Argumentative Essay Media Influence Text

Eating disorders do not occur over night the number of televisions in american homes has increased since the first television set was introduced to the american public which was in the 1950’s. Today, 98% of american homes have a tv set, and 40% have three or more judith, 2006. Therefore, most of all americans have access to a television and the images and attitudes it portrays to its viewers.

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The television is a major influence in american culture, it is a technological device present in nearly all american homes and the center of our most common recreational activities nichter, 269. It can change the way people think and act towards different people, places, topics, etc. The way the media portrays certain events can sometimes change the way we think and view those events. The way the wars are covered is an example of how the media tries to portray different events in our history.

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During the gulf war, the images that were shown on the news were quite different than the ones we all see today about the war in iraq. It was giving society the idea that that war was a good idea and that we were winning. Now we see soldiers fighting, shooting guns, and we see dead bodies laying on the ground. Therefore, these images are giving citizens the idea that the war is not going too well, and that it is not positive as it was during the gulf war. A lot of the time the media is our only way of viewing things, like war, a lot of americans are unable to be over in iraq fighting therefore the news is our only way in. Our society values the media for what and how it portrays images, people and places.

It bombards people with extreme and sometimes unattainable images of the beautiful body. The influence of the mass media has long been theoretically implicated in the development of eating disorders atabe 19. The media gives off the message that what is on the outside is what counts instead of what is on the inside that counts cash, strachan 19. Just watch television or flip through the channels or watch a few commercials, they are all showing their audience that how people look and their appearances are what everyone looks at and sets standards and impressions on. Whether it is showing kids at school being dressed up with prefect hair and make up or it’s adults at their job looking flawless.

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Also, glance at the covers and the contents of most women’s magazines, most of them are telling their readers how to get that perfect body in a short time, or there are advertisements for diet pills. The ads that are selling diet pills or formulas are saying, if you are fat this is an easy way to become thin again and that all your problems will go away once you lose those unwanted pounds. There are also many ads promoting cosmetic surgery, these are also giving out the idea that if you had that tiny waist, or thinner thighs you would be happy and successful. These are also short cuts, or the easy way out when trying to get the perfect body. A significant body of research suggests that television, like the print media, promotes the thin ideal atabe 19.

And with such a large amount of attention that is given to the media, many girls and woman strive to be like those woman that are portrayed. However, the vast majority of female characters are thinner than the average american woman atabe 19. In fact, if you were to have barbie be life size, she would be more than seven feet tall, and her measurements would be 40 22 36 calanaugh and lemberg 19.

Mass media is omnipresent in american and most western societies but has been blamed for playing a powerful role in communicating the thin standard to the overall woman atabe 19. With all the attention our society gives the different types of media, there is no doubt that woman would perceive that the woman on tv programs and in magazines are the woman that are successful and adored by others. So of course woman would look up to these woman as role models, and they also try to be like these women they see through out the media. If you look at most of the overweight people on television, most of the time they are perceived as the funny characters that are there to make people laugh, and they are sometimes the punch line to other characters jokes or they are the characters that people are made to feel sorry for because of the fact that they are overweight. This tells our society that it is better to be the thin attractive character rather than the overweight character that is there to be funny. The media has established for our society different standards of attractiveness rothblum 19. On a few television stations, like mtv and vh1, there are episodes that are made to directly pick out beautiful, popular, gorgeous celebrities.

Some of the programs are called hottest stars under 25, or hollywood’s top 25 hot list, etc. These type of shows are basically saying that these people are the ideal people who have perfect bodies and they are people who are successful, happy, and adored by others. Most of the celebrities that are revealed in these programs are the people that are looked up to and many people strive to look and act like them. The messages from the media stress how desirable it is for woman to be young and to be or to become thin.

These messages particularly influence teenage women at a period when they are undergoing emotional stress as they seek to achieve independence from their parents, to compete with their peers and to find their identity abraham 1984. At the times when young women are growing up, are usually the times when they are trying to find what kind of person they are. With the influence in the media, many of the young women think the women shown throughout the media are the ones they want to be.

Sometimes, girls look at their bodies and compare them to the girls they want to be like on tv, this is when eating disorders are influenced as well. The girls think if people on tv are capable of looking that great, then they are too. And when the girls find that they are un able to get those type of bodies by exercising, they resort to starving themselves or throwing up what they eat, because this way they are able to get the results they want faster. Media images of the beauty ideal are particularly damaging to woman who are highly invested in their looks or who view their bodies negatively.

There have been a number of studies that have examined body satisfaction, eating disorders and negative effects as correlations of using mass media groesz, levine, murnen 2006. Participants with significant body images were more adversely effected by thin media stimuli then participants without body dissatisfaction issues. And participants not yet in college were more adversely affected by the presentation of thin media stimuli then participants aged nineteen years and older groesz, levine, murnen 2006. Infomercials and commercials for weight loss are consistently on tv and in magazines.