Samples Of Commercials And Magazines example essay topic

"We don't need Afghan-style burqas to disappear as women. We disappear in reverse-by revamping and revealing our bodies to meet externally imposed visions of female beauty". Robin Gerber Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women-and their body parts-sell everything from food to cars. Popular film and television actresses are becoming younger, taller and thinner. Some have even been known to faint on the set from lack of food.

Women's magazines are full of articles urging that if they can just lose those last twenty pounds, they " ll have it all-the perfect marriage, loving children, great sex, and a rewarding career. Why are standards of beauty being imposed on women, the majority of whom are naturally larger and more mature than any of the models? The roots, some analysts say, are economic. By presenting an ideal difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits.

And it's no accident that youth is increasingly promoted, along with thinness, as an essential criterion of beauty. If not all women need to lose weight, for sure they " re all aging, says the Quebec Action Network for Women's Health in its 2001 report Change ments soci aux en favour de la diversit'e des images corpor elles. And, according to the industry, age is a disaster that needs to be dealt with. The stakes are huge. On the one hand, women who are insecure about their bodies are more likely to buy beauty products, new clothes, and diet aids. It is estimated that the diet industry alone is worth $100 billion (U.S.) a year.

On the other hand, research indicates that exposure to images of thin, young, air-brushed female bodies is linked to depression, loss of self-esteem and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls. The American research group Anorexia Nervosa & Related Eating Disorders, Inc. says that one out of every four college-aged women uses unhealthy methods of weight control-including fasting, skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative abuse, and self-induced vomiting. And the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute warns that weight control measures are being taken by girls as young as nine. Media activist Jean Kilbourne concludes that, "Women are sold to the diet industry by the magazines we read and the television programs we watch, almost all of which make us feel anxious about our weight". Unattainable Beauty 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. Still, the number of real life women and girls who seek a similarly underweight body is epidemic, and they can suffer equally devastating health consequences. The Culture of Thinness Researchers report that women's magazines have ten and one-half times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men's magazines do, and over three-quarters of the covers of women's magazines include at least one message about how to change a woman's bodily appearance-by diet, exercise or cosmetic surgery. Television and movies reinforce the importance of a thin body as a measure of a woman's worth. Canadian researcher Gregory Fouts reports that over three-quarters of the female characters in TV situation comedies are underweight, and only one in twenty are above average in size. Heavier actresses tend to receive negative comments from male characters about their bodies ("How about wearing a sack?" ), and 80 per cent of these negative comments are followed by canned audience laughter.

There have been efforts in the magazine industry to buck the trend. For several years the Quebec magazine Coup de Pouce has consistently included full-sized women in their fashion pages and Ch^at elaine has pledged not to touch up photos and not to include models less than 25 years of age. However, advertising rules the marketplace and in advertising thin is "in". Twenty years ago, the average model weighed 8 per cent less than the average woman-but today's models weigh 23 per cent less.

Advertisers believe that thin models sell products. When the Australian magazine New Woman recently included a picture of a heavy-set model on its cover, it received a truckload of letters from grateful readers praising the move. But its advertisers complained and the magazine returned to featuring bone-thin models. Advertising Age International concluded that the incident "made clear the influence wielded by advertisers who remain convinced that only thin models spur the sales of beauty products". Self-Improvement or Self-Destruction? The barrage of messages about thinness, dieting and beauty tells "ordinary" women that they are always in need of adjustment-and that the female body is an object to be perfected.

Jean Kilbourne argues that the overwhelming presence of media images of painfully thin women means that real women's bodies have become invisible in the mass media. The real tragedy, Kilbourne concludes, is that many women internalize these stereotypes, and judge themselves by the beauty industry's standards. Women learn to compare themselves to other women, and to compete with them for male attention. This focus on beauty and desirability "effectively destroys any awareness and action that might help to change that climate".

Media Coverage of Women and Women's Issues "What women suffer, then, is more insidious than invisibility. It is deliberate erasure". Louise Armstrong Women professionals and athletes continue to be under-represented in news coverage, and are often stereotypically portrayed when they are included. Women, News and Politics Although there has been a steady increase in the number of women professionals over the past 20 years, most mainstream press coverage continues to rely on men as experts in the fields of business, politics and economics. Women in the news are more likely to be featured in stories about accidents, natural disasters, or domestic violence than in stories about their professional abilities or expertise. Women in politics are similarly sidelined.

Canadian journalist Jenn Go ddu studied newspaper and magazine coverage of three women's lobby groups over a 15-year period. She discovered that journalists tend to focus on the domestic aspects of the politically active woman's life (such as "details about the high heels stashed in her bag, her habit of napping in the early evening, and her lack of concern about whether or not she is considered ladylike") rather than her position on the issues. Quebec political analyst Denis Moni " ere uncovered similar patterns. In 1998, Moni " ere analysed 83 late evening newscasts on three national networks-the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio-Canada (the French-language public broadcaster) and TVA. He observed that women's views were solicited mainly in the framework of "average citizens" and rarely as experts, and that political or economic success stories were overwhelmingly masculine. Moni " ere also noted that the number of female politicians interviewed was disproportionate to their number in Parliament or in the Quebec National Assembly; nor, he noted, was this deficiency in any way compensated for by the depth and quality of coverage.

Inadequate women's coverage seems to be a worldwide phenomenon. In 2000 the Association of Women Journalists (Association des femmes journalists - AF) studied news coverage of women and women's issues in 70 countries. It reported that only 18 per cent of stories quote women, and that the number of women-related stories came to barely 10 per cent of total news coverage. News talk shows are equally problematic. The White House Project reports that only 9 per cent of the guests on Sunday morning news shows such as Meet the Press and Face the Nation are women, and even then they only speak 10 per cent of the time-leaving 90 per cent of the discussion to the male guests. Project president Marie Wilson warns that the lack of representation for women will have profound consequences on whether or not women are perceived as competent leaders, because "authority is not recognized by these shows.

It is created by these shows". Professor Caryl Rivers notes that politically active women are often disparaged and stereotyped by the media. When Hillary Clinton was still first lady, she was referred to as a "witch" or "witch like" at least 50 times in the press. Rivers writes, "male political figures may be called mean and nasty names, but those words don't usually reflect superstition and dread. Did the press ever call Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, or Clinton warlocks?" Women and Sports Women athletes are also given short shrift in the media. Margaret Carlisle Duncan and Michael Messner studied sports coverage on three network affiliates in Los Angeles.

They report that only nine per cent of airtime was devoted to women's sports, in contrast to the 88 per cent devoted to male athletes. Female athletes fared even worse on ESPN's national sports show Sports Center, where they occupied just over two per cent of airtime. And, according to the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women, Sports and Physical Activity, women athletes receive just three per cent of sports coverage in major Canadian dailies. Margaret Carlisle Duncan notes that commentators (97 per cent of whom are men) use different language when they talk about female athletes. Where men are described as "big,"strong,"brilliant,"gutsy" and "aggressive", women are more often referred to as "weary,"fatigued,"frustrated,"panicked,"vulnerable" and "choking". Commentators are also twice as likely to call men by their last names only, and three times as likely to call women by their first names only.

Duncan argues that this "reduces female athletes to the role of children, while giving adult status to white male athletes". The Prix D'em " eri tas (Brickbat Prize) for sexist reporting was awarded by Quebec's Gazette des femmes to the journalists who covered the 2000 International Women's Tennis Cup. The Gazette noted in particular the journalists' keen interest in any of the athletes' poses that could be seen as suggestive, as well as the excessive attention accorded Anna Kournikova-for her beauty rather than her game. Media images of women in sports are also very different from the familiar pictures of male athletes in action. Female athletes are increasingly photographed in what Professor Pat Griffin calls "hyper-sexual ized poses". Griffin notes, "When it was once enough to feminize women athletes, now it is necessary to sexual ize them for men.

Instead of hearing, 'I am woman, hear me roar,' we are hearing 'I am hetero-sexy, watch me strip. ' " Beauty Before Brains When well-respected news-show host Greta Van Susteren moved from CNN to Fox in early 2002, she not only had a makeover; she surgically altered her face to appear younger and more "beautiful". When her new show, On the Record, premiered, her hair was perfectly coiffed and she sat behind a table so viewers could see her short skirt and legs. Robin Gerber notes that, "Before her surgery, Van Susteren had been an increasingly visible beacon projecting the hope that women had made progress. You believed that she had made it in television because she was so darn smart, clearly the best legal analyst on the air".

However, her surgery symbolizes what many analysts have argued for decades: that the way a woman looks is far more important than what she has to say. Gerber concludes that Van Susteren "has become a painful reminder of women's inequality... Being smart, smarter, smartest isn't enough. By trying to become just another pretty face, Van Susteren instead became another cultural casualty". A Content Analysis: Reflections of Girls in the Media A study of Television Shows and Commercials, Movies, Music Videos, and Teen Magazine Articles and Ads Conducted by Nancy Signorelli, Ph. D. University of Delaware, Department of Communication for the Kaiser Family Foundation and Children Now April 1997 Table Of Contents Introduction Methods Findings: o Representation of Women and Men in the Media o Activities Characters Engage In o Motivations and Behaviors of Characters o Who do Characters Rely on to Solve Problems? o Appearances of Characters o Appearance Related Discussions o Commercials and Advertisements - Products and Appeals o Magazine Articles - Topics Covered Conclusions Appendix A - List of Television Shows Included in Analysis Appendix B -- List of Feature Films Included in Analysis Appendix C -- List of Music Videos Included in Analysis Appendix D -- List of Magazines Included in Analysis Introduction The portrayal of gender roles on television has been the subject of numerous studies during the past 30 years.

Such studies, most of which were conducted during the seventies and eighties, typically found that prime time television presents very stereotyped and often traditional characterizations, particularly of women. The nineties have become the decade of media specialization and narrow casting. Adolescents, especially young teen and preteen, have emerged as a special advertiser-targeted audience. For example, special programming strategies both on networks and cable channels have been designed to attract preteen and young teen viewers.

Similarly, numerous other media, including music videos and a new generation of teen-oriented magazines are also specifically designed to target this special audience. The media are an important part of young teens' lives -- they watch television, listen to music, and read magazines practically every day. In addition, young people, especially those between 10 and 15, are faced with the turmoil and changes of puberty and early adolescence. Their bodies are changing, their faces are breaking out, they have mood swings, they have conflicts with their parents and others in authority roles, and sometimes they wonder where they truly fit in. They often turn to each other and to the media to find the answers to their questions about how they can solve problems, how they should act, how they should behave with the opposite sex, what they should wear, and what they should look like. But what kinds of answers do today's media provide?

Do today's media messages go beyond the traditional and stereotyped messages of the preceding decades? This research explores the messages relating to body image, behavior, activities, motivation, as well as capturing the demographic make-up of the characters in the media consumed most often by young girls. The research examined messages in four media, focusing on six separate venues: television (the top 25 television programs for teenage girls and the commercials before, during and after these programs), theatrical films (the top 15 movies seen in movie theaters by teenage girls), music videos, and teen magazines (content and advertisements). Focus of the Study This study was specifically designed to explore further the kinds of messages prevalent in the media used by preteen and teenage girls. The following research questions were examined: 1. What messages do the media send girls about the importance of appearance and the relationship of appearance to romance, happiness, and success?

2. What messages are girls sent about goals and how to achieve them? 3. What messages are girls sent about the importance of having a boyfriend and the relationship of appearance to this goal? 4.

What messages are girls sent about the importance of having a career? 5. What messages are girls sent about how they should behave and what behaviors they should use to achieve their goals? 6. Are there differences in the frequency and intensity of the messages girls receive across the different media? Are the messages that girls receive reinforced across the media?

Methods Samples For Analysis Twelve separate samples of different media and its characters, models, and / or performers were examined in this study. The samples included (1) television programs; (2) television programs' leading / supporting characters; (3) feature / theatrical films; (4) films' leading and supporting characters; (5) television commercials; (6) models in the commercials; (7) music videos; (8) the performers in the music videos; (9) magazine articles; (10) the people in the accompanying photos of the magazine articles; (11) magazine advertisements; and (12) the models in magazine advertisements. Each of these samples had its own recording instrument. The samples of media used in this research were generated during the fall of 1996, except for the sample of theatrical films. Using the Nielsen Television Index Ranking Report, the top 25 programs for girls between 12 and 17 years were selected. A two-week sample of these programs was recorded during November 1996.

The final sample consists of 46 programs because two of the top 25 programs were movies. A report generated by Simmons Market Research Bureau isolated the top 15 theatrical films, released in 1995 and seen in movie theaters by girls between 12 and 17 years. As these films had all been released for the video-rental marked, copies were rented in order to conduct the analysis. The sample of commercials consists of all the commercials broadcast during the time parameters of the sample of television programs. Commercials were coded once and weighted by the number of times they appeared during these programs. The sample of music videos consists of the top 20 videos shown on MTV during the first three weeks in November 1996, weighted for the number of times each one appeared.

Finally, the sample of magazines consists of four issues (September, October, November, and December) of the four leading teen girl magazines (Sassy, Teen, YM, and Seventeen). All advertisements one-page or larger in the magazines were coded as part of this project. See Appendices A-D for lists of the sample of media analyzed. Table 1 gives the number of cases in each of the samples of media. These samples of media represent adolescent girls' favorite television programs, the commercials in these programs, music videos, and the feature films that they saw in movie theaters.

The magazines are also those specifically targeted to this particular age group. These samples thus do not reflect the entire body of television programs, commercials, feature films, or magazines that are available for viewing or reading by this group and the population at large. Table 1: Sample Size for Each Media Type and Category Media Type and Category Number Television Programs 46 Television Characters 242 Commercials on Television 859 Models in Commercials 465 Feature Films 15 Film Characters 71 Magazines 16 Magazine Articles 378 People in Photos Accompanying Magazine Articles 372 Advertisements in Magazines 602 Models in Magazine Ads 352 Music Videos 60 Performers in Music Videos 64 Numbers are weighted by how many times the same advertisement, video or commercial appeared during the study period. Recording Instruments The recording instruments contain all the coding schemes and detailed definitions used in the research.

The instruments were generated by the principal investigator with considerable input from Children Now and the Kaiser Family Foundation. The recording instruments were generated so as to use the same coding schemes, whenever possible, across the different media. For example, coding schemes relating to demographics were coded for all of the characters, models, and performers. The following list briefly outlines the general framework of the coding schemes used in this analysis. 1. Demographics 2.

Appearance 3. Satisfaction with physical appearance 4. Relationship between appearance and how others perceive the character / model 5. Solving problems and achieving goals 6.

Motivations 7. Topics of conversation 8. Behaviors, including if they are used to achieve goals 9. Activities 10.

Topics of magazine articles 11. Product Appeals Each of the above dimensions of content was isolated using several different coding schemes. Where possible, the same schemes were used to code each of the samples of analysis. The recording instrument and coding schemes for the television / film characters were the most detailed and extensive instrument.

While the instrumentation for the other units included most of the above outlined dimensions of content, some of the specific coding schemes were simplified for the samples of commercials and magazines. Reliability A critical component of content analysis methodology is to ascertain the degree of reliability of the coding to insure that the data reflect consistency in the interpretation and application of the coding schemes and not the particular biases and / or interpretations of individual coders. Roughly, one-half of each sample of materials was coded independently by two coders to provide the data for the reliability analysis. Two procedures -- Krippendorff's alpha and a percent agreement calculation -- were used to measure reliability. Krippendorff's alpha is a measure that takes chance into account and allows the calculation of reliability coefficients for different scales of measurement.

Alpha must reach a value between 0.60 and 0.80 to be conditionally reliable and between 0.80 and 1.00 to be unconditionally reliable. In certain instances where the distribution of cases did not support the use of Krippendorff's alpha, the percent agreement was calculated. Variables were accepted as reliable if the measure of the percentage of agreement was 85 percent or greater. Reliability measures were calculated for each variable in the recording instrument. Only those variables meeting the standards of reliability were included in the final analysis of the data. Coders and Coder Training.

The coders were masters students and upper level undergraduate majors in the Department of Communication at the University of Delaware. Although the entire coder pool consisted of more women than men, all of the reliability measures were calculated using data generated by both a man and a woman coder. The coders spent roughly 20 hours in a rigorous training exercise. This exercise began by a full presentation and discussion of all the coding schemes. The coders then coded several examples of the materials and discussed the coding with the principal investigator and the entire pool of coders. Data Analysis The data analysis focuses on isolating the basic dimensions of content in the samples using basic descriptive statistics.

Where possible, the analysis has been conducted and presented in tabular form to make comparisons across the media. The tables generated to report the findings from variables coded for more than one sample include data from all relevant media. Simple descriptive statistics, cross tabs and frequency distributions were calculated, usually comparing the male and female characters in the samples. The statistical significance of the cross tabular analyses of the differences between the men and women was ascertained using Chi Square. Where appropriate, t-tests were used to determine if the differences between mean scores were statistically significant. To simplify the tabular presentation of the data, statistical significance is reported only at p.