What is the medias influence on teens?
Ideas, products, and health information stories that are featured in the media influence teens, as well as adults. What we are seeing in the media these days is an influence toward extreme thinness of body shape. Just pass by any local magazine rack, turn on the television, or watch a popular film and try not to be bombarded with waif-like celebrities and with images and ideas that imply people will be successful, happy, and socially acceptable if they are thin. Television news-magazines, such as Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood regularly feature stories about the latest “celebrity slim-down,” tabloid stories focus on a standard of beauty that emphasizes thinness a “size 0” dress size over health and well being, and on any average day, one of every 3.8 television commercials sends a message about body shape and/or attractiveness. This equates to teens seeing more than 5,200 such “attractiveness messages” in commercials per year. These media images and advertising messages abo
