Just Feel Good About Yourself!

Women need to not let the media influence the way they look. Women need to feel good about themselves; both inside and out. http://www.womenshealth.gov/bodyimage/ When women don't feel good about their body image; it comes off in their personality. Women need to feel comfortable in their own skin by having a positive and healthy body image. "A poor body image can lead to emotional distress, low self-esteem, dieting, anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. Developing a positive body image and a healthy mental attitude is crucial to a woman's happiness and wellness." Women just need to think positively and not try to be a life size "Barbie." Nobody is perfect. Family and friends can influence your body image positively by giving compliments.

The strive to be thin

When I think of media influence, I immediately think of women striving to become thin. There seems to be an obsession with being skinny. Women feel that they need to look better than other women. Guys don't look at girls that have a beer gut. On the other had, if a guy has a beer gut, it really isn't a big deal and they still get attention from women. http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/tcom/faculty/ha/tcom103%20fall%202001/gp6/ When women are waiting in line at the supermarket or wherever, all the magazines that they see and skim through are filled with beautiful thin women. The picture is just an example of a very skinny model that women aim to be like.

Men

So far, all of my posts have been about how the media influence women and children. However, men are just as easily influenced by the media. Some men do think about their body image, just like women do. A lot of men now think that they need to have the perfect body and work out everyday just like celebs. I think that the media has led men to believe that woman only like men with rock hard abs. Men feel pressure to be attractive. Media doesn't just affect their appearance though, it can also affect they way they act. In a lot of movies and tv shows, it's the men that are very violent and aggressive. Men watching these type of movies might want to do the same thing in real life.

What to do...

Young children watch a lot of tv and are very easy to influence. The website that I found describes ways that parents can prevent media influence. http://www.family.samhsa.gov/monitor/unhealthyhabits.aspx The website says to "make yourself the number one influence in your child’s life." I think this is a very important factor. Children should look up to their parents and parents should have a positive impact on their lives. As a parent, they have the right to monitor how much time their children should spend watching tv and being on the computer. This is a good idea because children should not be inside frying their brains on tv; they should be outside playing. Another good tip is that when children are watching tv, parents should watch it with them and talk to them about it.

Commericals

http://www.family.samhsa.gov/monitor/unhealthyhabits.aspx
A lot of tv ads that we see as adults we can see the built in bias. We can tell sometimes when there is false advertisement. Children see the same commercials as we do, but can be very easily influenced by them. Beer advertisements should be directed at adults, but children might see them to and be influenced at a young age. "According to researchers, beer ads, are shown often during sports events and are seen by millions of children, creating both brand familiarity and more positive attitudes toward drinking in children as young as 9-10 years of age."

Commercials for pop and junk food are mainly directed at young children which may lead to unhealthy eating habits and cause obesity in young children.

A big topic of discussion on media influence is video games. Many people say that it is very likely for a child who plays a violent video game to have aggressive behavior. That aggressive behavior could continue with them when they become adults, leading them to possibly go to jail.

Music Videos

On the Oprah Winfrey show, she had an author of a book on the show that talked a lot about media influence. Her name was Jean Kilbourne and she focused on how music videos have a huge affect on teenagers. http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_2002/tows_past_20020228_e.jhtml In the book Kilbourne wrote, she discussed ways for parents to talk to their children about the music videos they see on television. It is not all music videos; it is mostly the rap videos that could have a negative influence on teenagers. In the videos there are beautiful women wearing next to nothing. "Girls get the message that men who dominate them are sexy, and boys get the message that it's cool to treat women disrespectfully." Teenagers may not realize that that is not the way the real world is, and that it is just a music video.

Side Effects

In the last post I discussed the new fad to lose weight easy, which is diet pills. Diet pills are very dangerous and have serious side effects that could harm you and possibly lead to death. Diet pills promise you that you will burn fat and pump up your metabolism, but they don't tell you that some ingredients may be dangerous.

"In 2004, the FDA banned weight loss supplements that contained ephedra, a stimulant that causes stroke and death in some people." http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=health&id=3911004. To replace ephedra many pills have caffeine and citrus aqurantium. Taking those two stimulants together can effect your blood pressure and heart rate.

Diet pills are not the way to go if you want to lose weight. Like I said in the last post, if you wanna lose weight the best and safest way to go is eat healthy and exercise daily.

Diet Pills

In a lot of magazines and a lot of commericals we hear about diet pills. In magazines there are usually a couple of pages devoted to diet pills. Diet pills seem to be the latest and greatest way to lose weight. The magazines explain how diet pills make you lose weight and make you look perfect. The ads seem to forget to mention all the dangers of taking diet pills. The pills can start to be addicting, and once you can finally stop taking the pills your body is left in worse shape then it was before you started taking the pills. http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Danger-of-Diet-Pills&id=214089 The best method of losing weight is still always to simply eat healthy and exercise on a daily basis.

Paparazzi

http://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/stories/Paparazzi_m1333629.jpg

The main reason why media influence is mostly negative is due to the paparazzi. The photographer's job is to get the most unflattering picture and catch celebrities doing unusual things. Photographers need to sell their photos, and gossip magazines need to sell their magazines. Unfortunately, this is done by showing celebrities lives unfairly and sometimes not always being truthful. http://www.aug.edu/~mduignan/Magazine/Influence_Of_Celebrities.htm Magazines will make much larger profits if the cover has an unflattering picture as well as a story to go along with it that is often times short of the truth.