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Annotated Bibliography

Is the Media Responsible for Poor Body Image?

Caroline Brandt
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
03/08/15

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Annotated Bibliography
Jade, Deanne. "The Media & Eating Disorders." <i>National Centre for Eating Disorders</i>.
The British Medical Association. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. &lt;http://eatingdisorders.org.uk/information/the-media-eating-disorders/&gt;.
This reliable website was designed specifically to inform the public about anything they
might need to know in regards to eating disorders. It has several different sections with
very helpful insights, and has a certain section that has to do with the possible
relationship between eating disorders and the mass media. This area of the website
answers the various questions what is the media?, is there an increase in eating
disorders? and what power does the media actually have?. It also discusses certain
instances where the media has indeed shown a obvious pressure to their audience to be
thinner. Only using stick-thin actresses, and creating and distributing extremely
unrealistically proportioned dolls, being skinny is an important ideal of the mass media.
Considering that the author of this informational read is an active member of the National
Centre for Eating Disorders, I really feel that though she is a part of the organization, she
is not incredibly biased. She really does say on several occasions that it is also how
everyone is individually affected or how they take what they are exposed to. I feel that
this information is very reliable since it is coming from a website posted by an
association. This source was extremely helpful in shaping my argument, it came from an
organization that is dedicated to a disorder that is influenced from outside sources. I will
most likely be using this source in my final project because it is a very accurate and non
biased account of the mass medias effect on body image.

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Spurr, Shelley, Lois Berry, and Keith Walker. "Exploring Adolescent Views of Body Image: The
Influence of Media." 36.1-2 (2013): 17-36. <i>J. Murrey Atkins Library</i>. Web. 1 Mar.
2015.
&lt;http://informahealthcare.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/doi/abs/10.3109/01460862.2013.7
76145&gt;.
This scholarly article primarily focused on presenting observations from two parallel
qualitative studies that devised nine focus groups to interpret adolescent perspectives on
healthy bodies, both mentally and physically. These focus groups contained 46 teenagers
from ages 16-19 that attended two Canadian high schools. Each of the studies were
created with an interpretive humanist perspective and then a 6-step thematic approach
was used to analyze the data. Reoccurring topics appearing within both studies of the
focus group meetings consisted of the negative impact of media on adolescent body
image and pressure to conform to the Western views of physical appearance. I am very
confident when I say that the quality of this source is excellent. It is a scientific
evaluation proving that media does indeed have a negative impact on teenagers body
image. This article was very helpful to my project because it gave me an actual study to
go by and show proof. I will most definitely be using this source in my final product.
Dovey, Dana. "Anorexia Not Entirely The Media's Fault, Says 59% Of Meetville Poll
Respondents." <i>Medical Daily</i>. IBT Media, 25 Sept. 2014. Web. 1 Mar.
2015.

&lt;http://www.medicaldaily.com/anorexia-not-entirely-medias-fault-says-59-

meetville-poll-respondents-304956&gt;.
This article comes from a popular web source that is medically based and non biased. The
majority of this article is based upon a poll given by an app called Meetville reports that

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59% of those involved believed that the influence on anorexia is largely

exaggerated. It

discussed actual doctors thoughts on the subject, saying that though the

media does play

an important role, it cannot be the sole enemy in this battle. This

article brings up several

good points about how the media cannot just simply be the

cause of this vicious cycle of

self doubt. This article defends what the media is trying to

do, saying that they are simply

trying to encourage a healthy lifestyle in a world of sugar,

weight-gain, and fast food.

After reading this article I was very confident that it was

reliable. It has several important

and official people commentating on the subject. This

source is unlike any of the other

sources in the way that is it defending the media. It

definitely fits within my research

because its revealing the other side of the argument

which is very important in evolving a

well-rounded research paper. It actually did affect

the way Im starting to look at the

media. This source will most likely be used in my

final project because it is a clear and

concise view of the other side of the argument.

Roxby, Philippa. "Does Social Media Impact on Body Image?" BBC News 13 Oct. 2014. BBC.
Web. 1 Mar. 2015. <http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29569473>.
This article from the popular news source BBC discusses the possibility of medias effect
on peoples body image, and the role social media plays in influencing negative
attitudes
struggle with her

on the way we look. It makes an example of one young girls story of

self-worth in regards to how other people perceived her looks and

made fun of her using

her Facebook account. It accounts the young ladys

transition as she grew up to run her

own mentor group where they focus on how to be

comfortable in their own skin. This

article also speaks primarily about certain findings

and surveys showing a great amount

of the public feeling ashamed about their physical

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appearance. Since the author chose to

interview someone who has first-hand

experienced the pressure to be thin from not only

the images being shown in the

media, but from her bullies via Facebook, I felt as though

this was an unbiased article. I

am very confident that this is reliable information

considering BBC is a very

well known news source. This source was very helpful to me

in understanding how

social media is not only affecting people by making them feel bad

about themselves, but

it is also possibly igniting people to judge others more harshly and

in result, bullying is

indeed a large factor.