For my Electronic Information Resources (J50) class at UNC, I had to complete a research project that combined the conceptual and methodological aspects of electronic information and apply them in a gainful manner to an important social issue. My topic is, "The Impact of Media Messages and Images and their Effects on Body Image and Health in Young Women."

The Impact of Media Messages and Images
and their Effects on Body Image and Health in Young Women

The impact of the media in relation to women's perception of the ideal body image is undoubtable. Whether it is television, newspapers, magazines, movies or the Internet, a clear majority of modern media promotes body images that are both unrealistic and unattainable for many women. These images promote thinness, sexuality and enhanced body shapes that are often unnatural. Content analyses of popular media indicate that the body shape standard for women has increasingly become thinner. (Bissell)

Interesting Findings Related to Media Messges and Body Image:

• College women exposed to photos of thin models from Cosmopolitan and Vogue reported significantly higher levels of private body self-consciousness and state anxiety than females who viewed control photos (Thompsen).

• In a study among undergraduates media consumption was positively associated with a strive for thinness among men and body dissatisfaction among women (Harrison & Cantor).

• One researcher reports that at age thirteen, 53% of American girls are "unhappy with their bodies." This grows to 78% by the time girls reach seventeen (Brumberg).

• Women's magazines are primarily attacked as the main promoter of the 'thin-ideal body image." 83% of teenage girls report spending a mean of 4.3 hours reading magazines per week (Thompsen).

• In a body image disturbance study, media variables accounted for 15% of the variance for drive for thinness, 17% for body dissatisfaction, 16% for bulimic behaviors and 33% for thin ideal endorsement (Botta).

For more information on mass media effects on body image and health, please visit the following links:

Media Scope

Media Awareness Network

About-Face

The correlation between the endorsement of a thin ideal by the media and its impact on women, particularly adolescents is clear. Media images have an indirect effect by forming an unrealistically thin ideal with direct impact on body image disturbance (Botta). Although these effects are considered indirect and somewhat unintentional, the issue does raise ethical questions to the media and advertisers. Consumer concerns on the issue have even led to action.

Researchers believe one way to counteract the media's negative effects is through social marketing, which is not the same as commercial marketing that benefits the sponsor as opposed to the recipients of the message. Social marketing is defined as "the adaptation of commercial marketing technologies to programs designed to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences to improve their personal welfare and that of the society of which they are a part."

For more information and a complete list of my findings, please download this printable version of my annotated bibliography and final report which includes a works cited.

Annotated Bibliography

The Impact of Media Messages and Images
and their Effects on Body Image and Health in Young Women

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This page was last updated on April 6, 2004.