet African American women body images come with a stricter and more unhealthy stigma; growth of social media such as Facebook, InstagramRead MoreMedia Effects On Body Image Essay1648 Words   |  7 PagesSpecific age groups and mostly women have been studied regarding media effects on body image. These studies did not test the external stimuli created by peer groups that have an impact on a person’s self-idealization. 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EveryRead MoreThe Effect Of Media On Womens Body Image1247 Words   |  5 Pagesresearch on how the role of media affects how women perceive body image. I was interested in knowing the ways in which the media influenced the ways in which they perceive themselves and their beauty. In order to perform my research, I conducted surveys of female students ranging from ages 18-28, carried out experimental research on them to test whether they feel worse about their bodies after being exposed to thin media models than after being exposed to other types of images as well as conducting secondary