1.0 Introduction
According to a report published by the United States Census Bureau, American spends about 3952 hours on a yearly basis on using media with approximately 1704 hours being used up watching television (Kaus and Thapar 2014). These numbers are equivalent to watching the television for more than two months and five months on other forms of media. In addition to this, more than 70% of women have also dominated all forms of media particularly the social networks (Kaus and Thapar 2014). Therefore, it is outright reasonable to state that what we spend our time on has a direct impact on our lives. This premise has been the emphasis of many research studies. Most of these research reports have specifically looked at the elements portrayed by media and their effect on our perception of ourselves. Furthermore, body satisfaction and self-esteem have been negatively affected particularly by media. Therefore, it is critical to understand the role of media and how it affects the well-being of women (Kaus and Thapar 2014). Once we understand the role media plays in the lives of women, we can begin to understand how to reduce its negative effects. In the subsequent literature review, different research studies that demystify the effects of media on women have been explored. Firstly, the studies that focus on the general effect of media and its influence on women have been examined. Additionally, globalization of sociocultural values is also described and the studies that focus
Throughout today’s society, media contributes to almost everyone’s daily life. From informative news channels to comical television shows, media proves to be effective in advertisement, releasing messages and informing the audience. Although media proves to be wildly effective in advertising, releasing messages and informing the audience, periodically destructive and misleading messages are provided to the audience and directly influencing women. Cultural critics widely agree that media tends to negatively influence women and all the critics point to research which supports the belief that women are portrayed as subordinate to men, having no
Media enforces the social-cultural standards, which women are required to follow in order to look and behave in a manner that society considers acceptable. Newspapers, commercials, posters, magazines, fliers, reality shows, and cartoons only name a few of our everyday interaction with the media (Scholar, C.2011). However, these standards presented by media send a false perception of women, thus portraying women in a negative and disrespectful manner. Society views woman as mentally, morally, and physically inferior to men, and media is only highlighting this idea (Scholar, C.2011). In fact, media represents women in a stereotypical form of beauty, they display women as sexual objects, and create the illusion that women are ignorant.
Media has become a significant component within society. While media provides many pros, it supplies various cons as well. One very prominent fault that the significance of media has is its visual depiction of women. There is an abundance of media portraying women to have ideal bodies, and this undoubtedly has a negative effect on adolescent girls. Two of the many effects of media on females are depression and self esteem issues, as well as eating disorders. Unfortunately, body dissatisfaction caused by media is becoming more and more common.
When one thinks of media, one tends to relate media to television, news, magazines, newspaper articles, and so on. Many people do not think of media is something that portrays negative effects on young women. However, young women are more susceptible to lower self-esteem resulting in eating disorders or depression more today than ever before. The media projects negative and undermining images of women and one does not have to look very hard to realize this. The media projects images of unrealistic women who only look the way they do because of plastic surgery or airbrushing techniques. The media has much greater effects on young girls than anything else in our culture today. Our society has created an environment so obsessed with
I can remember her standing in front of the mirror looking at herself. How she thought she was beautiful, I don’t know. Because the image I saw was of a person who looked like a living corpse. She had to have weighed only 100 pounds, her hair so thin, the black bags under her eyes, and her overall grayish complexion made her look as if she were a dead. As she saw me staring at her in the corner of her eye, she slammed the door in my face. That was the big sister that I knew now. She was no longer the big sister that I could go to and get advice from or have a good laugh with. No, she was too busy with her own schedule and not to mention her terrible mood swings. My older sister
A major modern problem with the media is the sublimation of, and reaffirmation of, stereotypical female gender roles. “The media treats women like shit” (Cho). Which is a serious issue because of Marshall McLuhan’s famous words, “The Medium is the Message” (Warwick). The medium up for discussion is the media, which can be fundamentally defined as the most significant “single source of information that people have today (Katz). Therefore, in order to understand “what’s going on in our society” (Katz) it is “absolutely imperative to “understand media” (Katz). Media and technology are “shaping our politics, our national discourse and most of all, they’re shaping our children’s brains, lives and emotions” (Steyer). Caroline Heldman, PhD, and
After examining multiple sources, the damaging effects on women that is influenced through media involves many different aspects as it includes body dissatisfaction and body shaming, mental disorders including eating disorders, depression, and low self-esteem, and impacts on sexuality based on how women are portrayed in media. It can be concluded that they hypothesis was correct in the sense that the media is influencing the sexualization of girls and causing these negative effects to occur.
As you’re walking down a street you may notice a young group of girls or women walking and they see a huge billboard of a beautiful model. They might stop and stare at her and then discuss about her perfect her body is. Not knowing in the next five minutes they’ll be comparing their bodies to the model and feeling bad about themselves wishing that they had her body. Not to mention, that the photo may be photoshopped to make it seem as her body is perfect, or she had plastic surgery to fit the idea of having the perfect body. The fact that the media thinks they’re encouraging young girls and women to embrace their beauty, they’re influencing them that they have to have a perfect body in order to get attention. The media has put a lot of pressure on young girls and women to look perfect and second guess their bodies, when plastic surgery is never the answer to build their self-esteem up.
Today in the world a vast majority of people are consistently exposed to media contents such as movies, social media, magazines and many more. The working thesis is “Most people have been exposed to some form of the media and many would argue that it's just images and it has no effect on a person's perspective on females but consistent exposure to the media can effect this,” which illustrates the issues in which the media influences how people and women perceive females. While some would disagree with the working thesis those critics can be swayed by explanations for the common objections.
Every day we are exposed to some type of media. Whether you know it or not, the media that you view each day affects you in some way. This is especially true for women and girls. The media puts a huge emphasis on how women are supposed to look to be considered beautiful, liked, and successful. All around the world women and girls look in the mirror and think that they are not thin or pretty enough to be accepted by the world. Would you want your sister, niece, best friend, or even your mother to think of themselves in that way? The media puts way too much emphasis on looks, and it needs to stop.
Media has many negative affects on a girls personality. From young ages girls are seeing girls with what media calls the perfect body thin with big boobs a gap
We, the American public are hit from every imaginable direction every waking moment of our lives by slick advertising agencies trying to coerce us into or tell us why we need to buy their products. Their products will make us happier or thinner, or prettier. The advertisers often use the picture of youth and vitality so that the public will associate that particular product or service with being young and beautiful. They do this because of course in our society youth and beauty are to be coveted. Everyone would like to be forever young and beautiful or for as long as they can anyway. So, everyone is trying to look younger or wants to look younger. The things that we can associate with youth are obvious. We see the picture of youth and
2. The study revealed comprehensively that in all forms of media girls and women are under represented. Research notes that although the role of women in society has changed dramatically over the years there is still a disproportion of male and female representation. The research indicates that the media climate is representative of the 1950’s versus 2010. The research leads to the question of how consumers are affected by media content. Will young females feel less important or have lower self esteem if they are not appropriately represented in the media? Another area of under representation is with respect to health related media content. This begs the question as to whether women’s risk factors relating to specific health concerns are overlooked. The study
In 2001, actress Kate Winslet caused controversy over a statement she made about her weight. She told Britian’s Radio Times that she needed to lose weight “or I won’t work.” She was referring to the nearly fifty pounds she gained during her pregnancy, but fans were still upset over the famously curvy actress’s confession. Then, in 2003, Winslet shocked fans and critics alike when she expressed her distaste for GQ Magazine’s digitally slimmed pictures of her (Tauber, 2001). The most recent criticism of Winslet was in 2008. She appeared in Vanity Fair Magazine looking slightly thinner than normal, and many people were judging Winslet for being hypocritical. Winslet’s rep said that she was not airbrushed to look thinner, that that is
Mass media is the methods of communication, including television, radio, magazines, films, internet and newspapers, that have become some of society’s most important agents of socialization. In this paper I will talk about media and its effects on society today, things such as stereotypes the media portrays, the way media illustrates women and what that does to body images of women. I will also be talking about medias effects on teenagers, and sexualization in the media.