Underweight Model Ban



"Israel's Underweight Model Ban Just Went into Effect. Should We Have the Same Sanctions?" was written by Tracey Lomrantz Lester and published in Glamour on January 3, 2013. In this magazine article, Lester discusses how Israel has passed a law that requires models that work in Israel to have a body mass index of at least 18.5 and also requires publishers to disclose any image that has been altered to make men or women appear smaller or thinner. Although this law only applies to Israel; the United States has already responded to the law saying that they have no plans to follow Israel's example.

I chose this magazine article because it shows that mass media's influence on body image can be changed. It shows an example of a solution to this overall problem. It shows that the main problem with body image is directly related to the advertisements we see and the only way to fix it is going to be getting rid of the unhealthy models they use in advertising.

Students Making a Difference

"Run Promotes Positive Body Image on Campus" was written by Isabella Shaya and published in The State News on February 24, 2013. In this newspaper article, Shaya discusses how a group of college students got together for an event about positive body image. There was seventeen students that ran in the snow wearing as much or as little clothing as they wanted to support The Body Positive, which is an organization that promotes positive body images for girls. Although, the group of students wanted to make sure that everybody has the perfect body, no matter what size clothes you wear or what shape your body is. Their overall goal was to try and erase the mass media's idea of a perfect or idealized bodies that you see in magazines.

I chose this newspaper article because it helped me see that not all teens are so easily influenced by mass media's images or advertisements. This really shows that teens are fighting back against the media and are already trying to find a solution to the negative influences that mass media has on teens. This overall has me more focused towards mass media's influence on negative body images not only for girls, but guys too.

Mass Media Influence Positve, Negative, or Both?

 

 

"Mass Media and It's Influence on Society" was written by Raja Mujitaba on 18 January , 2011 and was published on Opinion-Maker. In this article, Mujtaba discusses the three basic functions of mass media; which is to give people news, entertainment, and education. Mujtaba says that we trust the media to give us the three basic functions of mass media, but the media is really just trying to influence us. Teenagers are easily influenced to by something from TV when they see a celebrity advertise a product. Although, Mujtaba says mass media is both positive and negative. He gives examples of both, but mainly focuses on the negative things media does to teenagers.

 

I chose this website because it gave me an idea on what the media is suppose to do versus what the media actually does. Also gave me more knowledge that advertisements are a big part of how mass media influences teens. This did reinforce the idea that not all of mass media is bad, but we still need to do something about the negative things it is doing to teenagers.