Influence on Mass Media

The mass media played an outsized role in the communication of cultural stereotypes about the
aesthetics of body image. Bandura’s (2009) social cognitive theory, the mass communication-focused
cultivation model (Morgan et al. 2009), and the sociocultural perspective on body image (Thompson et al.
1999; Tiggermann 2011) designate central importance to media, emphasizing that exposure to media
messages can impart unrealistic images of female beauty. Internalization of these distorted images is of
concern for it may lead to body dissatisfaction, a key predictor of disordered eating (Perloff 2014).
Social media has been shown to have both positive and negative effects on our self-esteem, often
depending on the nature of its feedback. Body image has been found to be pretentious due to the way the
media depicts the ideal thin body type resulting in negative self-evaluation. (Caska & Frazer, 2016)
Nowadays, most people living in first world countries encounter many types of mass media (e. g.
music videos, movies, televisions, and magazines) on a daily basis. Thin ideal images often coincide with
various advertised products, the pairing of which fortifies the ideal that if you use or buy a particular product,
you too can be beautiful. In the past two decades, there has been a profusion of empirical research with
regard to the impact of exposure to idealized bodies in the media on how human see and evaluate their own
bodies. Most of this research has been on women, among whom the idea that ‘thin is beautiful’ is
widespread. Correlational studies usually examine the association between naturalistic media utilization
and various body image constructs, such as body perception, ideal body size, body discontentment.
Experimental studies usually expose participants to photographs of very thin and attractive models under
varying conditions and measure the participant’s succeeding body image. The latter type of studies can
advance our knowledge of the causal effects of media on body image. Several meta-analytic reviews of
such studies have been supervised with regard to these findings. The first meta-analysis of the effects of
exposure to thin ideal image was conducted by Groesz et al., who examined 25 experimental studies
conducted between 1983 and 1998 including a total of 2292 participants. They concluded that women’s
body image was importantly more negative after viewing thin media images, as compared to after viewing
control images or images of average-sized or plus-sized models, and that this effect was moderate in size.
(Mills, Shannon and Hogue, 2017)
Women are constantly bombarded by information in mass media which transmits and strengthens
values, norms, and ideals of fashion and beauty via images of models, movie stars, and female celebrities
in a variety of media formats. Mass media often portray attractive people as more admirable, credible,
inspirational. This reflects the mainstream culture’s compulsion with thinness and beauty. Previous research
has documented the significant influence of mass media on appearance norms, which suggests that
increasing exposure to mediated beauty enhances internalization and fantasizing by women and girls about
acquiring the characteristic body shape and facial attractiveness promoted by the media. (Yan and Bissell,
2014)
The media industry’s over-emphasis on attractiveness and beauty is not just a phenomenon found
in western countries; rather, it may be an issue or problem that is more global in nature. The women’s
magazine Cosmopolitan, for example, is published in 36 languages, has 63 international editions, and is
distributed in more than 100 countries. What is not known about the international distribution of the
magazine is how much emphasis is placed on a narrow representation of beauty. (Yan & Bissell, 2014)
According to Coward (1984), as western media content spread through societies and cultures
worldwide, the globalization of beauty and appearance ideal is gaining prevalence in non-western as well
as western societies. “Traditionally, what exactly constitutes beauty has always been a locally indigenous
evaluation. This fact is changing across the world” (Isa & Kramer, 2003). A cross-culturally accepted
standard of ideal beauty features large eyes, high eyebrows, high cheekbones, a small nose, and a narrow
face (Cunningham et al., 1995). Such westernized ideals have crumbled the national beauty standards in
Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil, where the appearance norm is quite different from that of Caucasian
women (Isa & Kramer, 2003). I this study, the researchers seek to test questions in relation to appearance
norms via a content analysis of four fashion and beauty magazines published in 12 countries/regions
worldwide. This analysis allowed the researchers to identify similarities, trends, and patterns in the
representation of ideal beauty and appearance. (Yan and Bissell, 2014)
The thin ideal is reinforced and conveyed by various social influences, including peers, schools,
family, athletics, business, and health care professionals. However, the loudest and most aggressive
purveyors of narratives and images of ideal slender beauty are the mass media. “Mass media” refers to a
variety of technologies, ranging from billboards to radio, but current studies and theories emphasize visual
media such as magazines and television. Targeting markets to sell products such as exercise gear, diets, and
cosmetics, the media construct a dreamworld of hopes and high standards that incorporates weight loss and
the glorification of slenderness (Groesz, Levine and Murnen, 2001).
Based from the research of Hausenblas, Janelle, Gardner, and Hagan (2002), The current standard
of attractiveness for women showed in the media is slimmer than it has been in the past to the point of being
unattainable by most women. Unattainable media images influence women’s satisfaction with their bodies
because women compare their bodies with these images. Such comparisons may cause body image
disturbance, anger, depression, and low self-esteem. As concerns about eating disorder behaviors and body
image among young women have increased in past years, researchers have begun to examine the thinner
standard of beauty portrayed in the media as an influential factor. The effects of thin images shown in media
have been investigated in experimental settings. People are exposed to various mass media images in the
forms of billboards, that perceived media pressure to be thin was the only important influence related to
body dissatisfaction via internalization of the thin ideal (Kim & Lennon, 2007).
The standard of female attractiveness that the media shows is becoming increasingly harder
for women to live up to. Hawkins et al. (2004) stated that most of the women portrayed in the media are
15% below the average size or weight of women, and there has been evidences that these women have
become increasingly thinner over the years. Not only are women pressured to be thin because of the beauty
standard, but positive traits are also linked to this ideal of attractiveness (Greenberg & Worrell, 2005).
Both men and women are defied with pressures from the media to conform to society’s
attractiveness ideal. Unlike women, men are not pressured to be thin, but rather to be muscular. Media
exposure has been portrayed to increase men’s concern about muscularity and media often shows that it is
the strong handsome men who are popular and who get the beautiful women. Both men and women are
faced with the demands that society places on them to conform to these ideals of attractiveness. (Russello,
2009)