Research Paper On Media

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15 April 2019

Research Paper

A permanent effect has been left on the psyches of people who use online networking and take part in other broad communication communities. Media presently fills in as a stage to coordinate correspondence affinities which focus on all sexual orientation, age gatherings and ethnicities. Distinctive famous sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram give the crowd's an everyday update with novel pictures of models, activity figures, affluent representatives and entertainers everywhere throughout the world at the same time, prompting a significant effect on the viewer’s reasoning and conduct. Accordingly, the youth increasingly depends more on the figures and models broadly appearing on TV shows and social media to characterize their ideals instead of constructing their own social images. Specifically, they are broadly affected by the good examples displayed in the TV shows and motion pictures frequently with an agent of flawless self-perceptions with an hour glass figure for ladies and a solid and strong figure for men. Almost all of the content shown on mass media encompasses unrealistic characteristics regarding body images only to attain audience’s courtesy and responsiveness, resulting in detrimental effects on the spectator’s thoughts. As a result, the spectators indulge into impulse buying to feel closer to the models and the body images they present in some way.

A Body image is how someone thinks about the way they look. Someone with a healthy body image is comfortable with their own body and accepts themselves for who they are while someone with an unhealthy body image does not and usually has negative thoughts that associate with their physical appearance. Media has a role in formulating standards in an individual’s mind regarding body image and can shape or break an individual’s life. Over time media is a major contributing factor in people developing a negative body image, especially in teens and young adults. A lot of the messages we receive in the media become almost subliminal, and when there is a consistent theme in them (for example, beauty equaling youth and a certain body type) then, just due to sheer overwhelming volume, they will add to a person’s world view. Especially if there is a tendency to compare oneself to those images, and to find oneself not looking like them, then the effects on body image can be quite negative. However, the brands are able to generate a huge pool of buyers through this technique as each individual strives to buy the endorsed make up item or product to feel as beautiful and as complete as the ideal model image represented in the ads.

Hight (2001) talks about the issue by saying that:

"Most assumptions about the psychology of social networking viewership are derived from textual analyses of reality-based programs, rather than research involving audiences. Thus, it calls for investigations of reality-based programming based on the assumption that such online campaign may implicate a network of social, economic, and political changes in modern society."

Most of the TV adverts and programs imply that the lives of the actors and models are built around the issues and events they are seen dealing with and that all of the reality appearances (showing of their skins and hour glass figures) and selfies are either candid or impromptu. This often leads the viewers to go astray from the Intellect to separate the social media from the Actual Reality. Thus, influencing the audiences to indulge into actions that they typically would not agree to be a part of. A survey in 2011 showed high ratios of young girls' acquaintance with inappropriate social problems owing to social networking sites where they took numerous medications to shape their bodies like the models shown on various TV series.

Moreover, the most of the social media campaigns now a days continually throw moral principles down the drain to gain attention from more audiences. The constant allure of snapchat filters aim to attract thousands of females by presenting an opposite approach to everyday life. Millions of men and women are seen posing in the famous tiara filter of the dog filter of the app which degrade their own self as humans only to present themselves and their bodies in a more amiable body image. While the ideals of a perfect body can generate millions of revenues, they convince women to indulge in frantic selfies, shopping, continually backbite and encourage them to engage in behaviors like lying, theft, bribery and assault in the name of fashion, glam and the latest trends and to appear the most beautiful. The social networking sites also present a disturbing image where women and men are seen agreeing to do anything as long as they are able to gain bodies resembling famous celebrities on TV.

However, the same media is also responsible for shaping up a positive body image. As a result of media’s influence, over the span of last few years more and more women have come out from the shelter of hiding their sexuality and instead have opted to use the sexual power as a loophole for gaining the status quo they could only achieve by emulating men. Many prominences of the newly introduced culture of open acceptance have resulted in the hyper-sexualized images of objectification of women are a very specific form of power that should be used by women to their advantage. The phenomena of openness of thoughts and acceptance of sexual body images has extended to all the aspects of life light politics, music industry, fashion, TV advertisements, and even art.

Works Cited

Grabe, Shelly, L. Monique Ward, and Janet Shibley Hyde. "The role of the media in body image concerns among women: a meta-analysis of experimental and correlational studies." Psychological bulletin 134.3 (2008): 460.

Groesz, Lisa M., Michael P. Levine, and Sarah K. Murnen. "The effect of experimental presentation of thin media images on body satisfaction: A meta‐analytic review." International Journal of eating disorders 31.1 (2002): 1-16.

Hargreaves, Duane A., and Marika Tiggemann. "Idealized media images and adolescent body image:“Comparing” boys and girls." Body image 1.4 (2004): 351-361.

Perloff, Richard M. "Social media effects on young women’s body image concerns: Theoretical perspectives and an agenda for research." Sex Roles 71.11-12 (2014): 363-377.

Yamamiya, Yuko, et al. "Women's exposure to thin-and-beautiful media images: Body image effects of media-ideal internalization and impact-reduction interventions." Body image 2.1 (2005): 74-80.