Teen Girls Anorexia Essay Example

Relation Between Media and Health Essay Introduction

Has media contributed to the concept of weight loss among the teenage girls?

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Medium to provide media content

The issue of weight loss has been discussed on several media platforms such as Facebook, magazines, newspapers and televisions. To acquire convincing content, it is important to extract the information from the different medium. The study will, therefore, use the health magazines and newspapers as well as the Facebook to provide evidence about the topic. Using these sources, it is possible to collect the qualitative data that will be analyzed at the end of the study to be able to reach a conclusion. The medium is also important in providing evidence on the trend of the topic, which is also important in data analysis. There are also medical journals that have been completed on the subject, and these are the sources that will also be used to provide information.

The issue to be addressed

Weight has become a significant problem in the society, in particular among the teenagers. They tend to believe that losing weight and becoming slim is the current trend. This is the reason the teenagers who feel that their weight is an issue have gone to the end of slimming by avoiding food. Media, on the other hand, has influenced the perception of weight among the teenagers. For instance, there are numerous adverts on how to lose weight and there is no advert on how to gain weight. Additionally, media has also portrayed the slim individuals as beautiful using models as an example. As a result, this has posed a great danger to the self-esteem of many girl-teenagers who feel losing health is the best option. The act has occurred to the anorexia nervosa disorder that is connected with inadequate food intake with the fear of weight gain, self-esteem highly related to weight and the developing intense fear of weight gain. The following is a research proposal that will aim at proving the relationship that exists between media and anorexia. This research paper will only concentrate on the issue by using the past studies and the literature completed on the topic.

Significance of the Study

As much as teenagers think it is the current trend to go without food to avoid weight gain, it is also important for them to understand the dangers they are exposing their bodies. It is important for them to understand that these effects are irreversible and many deaths are associated with anorexia. Through this study, they will know that going without food can result in a critical condition, and this may cause the total shut down of the body systems. Thus, the study is significant in saving the lives of those teenagers who are already starving themselves and those that are planning to starve themselves with the aim of losing weight.

The most important thing that they should understand is the fact that losing weight is an important process to any person. However, there are recommendable ways that one should apply in order to attain the required weight. The study will also provide the list of approaches that these young people should use in losing weight rather than avoiding food. In the end, they will be able to choose the best ways as suggested by the literature.

Sampling

The fact that research will not involve the contact with human beings implies that this will only be limited in writing. Therefore, sampling will include the collection of different sources about the topic and then analyze. In this case, these will include the newspapers that discuss the issue of weight, books, journals, magazines and also television programs. At the same time, it is also important in collecting the sources that contain previous studies that have been completed the topic. Using the qualitative data that will be gathered from these sources, it will be easy to finish the analysis and make a conclusion. The report will, however, be based on the previous studies on the topic as well as the information that is provided by the sources. Using this information as part of the literature review, it will be possible to connect the relationship and make a collection. However, collecting of these sources may be a challenge since it is hard to spend time in the library looking for books. It is, therefore, advisable to use the online database in collecting magazines, e-books, newspapers, and journals that are important in the topic.

The units of analysis

The unit of analysis will be the sources that were used in collecting the information and data. This will, therefore, include the comparison of results from different sources such as books, magazines, newspapers and the journals. The information in these sources will be analyzed independently to provide information that will provide the conclusion of the study.

Media Results and Discussion

According to Jade (2016), the role of media is to persuade, entertain and change our minds. This is because media engages a large group in selling their products and this is what is changing the society. When it comes to weight, media has always put significant meaning on weight loss, and this has changed the mind of people especially the young men and women. Morris & Katzman (2003) also supports the idea by stating that over the past years there have been an increased in eating disorders and this is attributed media. According to the reports, the rate of anorexia nervosa increases from 0.47 to 1.5%, and in the results, it was proved that media had played a role in this increasing cases of disorders. They also believe that the reason teenagers have been affected profoundly is because of the model image, which is perceived to be the perfect body. Thus, everyone aims at having the ideal body so that they can be able to fit in their social life. Further, media has focused on the decreasing weight the time among the models, the beauty pageants, and the actresses and this is held as an ideal beauty (Spettigue & Henderson, 2004). The facts also prove that over 40% of the teenage girls have tried to lose weight. This is because being fat makes them feel isolated and out of place. There is also Mudgett (2014), who states that 80% of the young girls are using social media platforms such as Face book, Tumble, Pinterest and Twitter. His implies that a significant number of these girls are exposed to different forms of information about the body shapes, and this has also resulted to eating disorders.

Expected Results

From the above literature, it is evident that teenage girls are more affected by the element of body image. Any teenage girl will wish to be slim and attractive so that she can obtain the ideal body. However, there are those who are genetically fat, and this has forced them to take extreme measures of avoiding food. In this study, the fact that girls are more interested in their body image than anything else is evident that the survey will show significance connection between the anorexia and teenage girls. Therefore, I expect to get positive results that support the hypothesis of the investigation. It is from the results that the survey will highlight the possible solutions that should be implemented to deal with the issue since it is affecting teenage girls. The expected results should be positive as the research question.

Conclusion

Media has also portrayed the slim individuals as beautiful using models as an example. As a result, this has posed a great danger to the self-esteem of many teenagers who feel losing health is the best option. The act has occurred to the anorexia nervosa disorder that is connected with inadequate food intake with the fear of weight gain, self-esteem highly related to weight and the developing intense fear of weight gain. In this case, the conclusion will provide an analysis of how media has affected the self esteem of these girls and a summary of the findings. It will also include the discussion whether the research question was answered. The other thing that will be included are the strengths and the weaknesses of the study along with the changes that should be made in future when performing a similar study.

References’

Jade, D. (2016). The Media & Eating Disorders. Retrieved November 11th, 2016, from National Centre For Eating Disorders. Acknowledgement: The British Medical Association: http://eating-disorders.org.uk/information/the-media-eating-disorders/

Morris, A. M., & Katzman, D. (2003). The impact of the media on eating disorders in children and adolescents. Public Med , 287-280.

Mudgett, H. (2015). Exploring the role society and the media play in the development of an Eating Disorder and the Media Influence on Eating Disorders. Retrieved November 7th, 2016, from Eating Disorders: http://www.something-fishy.org/cultural/themedia.php

Spettigue, W., & Henderson, K. (2004). Eating Disorders and the Role of the Media. Public Med , 16-19.