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The Influence of Media on Body Image, Thematic Analysis

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The Influence of Media on Body Image, Thematic Analysis
Social Psychology:
The influence of media on body image, thematic analysis

Word count: 2,100

The influence of Media on body image
A Thematical analysis

Abstract:

Media is a powerful communicative tool, which can be said, is very easy to influence in many different ways. Although some aspects of media are important to bring to our attention, some other aspects, however, create an incredible amount of negative impact one of these which is body image. In order to identify this issue a qualitative research by using five different magazine articles, which included the Heat, Now, Star & Reveal; major and minor themes relating to the media and body image were identified. Thematic analysis was used to analyses the data.

Introduction:

Interpretation of the media has been generally portrayed as a ‘medium of cultivation, conveyance, or expression; and is most readily linked to in associations of ‘mass communication’. Mass communication influences us constantly whether on a subconscious level or not. Some of the widely recognisable forms are through television, magazines, newspapers, books, radio, video games, CDs and tapes, as well as internet, billboards, posters, movies and videos (Grant 2000). The criterion for this particular study will primarily focus on aspects of ‘body image’ related through the power of the media.

There is a lot of opinion regarding body image in terms of its portrayal through the media. Much discussion has been spent on how body dissatisfaction has been a cause of media as well as other influencing social factors such as ethnicity, social class and family environment associated with its psychological effects. The role of the media has been commonly held by belief that body dissatisfaction is a response to representations of thin women included in magazines, newspapers, television, film as well as novels using images of thin women.

According to Sloan, (1995) “Body image can be defined as how we perceive our physical

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