interpretations Many by audiences are constructed by media images; researches believe that advertisements that use thin models to sell food warrant most attention for two reasons. One reason is that food advertising is mostly aimed towards women rather than men. Women's magazines, for example, contain more dieting and food advertisements than men magazines. (Silverstein etal, 1986a) Secondly, advertisers convey their message by encouraging food on one side and celebrating thinness as perfect body shape at the same time, in result causing women to eat less. In reality, there have been studies showing that women with eating disorders overestimate their body size after being exposed to thin female images, while women who suffered no eating problems were not affected by the images (Hamilton and Waller, 1993). No one has ever really studied what exact types of media messages disturb women and cause women to have unrealistic views of themselves. In this study, a group of researchers explored the different kinds of advertising messages that effect women experiencing eating disorders. The researchers came up with two hypotheses on what they think will happen. One hypothesis was that "women with higher levels of self-reported eating problems would find both types of food advertising (diet and non-diet) more disturbing than women with fewer eating problems. Second hypothesis was that it expected that women with high eating habits would differ from women with a low-level of eating problems in their attributions of personal control to the advertise character. Researcher found thirty-one female undergrads at the University of Sussex, England who were willing to voluntarily participate in this unpaid study. They were broken down into small groups of two to five people. Then they watched commercials that had young female women who were central characters and physically attractive,
about 18-25 years of age. Female central characters were chosen so that the respondents could be considered part of the target population of these advertisements. Next, each advertisement was given two categories of each of the following consumer products; neutral goods, beauty products, and two kinds of foods advertisements: dieting and nondieting products. After the participants finished viewing the commercials they were asked to which identify age and gender is this commercial aimed at, and a complete of three sets of seven-point ratings scales. The scales focused on three different themes. One scale mainly focused on the emotions of the participants after viewing the commercials, another focused on general features of the advertisement and the last scale focused on female character in the advertisement in relation to personal control. The results of this study were very stunning and very interesting. In conclusion the participants saw themselves and young women as the target group of the selected advertisements. Advertisements that pertain to food aroused more negative attention than non-advertisements, but only for women who already had problems with eating and negative body attitudes. The second hypothesis proposed that women with a lot of eating problems have less personal control to a model who advertises food. The researchers believe that the reason why the groups of women had different emotional reactions is due in vulnerability to the message of the advertisement, showing that women who are thin are normal. Vulnerability could show pervious cases of eating problems or can be a factor that can push women to have an eating disorder. The researchers feel that advertisement messages remind women of their problems with food and dieting therefore aggravating and perpetuating eating disorders. Since Mass media has a huge effect on the world, the researchers suggest a couple of suggestions that could possibly reduce eating
problems. The first suggestion is that mass media should advertise products, particularly food in a different way. Secondly mass media should provide accurate information about eating disorders rather than trivializing and glamorizing them (Shepord 1993). With these suggestions the researchers believe that mass media can promote a healthier body image.
References Hamilton, K. and walker, G (1993). Media influences on body size estimation in anorexia and bulimia. An experimental study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 162. 837-840 Shepard, R. (1993). Stark truth: An anorexic woman bares her soul. Sunday Times Magazine, 7th February, 30-34. Silverstein, B., Peterson, B. and Keely, E. (1986a). The role of mass media in promoting a thin standard of bodily attractiveness for women. Sex roles, 14, 510-532.