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Thomas King
Mrs. Eaker
English 1102
28 April 2014
Authors Statement
The medias role in society has greatly increased recently sparking much debate over
whether it has a positive or negative image. This project is based on my research of the effects of
the medias influence on body image. After extensive research I concluded that the media has a
very dangerous, negative effect on women and their body image. The objective of this project is
to give concrete examples of how the media is making this perfect ideal body image as well as
facts and other pieces describing the effects. The repetend in this project is an image of the
perfect body. It is a picture of a woman created by putting the most idealized features from
different women into one perfect girl. The purpose is to show that the media is making women
feel that they have to look perfect or they arent pretty or skinny, which is causing women all
over the world to develop unhealthy behaviors like depression, and eating disorders. The project
is setup by putting three pieces into one. All three pieces will go on a poster board. The first
piece being the poster board itself containing pictures of women and facts about this negative
consequences of the ideal body image. The second is a magazine cover providing a great
example of how the media is putting out the unfair ideal body image. The third piece is a diary
entry from the perspective of a girl who is having trouble with her self-esteem because she feels
that she is not skinny enough and pretty enough. These three pieces are intended to appeal to
women mainly 10 years old up in to their twenties because they are the ones most susceptible to
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the medias messages. The media targets women because they are very concerned with their
bodies and the way they look, and they target kids and teens because they are easily convinced
by what the media says. The research prior to this project was very extensive and the results
were very clear that the media is effecting women very negatively. Many studies and
experiments were conducted by credible psychologists and professors and they found that after
being exposed to women in the media, women are much more likely to feel overweight or ugly
when they really arent. The standard has been put so high by the media that very normal girls
are being called fat unfairly which is leading to things like depression and eating disorders.
The first genre piece, the poster, will contain pictures and facts about this issue having
the repetend being compared to a normal body figure on it. The poster is visual with words and it
is a perfect way to get across background information to an audience full of teenagers and
women. It has very catchy pictures and interesting facts that will give the audience a good
background on the topic as well as bringing them in wanting to know more. I gathered the facts
on the poster mainly from sites with interesting facts about how the media is making body image
the most important thing to look for in a girl as well as statistics on eating disorders associated
with the media. The main source that I used for this was
depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=bodyimage&page=fastfacts which contained
credible statistics from the government sponsored sites national eating disorder institute and
national institute on media and family. This source gave me direct statistics and facts that help
me give the audience on the background of the subject.
The second piece is a magazine cover, the cover is visual which is perfect to have for one of the
pieces for a younger audience. This piece is an example of a magazine cover that portrays a very
unfair ideal body image. Younger people become uninterested if there is too much writing
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making this genre perfect for catching their eye and not boring them. The repetend is the image
on the cover of the magazine. This magazine cover fits perfectly into the project as a whole
because the repetend is used perfectly to describe how the media is putting unfair, perfect
images on things like magazines where millions of girls are seeing this. It is very catchy and is
has a clear point for the audience to see. No specific source was used to help make this piece but
my previous research from the research blogs gave me a good background on what is going on
these magazines.
The last piece is a diary entry. Diary entries are creative writing that can have a very strong
appeal to the audiences emotions. This diary entry will be from the perspective of a teenage girl
who feels like she is not good enough because the media is telling her she isnt, which is causing
her to become depressed and develop an eating disorder. In the diary entry she talks about how
she has given up trying to look like the perfect girl and is convinced she is going to starve herself
as well as making it seem like doesnt want to live anymore. With the poster giving background
on the subject and the magazine cover enticing the audience this piece fits perfectly into the
overall project. It gives the emotional side to this very controversial topic which is very likely to
sway the audiences opinion to the negative side. After reading Gemma Lopez academic journal
"Influence Of Mass Media On Body Image And Eating Disordered Attitudes And Behaviors In
Females: A Review Of Effects And Processes." it helped me see that teenagers and young adults
can be convinced fairly easy and that can lead to them being convinced that they dont look good
enough. When that happens people like the girl in my diary entry become depressed and resort to
eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia.
These three pieces do a perfect job in tying all of the research that I have done together as well as
provide concrete evidence of the negative effects that the media has on body image. Since all
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three of the pieces all go on the one poster it makes the overall message much easier to
comprehend because everything is right there in front of you. I have everything I need to get my
repetend across because I have the facts, the eye catcher, and the emotional aspect that makes
people really think about the message being presented. After this multi genre project the
audience will leave with knowledge on my line of inquiry and a very strong sense of the negative
effects of the Medias influence on body image.













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Works Cited
1. Lopez-Guimera, Gemma, et al. "Influence Of Mass Media On Body Image And Eating
Disordered Attitudes And Behaviors In Females: A Review Of Effects And Processes."
Media Psychology 13.4 (2010): 387-416. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 Apr.
2014.
2. Morris, Anne M., and Debra K. Katzman. "TYPES OF MEDIA EXPOSURE." National
Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 22 Oct. 0005.
3. National Eating Disorders. "Teen Health and the Media." Teen Health and the Media.
N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
<http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=bodyimage&page=fastfacts>.