Jordan Wandfluh November 28, 2009 Theory and History of Mass Media

Abstract
This current study is a content analysis of women appearing in eight different magazines ranging children to middle age. The magazines which were used were Self, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, O!, J14, Maxim, Girls Life, and American Girl. These magazines were chosen because they have a high popularity and have many images of girls body types. The females were compared on many aspects including body type, ethnicity, appearance, age, and role. This study was to find if magazines targeting female children is creating a negative unhealthy body image schema and if the magazines targeting them as they mature are following this same unhealthy schema.

Introduction
How much does the media influence girls, young and old? Schema is formed at a young age but when does schema stop building? Magazines are placed everywhere for a young eye to see. Mothers check out at the grocery store while their daughters browse the magazine rack. Images of unrealistic body types are jumping out of the pages. Small waists with lots of cleavage, ribs protruding from their stomachs, and half naked girls are creating a schema for this young girl on how she is suppose to look. The researchers chose to look at several magazines, which targeted various ages. The magazines the researchers chose were: American Girl, Girls Life, J14, Seventeen, Self, Cosmopolitan, O!, and Maxim. These magazines were coded to see what ideal female image they were portraying. The main objective the researchers were aiming for was to see if a young childs magazine was creating a schema, which portrayed an unrealistic body type and if

through their ages if the magazines which targeted them were keeping up with this body type being portrayed.

Review of the literature

Society knows media effects how one thinks about their body. If television and celebrities did not exist there would be no need to change what you look like. According to Mediafamily.org, The popular media (television, movies, magazines, etc.) have, since World War II, increasingly held up a thinner and thinner body (and now ever more physically fit) image as the ideal for women. The ideal man is also presented as trim, but muscular. Mediafamily.org also found this study, Field et al. (1999) reported that the majority of nearly 550 working class adolescent girls were dissatisfied with their weight and shape. Almost 70% of the sample stated that pictures in magazines influence their conception of the perfect body shape, and over 45% indicated that those images motivated them to lose weight. Further, adolescent girls who were more frequent readers of womens magazines were more likely to report being influenced to think about the perfect body, to be dissatisfied with their own body, to want to lose weight, and to diet. As you can see as the studies show more and more girls are being affected by what magazines portray. The media has seen this effect happening and some medias are trying to change the schema. The Dove campaigners are embracing a womens beauty by showing the natural real look of a women including curves, cellulite, wrinkles, freckles and gray hair. But is this enough to change what our schema has already become or is this a slight hope for the next generation of girls. We as consumers are not helping the schema that is created. The media gives us what we want. They create an agenda setting by what sales more. Consumers are not

going to pick up a magazine with a normal, frumpy looking women on the front cover. Consumers want an attractive image, which is appealing to the eye. During the process of Gatekeeping the media is going to keep information from consumers. The information they withheld is how these unrealistic body types come to be. They do not tell you how much the image was photoshopped or how much the girl in the ad had to workout with a personal trainer to obtain the body she has or even the traumatic rituals the girls do to become the thinness they are. Even plastic surgery is an aspect consumers need to consider when comparing their bodies to unrealistic girls in a magazine.

Method
Eight magazines were coded on how the females were portrayed in each one. Each magazine targeted a different type of female. American Girl and Girls Life targets female children to preteens. J14 targets young female teenagers. Seventeen targets female teenagers. Cosmopolitan targets late female teenagers to the 20 age category. Self targets motivated, athletic, healthy women. O! targets a middle age female audience and Maxim targets men of all ages. The researchers chose Maxim to see if the men had a twisted image of what a real women looks like. Each ad in the magazine was coded, no matter the size. The female was the only gender coded in each of the ads. Reoccurring ads in the magazine was not recorded. The researchers coded the body type, ethnicity, appearance ranging from makeup to clothing, ages, and role of each of the models in the advertisements. To find the total percentage of each category we took the number of total women which was coded and divided by how many girls were in the category the researchers were making percentages at the time. After all the magazines were coded and percentages were made the researcher compared each of the findings to decide if

magazines targeted at younger girls were creating a healthy body type schema. Each element for the code sheet was decided by what society believes is beautiful and ugly. Mentioned earlier consumers create the agenda setting. Consumers decide the elements of what is beautiful and ugly therefore during Gatekeeping ugly images of the model (this could be images which were wrong angles making the model appear thicker or paler than what she really is) will not be shown to the public. These images do not make profit.

Research Questions
Magazines targeted at female children would have a variety of body types and little to no makeup. The magazine targeted at athletes would portray healthy athletic bodies. Schema of twisted portrayals of unrealistic body types would come from Cosmopolitan and Maxim.

Findings
For each category there was an element which overruled all other elements no matter which magazine looked at.

Body Type
The body type, which was most prevalent, was skinny or thin. If a bigger person was shown their makeup was heavier or they were advertising either weight loss or a creative advertisement. Seventeen had the largest number of skinny models coming in at 69 percent. Seventeen magazine is a magazine for teenagers which are at the ages where they are finding out their true self. These images could be ruining their schema.

Ethnicity
This category had a dominant ethnicity across the board: Caucasian. African American was shown in the percentages of 6% to 17%.

Appearance
This was the most surprising category. Heavy makeup was splashed across the faces of young girls in the magazine Girls life with 63% of girls having heavy makeup. This was the highest percentage of all the other magazines, including Maxim. Girls Life had several pages, which advertised how you could dress at school. Some of these included The sexy librarian and Moulin rouge. Real beauty was expressed mostly in American Girl and O!. American Girl had 91% of girls expressing a natural look. Skin was exposed in most of every magazine except American Girl. This proves the philosophy sex sells. No surprise Maxim had the most skin exposed. Most ads were of the same two girls in their underwear doing normal housewife chores and playing video games. This gives men a twisted schema of how women really are. When there was cellulite, wrinkles, or imperfections (which was minimal) it was typically how to get rid of these imperfections.

Ages
I feel age stayed within the range the magazine was targeting.

Role
This category was decided at the last minute to include into the researchers findings. This was the biggest shocker of all of our findings, Most women were not portrayed as typical girls but as fantasy women. Self, Seventeen and Cosmopolitan portrayed women as sex symbols whom did not need a job. Again, these magazines are targeted to an audience who is building who they are. There was a variety of percentages of students, wives, and mothers but overall looking through the magazines you get a

skewed image of who you are suppose to be. These results did not support the guesses. The researcher believed magazines targeted to a younger audience would portray a healthy body type with little to no makeup and loose fitting clothing but Girls Life was the total opposite. It did, however, support my idea with Maxim and Cosmopolitan.

Discussion
The findings show Media is targeting young females with a skewed body image, which is creating an unhealthy body image schema. Schema is formed at a young age and media is traumatizing their schema being built. It seems magazines are attempting to add a few elements which create a healthy schema but in between they add what sells, sex. It is sad, however, sex sells to children. The curiosity is, when did agenda setting change for children? Recently Dora the Explorer and Strawberry Shortcake had a makeover, which shortened their skirts and painted heavier makeup across their face. This is what children are seeing in these magazines. The agenda is changing, but in a negative light. It seems it has always been changing negatively so when will media stop controlling society and change agenda positively? According to Postman this may never be as long as the television is babysitting our children.

Future Research
The limitations of this study was time and sources. This research could have extended into taking one issue of each magazine (which was coded) from the years they were issued until the recent issue. An example would be taking Seventeen from the year 1944, 1945, 1946 all the way up to 2009 and coding for each one to see when the agenda changed for the body type and how the female was portrayed. This would allow the

researchers to find when the agenda started to change and twist the ideal body image negatively. This would allow the media to create a better image of females.

Works Cited Media's Effect On Girls: Body Image And Gender Identity. National Institute on Media + the Family. 2009. National Institute on Media + the family. November 28, 2009. http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_mediaeffect.shtml