Joseph McGill

Research Proposal
Name: Joseph McGill
Topic: I am studying the affect that the media has on the developing fitness
population and their desire to use bodybuilding supplements.
Research Question: What kind of impact does the media have on the fitness
community and how are the negative effects influencing our society?
Audience & Significance: The paper is directed toward weight lifters in order
to help them better understand the motivations causing them to purchase
certain supplements. My research paper should inform them of the negative
effects that the media has in peoples perception of their body image.
Context: This issue is important to todays population because there are
hundreds of bodybuilding supplements that are being used worldwide and
many of them are unnecessary and/or harmful to the human body. The
media is also expanding with every second so it will be interesting to see
how much of an impact todays media will have on the sales of these
supplements.
Exhibit: To illustrate my discussion of the harmful effects that media can
have on the fitness population, I plan to examine the way that attractive
actors are portrayed in order to motivate people to buy certain products to
change the way that they look. In addition to this, I will focus on the negative
side effects that can develop from certain dangerous supplements and why
the media should not be advocating these products.

Source 1: Scholarly Journal Article

MLA Citation: Frison, ElineVandenbosch, LauraEggermont, Steven. "Exposure
To Media Predicts Use Of Dietary Supplements And Anabolic-Androgenic
Steroids Among Flemish Adolescent Boys." European Journal Of Pediatrics
172.10 (2013): 1387-1392. Biomedical Reference Collection: Basic. Web. 16
Mar. 2015.
What does it offer? : Gives statistics of studies performed in order to see how
media directly correlates to adolescents use of supplements. This article
lines up well with my argument and gives many points that will help me
show how the media is having a negative impact.
Source 2: Scholarly Journal Article
MLA Citation: Hatoum, Ida Jodette, and Deborah Belle. "Mags And Abs: Media
Consumption And Bodily Concerns In Men." Sex Roles 51.7/8 (2004): 397407. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
What does it offer? : Shows how ads with buff and attractive bodybuilders are
affecting males and their desire to lift weights and take supplements. This
article also shows some of the negative effects that media like magazines
can have like lowering ones self esteem.
Source 3: Scholarly Journal Article

MLA Citation: Powers, Michael. Safety, Efficacy, and Legal Issues Related to
Dietary Supplements. Strategies 18.1 (2004): 30-34. ProQuest Social
Sciences Premium Collection Reston: Taylor & Francis Ltd. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
What does it offer? : This article is mainly to help me show how harmful some
supplements that are on the market can be on your body. The author talks
about multiple pro-hormones and other supplements that will damage your
organs and lead to long term problems. I will use this in order to prove that
the medias avocation of these products is foolish and hurtful to our society.
Source 4: Scholarly Journal Article
MLA Citation: Wiens, Kristin, et al. "Dietary Supplement Usage, Motivation,
And Education In Young Canadian Athletes." International Journal Of Sport
Nutrition & Exercise Metabolism 24.6 (2014): 613-622. SPORTDiscus with Full
Text. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
What does it offer? : This article reveals all of the different motivations that
young people have to use dietary supplements. This includes the media as
one of the most influential along with some other sources of inspiration for
teens to use these products for their bodies. This article will help me to get a
better grasp on why people are doing what they do and what parts of the
media are the most influential in causing an increase in the consumption of
certain supplements.
Research Paper Exploratory Draft
During the process of developing my research paper, I hope to explore
the effects that the media has with both the sales and consumption of fitness

supplements. I want to see whether the media is helping or hurting the

selling of these products and how it is affecting the fit population. This
seems very interesting to me because I am curious as to how the media can
affect individuals desires to work out or take certain supplements. In
addition to this, it would be interesting to see how weight-lifters preferences
might change with the impact from the media. Bodybuilding supplements
have brought about a lot of controversy in the past mainly because of the
negative side effects that can develop when a user takes them. This has led
to many pro-hormones getting banned from certain stores and even caused
some supplements to fall off the market completely. The media plays a major
role in these prohibitions because it informs people why the product that
they are buying or selling is harmful. In addition to this, the media also
portrays attractive and muscular people in certain ads to benefit the desire
for certain supplements. Through my paper, I plan to study this correlation
that exists and hopefully uncover whether the media does more harm or
good when releasing ads and other information about bodybuilding
supplements.
There is a wide range of audiences that my paper would appeal to. First
and foremost, the consumers of these bodybuilding supplements would be
very interested in the impact that the media has on products that they are
buying. They would want to know why certain products are disappearing off
the shelf or why they are being persuaded to purchase a certain supplement.
My paper will hopefully make them aware of the motives behind their

purchasing of fitness products as well as call their attention to certain

supplements that are harmful, but not getting the media attention that they
should. Another audience for this topic would be the producers of the
supplements. They would be extremely interested in the role media plays
because it is how they sell their product. They would likely want to know
what factors can cause the media to give a negative and positive
representation of their supplements.
At this point in time, I imagine my essay exploring the different ways
that the media is both helping and hurting the sales of pro-hormones and
other bodybuilding supplements. Once I look in great detail at the effects
that the media has, I will attempt to argue that the media plays a negative
role in our societys developing fitness culture because it is causing people to
focus too much on their body image. In addition to this, the media has a
negative impact because it is encouraging the use of some substances that
have very harmful side effects. My hypothetical essay will start by laying out
facts about the correlation between media and desire for a fit body. I will
include facts that show how much it increases consumption of supplements
as well as facts about the negative side effects that are in these products. I
would also like to include a counter argument that explores the media that
makes people more aware of the harmful side of certain products, but show
why this type of media isnt taken the same way as other ads. Im hoping
that I will be able to have enough evidence to show why the media is
corrupting our societys culture. I want to build off true facts that show the

negative effects of media. This will include things like its contribution to low
self-esteem, making people put to much focus on their body image, and
damaging their bodies from harmful supplements. I will use all of these facts
to support my argument that the media is negatively impacting the fitness
culture.
My audience will most likely expect me to have sources with evidence
that show why the media has such a negative impact. I have found a few
helpful sources thus far that address this. One that I see being very helpful is
one titled Mags and Abs which comments on the bodily concerns that are
developing in men from media exposure. This article lays out what exactly is
causing men to want to improve their body image as well as talks about the
different strategies that men use to benefit this image. There is also another
article that I found called Exposure to media predicts use of dietary
supplements and anabolic-androgenic steroids among Flemish adolescent
boys which gives all kinds of facts about studies that have been done
relating to the effects that media has had with consumption of steroids and
other fitness products. In addition to this, I would also like to use some
sources that talk about all of the negative effects that certain pro-hormones
can have on your body. This will help me to reinforce my claim because the
media is advocating the use of these harmful products. Somebody who
disagrees with me might argue that the media can play a positive role
because it sometimes brings to light the harmful supplements and
discourages potential customers from buying the product that are hurting

their bodies. However, the article, Safety, Efficacy, and Legal Issues Related
to Dietary Supplements talks about how the media that discusses the
harmful effects of these substances is much less common than the type that
promotes it and that the producers of the destructive supplements are doing
everything they can to prevent these claims.
I feel fairly confident with my research proposal, but not as confident
as I would like. One concern of mine is that I wont be able to keep my paper
focused on the one topic for 8-10 pages. I fear that I will run out of things to
say about the effect that media has on supplement usage and I might start
talking too much about body image and self-esteem, which really should not
make up a bulk of my paper. Another concern that I have is my argument in
general. Im unsure if the argument that I have now: the media is negatively
affecting weight lifters, is a strong argument to make for a research paper. I
dont know if this claim is deep enough and I fear that I might end up just
summarizing a bunch of facts about the negative impact of the media rather
than actually persuading the reader about my argument. Im not sure
whether my paper should argue if the media is having a negative impact or
why it is negatively affecting our society.