Research Paper

1) My Final thesis:

The media’s portrayal of the perfect body through the use of advertisements negatively impacts female adolescents mentally, physically, and socially.

2) The structure of my argument:

a. The most prominent reason behind the media’s use of the ideal woman in advertisements is due to capitalism. Businesses and corporations want their products to sell in large quantities in order to increase total profits. Thus, businesses use images of beautiful women in their advertisements to boost sales.

b. Teenage girls experience changes due to puberty and, as a result, they are more susceptible to believe in the media’s misleading representation of the female body.

c. The image of the perfect female affects teenagers mentally so narcissism, body dysmorphic disorder, and depression result.

d. Mental changes within female adolescents spur physical changes to occur. Exterior changes are achieved through diet, exercise, and surgery which can become too extreme and lead to self-harm.

e. The mental and physical changes that occur can cause teenage girls to feel shameful and embarresed. As a result, adolescents decide to isolate themselves from others, which effects every aspect of their social lives. Also, with such an emphasis on themselves, girls lose sight of what is truly important in life.

3) My sources:

2 books, 2 periodicals from online databases, 2 internet sources (from Media Awareness Network and The Social Issues Research Centre)—(It wasactually hard for me to find books and online periodicals with the information that I wanted.)

4) My Favorite Source:

Beauty and Body Image in the Media from The Media Awareness Network is short and sweet, yet it is really packed with solid and useful information. Also, it contains the next interesting point.

5) Interesting fact I learned from the above source:

“Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that media images of female beauty are unattainable for all but a very small number of women. Researchers generating a computer model of a woman with Barbie-doll proportions, for example, found that her back would be too weak to support the weight of her upper body, and her body would be too narrow to contain more than half a liver and a few centimeters of bowel. A real woman built that way would suffer from chronic diarrhea and eventually die from malnutrition” (Beauty and Body Image in the Media).

Research Paper + Possible Thesis Statements

My research paper topic deals with how the media portrays body image.

Here are my possible thesis statements:

1. The media's portrayal of the perfect body negatively impacts society physically, mentally, and socially.

2. The emphasis on body image within American media effects women more so than men due to women's natural self-concious behavior and American culture's stress on the physical beauty of women.

The Arguments and Audience of Reality TV

1) I’m tired and I do not feel like writing this right now.
2) Both the argument and audience of reality TV shows cannot be generalized for the entirety of all reality TV. Instead, the argument and the audience depend upon the basis of individual reality shows. For instance, programs such as “The Hills,” “Laguna Beach,” “The Real World,” or any other reality show on MTV target audiences of high school-aged adolescents and college students. In contrast, programs such as “American Idol,” “Super Nanny,” and “Trading Spaces” attract families as their viewers. In addition, reality shows such as “The Amazing Race,” “Fear Factor,” and “Survivor” draw an adventurous and athletic audience. Thus, reality shows attract different viewers based on the viewers’ activities, interests, and age-appropriate content.
Similarly to how different varieties of reality TV have varying audiences, the message that each genre conveys also varies. For example, the reality shows on MTV reveal that supposedly everyday people possess drama filled lives of nothing but social activities. Family-oriented reality TV shows, such as “American Idol,” show that normal people can become famous singers. Furthermore, reality shows like “Super Nanny,” and “Trading Spaces,” illustrate that families are not perfect because they need help from professionals in order to control their children or decorate their house. Likewise, adventurous reality shows like “The Amazing Race,” “Fear Factor,” and “Survivor” prove that everyday people can physically push themselves while participating in athletically challenging tasks. Thus, reality shows focus on everyday people; however, each reality show focuses on different aspects of normal people’s lives.

Take Charge Assignment

1. Personally, I cannot decide if I really like this assignment or not. I can be really indecisive (as if you could not already tell) so it is a little difficult for me to choose a topic for this. On the contrary, however, I do like the freedom that comes along with this assignment.

2. Recently, with all of the attention in the media focusing on celebrities, I think that this acts as the perfect topic for discussion in class. The paparazzi are constantly chasing down and following celebrities. Whether Britney Spears shaves her head, Lindsay Lohan enters rehab, or Paris Hilton goes to jail, the media is ready to capture their every move in action. This celebrity frenzy within the media puts too much emphasis on irrelevant information. As a result, the youth of America (and even adults) turn to focusing on such trivial news instead of paying attention to crucial information about our country: the war in Iraq, presidential elections, the economy, and more. Furthermore, the focus on celebrities in the media shapes other aspects of people’s lives as well. For example, a celebrity’s body type and clothes (designer brands) can affect young people’s self esteem or influence the way many young people dress. Also, what a celebrity eats or drinks (for instance, Starbucks coffee) can influence the youth of America as well.
On the flip side, the media also affects the lives of celebrities. With paparazzi following their every move, celebrities do not have any privacy. Yes, celebrities do have a greater income than the majority of the American people; however, they are still real people with real feelings that deserve some privacy.

Which Media Do You Trust?

Part 1:
I must say that I actually found this article to be a little interesting. I like how the author lists statistics in order to get specific points across because this seems more content-specific and right to the point. So, this article is shorter than the other one which is great for me since I have a very short attention span.
Part 2:
This article discusses how well people trust sources of the media. First, the author delves into multiple statistics to illustrate that the majority of people trust the media more so than the government; however, the author then counteracts the survey by stating that the statistics are not valid. For example, the author mentions that over half of the surveyed people do not even know if they trust blogs or not. This evidence is very effective because it reveals that the majority of people are not even familiar with a lot of types of the media out there. Thus, when people make conclusions on whether they trust one type of the media, they are basing their decision off of their perception of that type of media instead of basing their decision on experience from dealing with it.
Secondly, the author points out that the mainstream media really affects people’s perceptions on other types of the media, such as people believing that blogs have no reliability. On the contrary, however, the author points out that this is not true because some blogs are credible. On the flip side, some are not credible. Thus, readers must look at articles or blogs individually in order to decide which ones are trustworthy. The author’s statements here are very logical. Even in the mainstream media some unreliable articles may emerge here or there. People must pick and choose what to trust in the media because making a generalization such as all blogs are corrupt is like making a stereotype and saying that all Mexicans are dirty.