Do media cause individuals to develop negative body images?

I would say yes: celebrities, athletes, magazines, TV shows, movies and fashion all influence individuals whether we consciously notice or not. Do I think that media is the only influence for negative body image? No. 

In “Taking Sides” Shari Dworkin and Faye Linda Wachs made the argument that people objectify their body and idealize a skinny figure. Magazines draw attention to eating healthier, living healthier and losing weight. It is not difficult to find places that join in this belief of skinnt being healthy. Some examples are in men’s health magazines, women’s magazines, fashion magazines, billboards, commercials and the list goes one. It is not hard to find. There is a whole industry dedicated to health and fitness. Michael Levine and Sarah Murnen looked into how media influenced people with negative body image and eating disorders.

It seems to me that both of the articles were protesting that media does cause negative body image. I feel that media is like a distorted mirror of society. Advertisers play off of people’s emotions to win them over to buy their products. There is definitely a certain image that people feel they need portray. I think it is different for everyone. This questions of whether media is the main cause of negative body image is too broad.

There are plenty of books, magazines, shows, blogs and so one that do not have anything to do with someone’s body. I think it is up to each individual to decide what they want to believe and what their morals are. Media may affect our society more than it should but it doesn’t have to be that way. If the individual changes, and then small group changes, and eventually society as whole then media will adapt to reflect that.

Does Fake News Mislead the Public?

I do not think that Late Night Television misinforms its audience. It is understood that shows such as the Daily Show with John Stewart can be satirical. It is up to an individual to further investigate information that is not clear or that they do not understand. It is the choice of each viewer to watch real news, comedic news or get their news elsewhere.

            Young adults are more likely to gravitate towards Late Night Shows instead of news that they find boring or depressing, so to speak. It is better to have somewhat of an understanding than no understanding at all. Late Night Shows provide interviews in which you can see the characteristics and personalities of politicians and other interviewees. This gives viewers an opportunity to make their own judgments.

            It is not up to the networks or Late Night shows to give you a wholesome view of every angle. It is up to the individual to consume as many ideas as they would like to know to form their own opinion. It would be nice to think that each consumer does their job to access a broad variety of media. It is, after all available at our very fingertips. 

American media – ritual or transmission?

While watching Fox news and MSNBC news, I made note of the ritual and transmission used in both networks. I found that Fox had stories of mostly ritual. The opinions of the newscasters and network were very right winged and apparent. They had dramatic commentary and were a bit condescending about the President’s speeches, saying that they were repetitive. While watching MSNBC I found a lot of transmission stories. It was more factual than Fox news.

Both Fox and MSNBC have a lot of room for improvement. For being 2 main sources of media they do not seem to show their audience enough important events. They both started out with semi important, and political news but quickly moved on to stories of high school football teams and a popular food. There are much more pressing news topics that they could have chosen for 7 O’clock news but chose not to. 

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