Mass media has a great power to affect the way we think and act through sending different sorts of messages to the audience. Nowadays, all of us are under a great pressure from every aspect of media due to the advances in technology, allowing us to access any kind of information at any time. The media has a very significant influence on the behavior of its audience and often the most affected groups are children and adolescents. They are very vulnerable and easily affected by the media’s great impact; they often try to imitate something they had heard or seen without being able to select the information. However, children and adolescents are not influenced only by the media itself, but also by their very immediate environment – they family and friends. If the child/teenager is surrounded by friends, who are consumed with their appearance, the child/adolescent will naturally make efforts to fit in – to be as good as the others. Besides low self-esteem and loosing self-respect, loosing amounts of weight is a very common factor, which might result into serious eating disorders such as bulimia or anorexia. Overall, girls tend to be more easily influenced by these external aspects than boys, although the percentages in various statistics are alarming for both genders.
The media has undeniable effects on the two extremes in weight of children and adolescents – overweight/obesity and eating disorders. Images reflected in the media and the regular exposure to them may influence the children’s and teenagers’ way of thinking and behaving. On one hand, overweight may be caused by the intense food and beverage advertising aired during children television programs, while the majority of the products advertised are of low quality and contain catchy slogans, making the children and adolescents to remember the products and desire them. Also, the product placement in these programs is more and more regular, making the children want them even more. The products advertised are often nutrient poor foods and sugar sweetened beverages contributing to weight gain among older children and teenagers because these products are mostly present in movies targeted specifically to them. In the children’s and adolescents development stage when they gain independence in different aspects, for example food choices, they are very easily influenced and therefore it is important for parents to watch over their children eating habits because they may result into lifelong choices.
On the other hand, these age groups may perceive the persons captured in the media as their role models and they may result into thinking that the given images reflect the reality and the standards of appearance. A new study by the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine found that the adolescent body image is greatly influenced by what teenagers see in movies, on television and in magazines. The celebrities serve as role models, changing the adolescents’ and children’s values and beliefs. Teenagers feel the need to ‘fit in’ - they desire to be just like their role models but when they fail to fulfill the ridiculous and unreal standards set by the media, psychological and eating disorders to occur.
The way obesity and eating disorders are portrayed in the media is often not pleasant, giving another reason for weight and psychological problems to occur. While extremely thin persons are often admired, (they can serve as object of laughter if being anorexic or bulimic); obese/overweight persons are often captured as bullied, object of laughter, slow and clumsy. The representation of overweight people in the media is also labeled as "fattertainment" - media, which is popular and stereotypes the obese persons. Studies show that overweight cartoon characters are depicted as unattractive, unintelligent and cruel and that in 40% of cartoons at least one of the obese characters is disliked, which supports the fact that overweight characters are captured in a negative way.
The regular exposure to the images representing super models, actors or sportsmen, who are all attractive, well dressed and have unusually perfect bodies gradually lowers the self esteem of the younger generations, making them believe that these are the requirements they should be able to fulfill in order to live a prosperous life. This fact is also supported with the survey done by the Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, which notes that 69% girls claimed that magazine pictures influence their idea of the perfect body shape, and 47% noted wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures. The respondents were students from 5th to 12th grade. Further, even more shocking results are according to a study from the University of Central Florida, reporting that nearly 50% of girls aged three to six were already concerned about their weight.
The pressure put on the audience through advertisements, television, film and new media to fulfill these standards to be sexually attractive is so strong that The National Eating Disorders Association notes that one out of four TV commercials send some sort of "attractiveness message," telling viewers what is and is not attractive and acceptable.
People must be alert to minimize these negative influences by being more responsible towards themselves and also other people, especially the younger generations who are often the easiest target by the media. Parents should teach their children to distinguish between the right and wrong and not let themselves to be led by their role models who often influence them in a negative direction. One of the other solutions could possibly be a higher self-esteem that is often desperately needed by the teenagers.
Moreover, parents should emphasize the importance of evaluating themselves not only on the basis of their weight and appearance and therefore making them realize that the images in the media are often unhealthy and unrealistic.
Bibliography:
"Media Influence." Eating Disorders and. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 June 2013. <http://www.raderprograms.com/causes-statistics/media-eating-disorders.html>.
"Obesity and the Media." UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 June 2013. <http://www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/education/obesity_and_the_media/index.html>.
"Body Image Health." Body Image Health. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 June 2013 <http://www.bodyimagehealth.org/>.
"Obesity Action Coalition » “Fattertainment” – Obesity in the Media." Obesity Action Coalition Fattertainment Obesity in the Media Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 June 2013. <http://www.obesityaction.org/educational-resources/resource-articles-2/weight-bias/fattertainment-obesity-in-the-media>.
