Media And Social Media

“Contrary to the idea that social media creates a polarizing “filter bubble,” exposing people to only a narrow range of opinions, 70 percent of Millennials say that their social media feeds are comprised of diverse viewpoints evenly mixed between those similar to and different from their own. (American Press Institute, 2015, p. 3)

Traditional media has failed to live up to its fourth estate role. This has lead us to the question, can the more modern, social media, make up for the lack of success that traditional media has had in fulfilling this watchdog role for the people? Kemp’s rules of CIDRA1 apply to social media as they do with traditional media. Thus, we must determine what, if any, obstacles are present in preventing social media from completing this role. More specifically, do the five filters that Chomsky highlights apply to social media as they do to traditional media? Or does the fundamental structure of social media allow for it to accomplish a fifth estate role? I argue that social media is more effective at playing a watchdog role than traditional media. Social media is built on a platform that has the interest of working for the people in terms of freedom of distributing ideas and checking elite power in liberal democracies. Furthermore, “…traditional media formats are no longer the only politically relevant forms of media” (Metzgar, Maruggi, 2009, p. 149). The reason that social media can have higher success in acting as a watchdog role stems from one central theme: when it comes to social media, less of Chomsky’s filters lie between the person wanting to distribute an idea and the ability to have this idea delivered to the public.

Societal pressure also comes in the form of body shaming, which is defined as the criticism of another person’s body shape or appearance. According to a 2016 study, there is correlation between body shaming, body dissatisfaction, and eating disorders, all of which happen to be most prevalent in young women (Mustapic p. 447). In recent years, body shaming has become a huge problem due to the popularity of social media platforms. Women of all shapes and sizes are ridiculed on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and other sites for not conforming to societal normalities. The 2016 study also assessed eating disorders in relation to age and body mass index (BMI) of participants (Mustapic p. 449). Age did not have much effect on the data, which is unsurprising due to the fact that all participants were close in age. What is more surprising, however, is that BMI also had little effect on the data. One would think that women with greater BMIs would

Social media creates an ideal body image in an adolescent’s mind that affects them in various ways. Having an ideal body image can lower self-esteem in some adolescents’ creating eating disorders, and this idea of getting plastic surgery as they get older. Social media is steadily increasing and has heavily influenced adolescent’s to be more aware of their body figure. As a result, many adolescent’s have developed low self-esteem due to the fact that social media continues promoting fit women and creating the idea that women need to be thin to be loved or accepted by society; this can cause harm to adolescent’s because they feel the need to fit in to society.

The ability to exchange weight challenges and thin body photos is at an all time high due to the Internet. There is a constant stream of images that have global platforms to support self-destructive behavior. These platforms can support eating disorders such as bulimia, anorexia, and binging (Rojas). According to Marcela Rojas, "Social Media, where users exchange information and photos and communicate over common interests, has become a bastion for some struggling with eating disorders. Images of spindly, concave stomachs and jutting ribs emerge on various sites" (2). Today's media creates dissatisfaction on various platforms; but bullying creates social conflicts as well as inner conflicts. Bullying can cause extreme emotional distress. It can lead to depression, which can lead to eating disorders. This constant cycle of depression leads to a repetitive cycle of eating disorders. As bullying can happen face-to-face or online, it can slowly dig away at a person's self-worth. Bullies can degrade individuals suffering with eating disorders' self-image, which can lead to worse things than eating disorders ("Does Social Media Cause Eating Disorders in

Along with the unrealistic body images on social media it drags along obsession with dieting, food, and appearance in young adolescents creating eating disorders. “Adolescents diagnosed with serious eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia often report that their symptoms can be linked to the bullying they received from their age peers as well as the unrealistic media images presented as an ideal for them to follow.”(www.phycologytoday.com) The unrealistic body ideal that they feel they need to follow has a big impact on the way teens look at what they are eating, and their weight and shape which can lead to serious eating disorders. “Adolescent females who are unable to conform to the ideal being put forward by movie, television find themselves taking extreme measures to be more like their role models.” (www.phycologytoday.com) Teens feel that it is important to become like their role models that they see on social media and go to extreme measures to become the ideal weight and shape

“Bullying does not always happen in person. Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that happens online or through text messages or emails. It includes posting rumors on sites like Facebook, sharing embarrassing pictures or videos, and making fake profiles or websites”, the article said in (Facts About Bullying 1). Bullying can have a long-lasting result on the victims, and in some occurrences, it may lead to eating disorders, which are the results of the desire one person has for an ideal body image (Tennie McCarty 1). According to McCarty, “Seventy-five percent of individuals that are suffering from an eating disorder admit bullying is a significant cause of their disorder” (1). Having a negative body image can lower one persons’ self-esteem and cause that person to have a distorted or poor look on their life (Helping Teens With Negative Body Images 1). Body image is what one person imagines that they look like or what they see when their looking into the mirror. This includes how people believe they look and how they feel about their bodies. (Helping Teens With Negative Body Images 1).

Gonzalez states that, “bullying is common in most public schools, and even in some private schools. Some girls call other girls “fat” or “ugly,” and the victim starts to become concerned about their appearances. Most girls will often change the way they look, act, or eat” (Gozalez 1). Bullies can lower self-esteem, cause depression, and make people self-conscious. When women hear men saying negative comments about their body, they over think and over react. Women are undoubtedly convinced that men are correct and they need to become the next supermodel. It should not be this way, we should cherish and affirm who we are and not feel constrained by the crowd around

This article explained what goes behind the scenes and why several come to extremes to lose the weight. In the article “Bullying and Body Image” by Kevin R Wander, he explains the children and young adults get bullied on their body image. I figured that kids that were over-weight would get bullied, not kids that were under-weight would.” Overweight and even underweight children and adolescents tend to be at higher risk for bullying” (Wandler). Being under weight never occurred to me that kids that were skinny would be picked on. Also, Wandler brought up cyberbullying and how it is easier for kids to get bullied this way, not only being called names at school, but through social websites due to their body image. “This problem is growing, according the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey found that 16% of high school students (grades 9-12) were victims electronically bullying in the past year” (Wandler). No one wishes to get bullied, ever. These children would attempt extreme measures to stop the harassment. They modify their diets then shortly develop eating disorders. It’s crazy to consider that a various amount people just want to fit in and do anything to do so. The author talks about how body image can be a cause of bullying, how social media makes it harder on children, and how this generation looks at famous people and compares themselves and each other. “The magazines and photos are so heavily

“Adolescents are most vunerable as they could be going through a stressful period in their lives” (Teo, 5). To the teenager, high school is a big part of life. They try to fit in and get the approval of others. This pressure often leaves the teenager with an obsession over their bodies. Caroline Jones learned in high school how to eat without feeling guilty, “Comfort-eating made her feel fat, until a new friend thaught her how to stick her fingers down her throat.” (Brown, 1). Being accepted in high school is really important to a teenager, and they are willing to throw up the food they have eaten, or not eat at all in order to fit in. Eating disorders are very dangerous, and yet they are becoming more common each year. At SGH, anorexia is the most comon eating disorder seen by doctors, it accounts for about half of the cases (Teo 5). Society does not take in consideration that diseases such as anorexia are life threatning. It is not just a little problem that goes away with time. Not only eating disorders are triggered by peer pressure, but by social media as

Most people are familiar with the “traditional” form of bullying. Oftentimes it produces an image of someone at school threatening those that they deem weaker than them or harassing them either physically or emotionally. Cyberbullying is “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices. As such, it covers a number of phenomena, including stalking, spreading rumors, impersonating victims, and anonymous online taunting to name a few”(Miller, 2017). Body image is “how you see yourself when you look in the mirror or when you picture yourself in your mind. It encompasses: what you believe about your own appearance (including your memories, assumptions, and generalizations;) how you feel about your body, including your height, shape and weight and how you sense and control your body as you move; and how you feel in your body, not just about your body” (National Eating Disorders Association, 2016). Traditionally, issues with body image have been seen a women’s issue. However, with the increase use of social media, more people are developing body image

Social media has a big impact on teenagers’ self esteem because of what society dictates as the “perfect” girls and boys looking like.Thus, teenagers have low self esteem because they don't have that perfect body. Teenage girls associate being pretty with being thin because of beauty standards like actresses such as Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham. Girls’ beliefs that they have to be ‘thin” to be pretty causes them to have self esteem issues with their body weight because of these issues,girls go on diets and eventually might develop an eating disorder. There was a study performed on young girls after seeing the extremely skinny fashion model which made her “feel really ugly. I know it's really stupid but I still follow it. It makes me feel really insecure”(Bawdon). The study led to the “Size Zero” culture ,girls are suffering from eating disorders because media shows it okay for celebrities to be that skinny. But, they are suffering from

According to to the National Association for Self Esteem, approximately 92% of all teen girls want to change something about their bodies. Consequently, over half of them go to extreme measures to “fix” what they see is wrong with them. All of the possible outcomes of those measures are dangerous, as dangerous as paralyzation or even death. In order to change this negative trend, we must acknowledge that teens feel too much pressure to have perfect body image. This negative message comes from social media and it can lead to diseases such as Bulimia Nervosa and Anorexia Nervosa.

The effects of mass media and social media have changed the way people have experienced presidential campaigns in many ways. With the development of new technologies through the last hundred years many different ways of experiencing the campaigns have taken place. Newspapers, radio, television, internet and social media websites have changed the ways we all have experienced elections.

We will start our campaign in the beginning of June till the end of September in 2017. Our main goal is to reach 1000 millennials in the Fort Worth area in those four months.