The medias effect on self-image

Hey guys, over the last few weeks I have been gathering information together and are in the somewhat early stages of developing a research paper. I have just finished acquiring all of my sources and have analyzed the information provided. Originally my research question of focus was how advertisements effected people’s self-image both physically and intellectually. I soon discover that it was hard to find and articles that closely related the relationship between advertisements and self-image. So I changed the question to pop culture instead of advertisement. After that I decided that that question was way too broad and after reading related topics I have decided to change my research question to How does media effect men and women’s physical and psychological self-image. Since then my finding have been enormously great; in fact media plays a major part in how we see ourselves. The obvious effect is our physical appearance. For some seeing models displayed in the media may have a increased effect in their body esteem because it may be seen as motivation. For others there is an opposite effect of a dissatisfaction of our bodies. This can be seen more among women than men; but never the less it effect both. It can cause a change in our diet and exercise habits. Other effects include eating disorders, steroid use, and surgery. One of the major psychological effect is depression. This is a serious issue considering the death toll depression contributes to each year. Other effect that I have recently discovered and decided to include is the altered sexual behavior that media can cause among men and women. Because media can have negative effect on how a person views themselves this can cause discomfort in sexual activity. It has been shown that people that are dissatisfied with their bodies may avoid sexual activity all together. Through these finding I will organize my paper within these effect. First the physical and then the psychological. After that I will add in my finding on these effect of sexual behaviors.

self-image

My previous research question was how do advertisements effect peoples self-image? However after searching for sources through the database I found that I could not really find any articles or reviews that were about the effect advertisement has on self-image. There were plenty articles about advertisement and about self-image, but none that covered my specific question. Instead I have found articles about how media and pop culture in general have effected people’s self-image. Because of this I feel that I should modify my question from the effects from advertisements to the effects from pop culture. I understand that by changing this are of focus I have made my research question broader. For this reason I am going to narrow my focus by researching the effects in young adults rather than people in general. More specifically college students or 18 eighteen years of age to 30 years. So my question will read; how does pop culture effect self-image among young adults?

In class we have talked about how advertisements effects peoples view of their own body. That is why I originally wanted to focus of advertisement, but the truth is that it is more than advertisements. All aspects of pop culture have effects on self-image. And though some may have positive effects, but most if not many are negative. And like I mentioned before it is not just physical appearance, but also intellectual appearance. I believe that much of the pop culture tries to make us the consumers and viewer feel stupid. I don’t know if it is intentional or not but it is true. For example many people are singled out in “memes”. People make these “memes” and many times are very rude and put down the person or demographic pointed out. Though many times they are seen as funny; it does not make it any less rude. I still need to get a better base of examples to better support this topic. But this is what I have so far.