ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my Academic Writing advisor, Professor
Madya Jamaluddin Abd Rashid for his continuous support of my related research, for his
patience, motivation, and immense knowledge. His guidance helped me in all the time of research
and writing of this research paper. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor
for our undergraduate study.

Getting through my dissertation required more than academic support, and I have many, many
people to thank for listening to and, at times, having to tolerate me over the past four years. I
cannot begin to express my gratitude and appreciation for their friendship. Idham Firdaus, Nik
Mazielia Idura, Fuad Rozally, Aida, Helmy, Hazwani Athirah and my whole coursemates in
MC222. They have been unwavering in their personal and professional supoort during the time
Ive spent at the university.

Adriean Nuh Ilham Bin Khairi, thank you for being an understanding son. Thank you for the
sacrifices that you have made in sharing your love for me whilst I was being a mother and a
student at the same time. Last but not the least, my loving husband Khairi, my mother, brother
and sister and it would be an understatement to say that, as a family, we have experienced some
ups and downs in the past four years of my study. This dissertation stands as a testament to your
unconditional love and encouragement. Thank you for supporting me spiritually throughout
writing this paper and my life in general.

May Allah S.W.T reward all of you with His kindness and blessing in the Dunya and the
Hereafter.

To my ayah, arwah Haji Mahmud Derani, this one is for you.

Al Fatihah.

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 ABSTRACT

Throughout history societies have focused on beauty and body shape. Researchers have studied
the social and cultural factors that contribute to the formation of an ideal body image. Many
researchers agree that western society has created a thin ideal body image. This image is
communicated in the mass media. The thin ideal body image is often found in beauty and fashion
magazines, television programming and on Internet sites. This research sought to determine the
correlation between media consumption and body dissatisfaction, as well as the motivation to
change ones body. Advertising and media images play an important role in everyday life, and
sometimes the messages being relayed to young women about beauty are harmful and skewed.
Young women are exposed to these potentially harmful messages at a young age, and are,
therefore, continuously present in their lives. In reality, no one actually knows what true beauty
really is, so advertisers have created an unrealistic depiction of a truly beautiful woman over the
years. There are different opinions about what real beauty is, including a concept of the thin
ideal being portrayed in some advertisements that are always visible to people and can have
detrimental effects on those observing the images.
Have you seen the fool that corrupted his own live body? or the fool that corrupted her own live
body?For they do not conceal themselves, and cannot conceal themselves.
Walt Whitman, 1855
This research is conducted in order to examine the exposure and attitudes of thin-model portrayed
by the print media (magazine) and to help alter the culture of publicizing thin-ideal in print
medias. By exposing the negative impacts of thin-ideals portrayal by the print media has on
womens body image, it will bring forth change towards the type of body image that will be
selected by the print media in the future. This research is also focusing on examining the attitudes
of readers of thin-model portrayal by the print media in terms of positive traits and sexual appeals
being associated with thin-ideal in the form of images and articles found in The Malaysian
Womens Weekly magazine. By conducting this research we would be able to assist the magazine
to alter their way of proclaiming their product or it can even help them to gather materials which
are better suited for a more realistic Malaysian demographics of woman. They might benefit
towards guiding young women in creating a way to love themselves more despite what type of
body image they possessed and trying to stop these women from idealizing certain stereotypes of
bodytypes. With this secondary data collection, content analysis method was used in this
research. The research method chose was to analyse the level and type of coverage that this
particular magazine gives to the idealization of having a thin body image.

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 AUTHORS DECLARATION

I declare that the work in this research was carried out in accordance with the regulations of
Universiti Teknologi MARA. It is original and is the results of my own work, unless otherwise
indicated or acknowledged as referenced work. This research has not been submitted to any other
academic institution or non-academic institution for any degree or qualification.

I, hereby, acknowledge that I have been supplied with the Academic Rules and Regulations for
post graduate, Universiti Teknologi MARA, regulating the conduct of my study and research.

Name of Student : Azuati Binti Mahmud 2011435856

Programme : Bachelor of Mass Communication (Hons) Public

Relations

Faculty : Faculty of Communication and Media Studies

Title : Frequent Portrayals of Thin Ideals Correlated to Images and

Articles in The Malaysian Womens Magazine

Signature of Student :

Date : 18th July 2016

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