Media influences through many types of communication systems and has a massive effect on people’s life, but are Americans fully aware that food industries generally targets children? The lawsuit brought by two teenagers, Ms. Bradley a 19 years old, weighs 270 pounds, Ms. Pelman a 14 years old, weighs 170 pounds, was whether McDonald’s was responsible for their obesity because McDonald’s did not provide the necessary information about the health risks associated with its meals that they eat. Placing the blame into the fast food industry for allegedly contributing to their obesity and health problems. The media through many types of advertisement promotes unhealthy foods, high in saturated fat, large amounts of fructose sugars, salt, as the ideal food options. Many may agree that it was their own wrongdoing that contributed to their obesity, but what about if people would give the teenagers some credibility to their allegations. Therefore, people can take into consideration the theory that media has a huge negative influence on what American children eat. Media influence is something people should certainly always be aware of. Children on a daily basis read magazines, listen to the radio, watch television or check their online social media for the latest trends in the world, children are opening themselves up to be programmed by the media routinely. Why are children the main target by the food industries? Media has a negative influence on children’s food choices through
Many Americans are suffering from nutrition issues. There are approximately 12.5 million children and adolescents aged 2-19 years that are obese (CDC). The proper health and nutrition for children is very critical to their growth and development. The media and its promotion of junk food is one way that affects obese children. Within this paper, I will discuss the long and short term
Obesity has become increasingly more prominent in American society. It is also a major health issue affecting many adults and children in the US every year. In his article "Don't Blame the Eater," David Zinczenko sympathizes with children who are suing McDonald’s making them fat. In his own experience as a “latchkey kid”, he knows how easily fast food makes teenagers put on weight with a steady diet of fast food meals. Zinczenko argues that both lack of fast food alternative companies and lack of providing nutrition information contribute to childhood obesity.
In the article “The Battle Against Fast Food Begins in the Home,” Daniel Weintraub argues that it is the parents, not anybody else, who are responsible for teaching kids healthy eating and exercise habits. He also states that, “It’s the fault of the parents who let their kids eat unhealthy foods and sit in front of the television or computer for hours at a time.” His argument that parents are to blame for childhood obesity is correct to a certain extent but he fails to realize that fast food company’s marketing and advertising to young children also plays a big part in the problem.
Association, kids often do make food choices based on what they see on television. Doctors who study kids have noticed that food advertised is very powerful” (39). In order to prove that idea, the author adds that children and teens who watch more than two hours of television daily are more likely to be overweight than those who do not. Due to the many fast food restaurants and advertisements available to Americans, the realization that their food is unhealthy does not occur. The United States is aware of the consequences that come along with obesity, yet rarely ever are there advertisements promoting a healthy lifestyle. It is uncommon that an overweight person is shown eating a restaurant’s food in their commercial. It will give off the wrong
Along with these factors the food industry is spreading the sell of high-sugar and high-fat foods, increasing their portion sizes and uncontrollably boosting these products. In the article, “Fast-food Culture Serves Up Super-Size Americans”, author Bridget Murray discusses “toxic signs” such as Nutritious foods reign, serving sizes keep increasing, and the food Industry has run amok. The food industry has prospered into being in common places such gas stations, vending machines, convenience stores, serving high-fat, high-sugar food, and restaurants increasing their serving size and promoting bargains for low cost products. Murray has noted, “ High-fat, High-sugar foods are widely available, taste good and cost less than healthier food”; an example of this would be vending machines. Vending machines contain many fatty foods at low prices as they are convenient to a typical person. The most common source of increasing serving sizes, is McDonald’s use of Super-Size it, which they had made into a verb. The food industry has run amok by serving appealing processed foods, through colorful packaging in addition to using advertisements on television, computers and social media. Children spend most of their day watching T.V., where they view multiple advertisements. In recent articles, “...research has found that children who watch more than three hours of television a day are 50 per cent more likely to be obese than children who watch fewer
In today’s society, the media, in many ways control the average consumer’s way of thinking. Bright billboards, catchy radio jingles, colorful magazine ads, and eye catching T.V ads play a major role in obesity in the United States. The one dollar double cheeseburger, offered by Burger King and McDonalds is a prime example. Burger King offers more meat with a better taste, and the advertisements are very colorful. Media tends to influence un-natural way of thinking among the average consumer. These ads usually misrepresent images of their target audience, using physically fit looking people in the fast food ads. A large number of these advertisements place a great deal of attention on the foods taste, rather than its nutritional value. This causes the consumer to overlook the risk and pay more attention to the taste and convenience. Well designed fast food media campaigns play a major role in the unnatural thinking that leads to obesity in the United States.
Childhood Obesity is known as the number one problem in the twenty first century. People today don’t realize how bad of a problem this is because they don’t most likely know someone who is going through it. But do you ever think what is causing children to be obese? Is it just their bad choices, or is it media? Like for example, pressured fast food commercials who are leading the children or young adults to make these bad choices. People today don’t realize how simple commercials seduces the human brain. Fast food commercials are pressured commercials who are dragging their customers into buying their unhealthy foods just because of a dollar less. Childhood Obesity is caused because of the media and their; influential pressured fast food
As mass media continues to expand through our use of everyday electronics, children 's socialization skills may be suffering by the lack of face to face, physical, and natural interaction. Mass media like television, computers, radios, newspapers, video games and many others play a huge role in socialization in children. Children need interaction, and mass media offers no physical interaction at all. Children are spending more and more time in the house on their tablets, watching TV, and surfing the internet. It is cutting into their time with friends and family, as well as time getting physical exercise. It is also affecting their cognitive thinking and abilities to socialize with others.
Food advertisements, if focused at the right people and in the right places, are a complete success. These features, some of which are commercials, seduce society into buying food that we necessarily do not need. Many advertisement companies, especially those about food, are directed to children because they know that if you grab the kids you have their parents. While brands are using fun cartoons like “Trix Rabbit” and “Toucan Sam” (Green, 2007, p. 49) supermarkets are taking these items and placing them right in front of the children, at their level, advertising the “Fun foods” (Elliot, 2008, p. 259-273). They do this so the kids will use their, “pester power” (Scholsser, n.d., p. 2) to get what they want. A series of studies have been performed on children and television advertisements. An article states, “These studies have generally linked children's television viewing to negative health effects” (Korr, 2008, p. 451). Amongst these negative effects is a higher level of childhood obesity (p. 451). Similarly, in another study performed by a group of researchers, kids were asked to explain the television commercials that they remembered the best. The answers given were then compared with their diets. Interestingly, the items those children remembered best, chips, sweets, and sodas were a huge part of what they ate (Hitching & Moynihan, 1998, p. 511-517). However, some authors argue that television producer’s, even though their
Unlike previous generations who were “introduced” to the internet, television and social media, the present generation is “born” in it. By this statement, it is implied that children today are much closer to technology and media than adults are, and so, are more likely to be affected by it. Perhaps, the highest impact on the physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development of children and adolescents is by media due to its ready availability through Smart phones, tablet PCs and other portable devices. This paper attempts to evaluate some of the influences of media on various aspects of child and adolescent development.
To begin with, marketing strategies, including the location of the advertisement of unhealthy foods, the advertisement may affect the child’s food decision. For example, schools can allow advertisements from local food companies to promote their food. The author who wrote the article, Childhood Obesity Causes & Consequences, clarifies many high schools and middle schools, nearly half, let non-healthy foods be advertised to faculty and students (“Childhood Obesity Causes & Consequences”). Therefore, schools that allow such advertisements to be placed promote unhealthy foods to children and then children are influenced to eat the product. Another example of location is technology combines many sources of food companies to advertise food to the one place children are most likely going to be. The author points out foods that have low nutrients but high calories, fat, and other unhealthy nutrients are highly marketed towards children in the media (“Childhood Obesity Causes & Consequences”). In other words, children that are on different
In today’s society, there are a number of factors that affect a child’s ability to learn. The media, for good and for bad, is the primary teacher of American youth. This environment reflects life itself, sometimes in a corrupt way, including the positive and heinous parts, along with the beautiful and hideous parts, as well as the charitable and violent parts. It is almost impossible to protect American youth from experiences reflecting the adult world when the media invades homes and becomes so much a part of everyday living. “American teenagers spend 31 hours a week watching television, 10 hours a week online, 4 hours a week reading magazines, and 17 hours a week listening to music” (Miss). Even though mass media is a huge part of a
The media can be a powerful tool to get a message across. The media have been around for a while now, and in some cases it can be a useful tool to catch up with current events. In other cases it can be a total misrepresentation of the truth when it comes to controversial topics. The media use some controversial topics in order to get more and more people watch, read, and listen to their source. An example of a controversial topic, used by the media was the connection of the MMR vaccine with autism symptoms. Many media sources claim that the vaccine triggers the symptoms of autism. One of the main people causing the scare was Andrew Wakefield, a scientist who’s flawed study caused a public scare. Many people only believed his study because it was covered extensively by the media. The constant struggle of separating the real from the fake in the media often leads to citizens making misinformed decisions.
The digital generation is taking over and becoming more prevalent in today’s society. As we take a closer look into the effects that media has on children it is clear that there are demographical characteristics that play a role into how much or how little media is used in the everyday life of children. Questions and doubt are raised in regards to media and whether it plays a positive and negative role in a child’s development. Understanding the reasons why media use is so prevalent among different environmental and socio-economic backgrounds will give us an idea of the effects that media can have on a child’s development. Media is ever-changing and is becoming more of our everyday life. The more time goes on the more we begin to understand the effects that media has on the development of children. The articles discussed in this paper address those demographic influences and parental contributions to the length and use of media in the home.
What is more important than children? Children define the very notion of innocence in the world, untouched or soiled by the cruelty and brutality of their soon-to-be-inherited society. Generation after generation is brought up and raised through this ruthless and heartless world, struggling to remain pure and preserve their blamelessness. The race to maintain our children’s innocence, however, is now being blatantly surpassed by a new kind of competitor: one never to have been seen before—the media. In modern American society, media plays a vital role in children’s lives that is having damaging effects on them as they mature into our country’s future adults.