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Meggie writes about the banner advertising and the influence of it on the society. As a example she provides one very interesting case of this type of advertising called Český Sen/ Czech Dream. There are many intersting information provided. If you are interested in it here is a link: http://networkadvertisingblog.blogspot.com/

Nika talks about the guerrilla marketing and buzz marketing. It is very catchy and very well explained and those explanations are supported by videos, quite good one. I focused Nika´s chapter about the negative or non ethical aspect of guerrilla marketing and I was suprised how much I did not know untill know. So you better should check it out: http://guerillaandbuzzmarketing.blogspot.com/

Bella focuses her attention on political advertsing. She talks anout the political campaings and all those lies politics promise us before the ellections. She also mentions how powerful those campaings could be. It is very well organized and clearly defined. Here is the link: http://advertisinglimited.blogspot.com/

Beatrice´s blog is very related to my topic, so to me it was very interesting and because I was also focusing on this kind of topic a could perceive it deeply and really think about the cult of beauty of present time. So Beatrise talks about the nowadays phenomen to be as thin as possible even though it is impossible. Check it out: http://portrayalsofwomen.wordpress.com/

Annie´s blog is very recebt and really interesting. She talks about the nowadays´s phenomenon, social networks, to be more specific, about Facebook. Annie writes about different aspects of facebook and effects of facebook on people, especially children. If you are interested in problematic of social networks visit this page: http://facebookmoredetailed.blogspot.com/

Welcome Everybody!
This blog was created to discuss often rehashed topic, if the media have any influence on spreading of eating disorders among young people. There are facts, interesting articles and videos posted below. Feel free to comment whatever you like to comment and if you have any questions, just ask me:)


Hope you will find my blog interesting.

Kate

Are media really involved in eating disorders?

Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and obesity are nowadays phenomenon among young people. Anorexia and bulimia are psychic diseases which affect more less teenagers, and the majority of people suffer from this illness are young women at the average age of 17. This does not mean that men are out of play. De facto the majority of models, body builders or ice skaters suffer from eating disorder. Obesity, on the other hand is different case, it is not considered as psychic illness. But obesity belongs to one of the most often illness in the USA, to be more concrete children illness. The statistics say that 1 out of 5 children suffer from obesity. The treatments for eating disorders are different and they help individually. It does not mean that after use some medicaments such as antidepressants or such will have the same effect on two different patients.

But the main question in my blog is if media have some effect on eating disorders, and if yes which one, positive or negative? The answer to the first part of my question is yes, yes media have an effect on eating disorders and the answer to the second part is obviously negative. Media present that be fit, slim, good looking means to be happy, with no problems to have a success. This sounds very nice, and the truth is that the majority of celebrities and public persons promote these things; they are promoting “health”. But what kind of health? Is it normal and healthy when adult women let’s say in the age of 25 has 40 or less kilos? Really? If young girls see I on the TV, what should they think? Ohh, she is gorgeous, she looks so pretty, she is so thin and so on. But do they realize that people on TV, like celebrities, are not the real people? I do not think so.

The fact is that even if media play a big role in eating disorder concept, they just promote what people and entire society wants to see. The media did not decide that the new trend going to be as thin as possible and look unhealthy and tinny to death. No, it was decided by fashion industry. To be slim promises a success everywhere. Media only promote it. The thing what should be done by media is to reduce photos and pictures of retouch celebrities and public persons. Media make from the real people unreal, unhealthy, tinny “zombies” and publish it like nothing happened. Those bodies on title pages on renowned magazines are based on fake bodies. No one have exactly same or even similar body to the bodies promote as perfect and ideal ones.

This is the ugly truth. But what shall we do to live in better place? It is nearly impossible to protect adults from this unrealistic world, but we can protect children. Parents can reduce a little bit watching TV, or if children want to see some program, parents should stay with them and explain everything what children could see on TV. Other semi-solution is to teach children how to live a high-quality and full value life without using any kind of diets, just eating normal and healthy. Lead them to sport activities. In this moment it is obvious that the change will come, but the question is when.      

The recent story of eating disorder victim

On December 30, 2010 it was reported that French model Isabelle Caro died in the age of 28. At one, very crucial stage of her illnesses her weight was only 55 pounds. In 2007 Isabelle began to fight against anorexia even though she was still suffering from this disease. She became the face of the 'No Anorexia' campaign by fashion house Nolita. Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani took the pictures which showed the controversial images of the model looking emaciated. Her body was so devastated because of the illness. An only bone, nothing else was possibly seen. This campaign was made to alarm that the situation is bad. Isabelle tried to fight against the “optimal size” for supermodels, which is size 0. According to Isabelle models are pushing all the time to lose weight for the reason of just looking according to designer´s vision. It does not do anything with healthy, fresh and sexy body. Nowadays models are just bones, in a men case, bones with some muscles. If someone think that anorexic models are only women, it is wrong, men models suffer from eating disorder in the same way.   

Dr. Franko knew Isabelle Caro very well; he was her psychiatrist during the Isaabelle´s treatment. A news reporter asked him how the pressure  girls stay slim contribute to anorexia. And the answer was "By creating a society where thin is associated with success, happiness, wealth, and attractiveness, young girls strive to be thin without recognizing the costs, both physically and mentally. Some have referred to the focus on thinness as a "brain drain" - girls focus on their bodies to the extent that other issues such as family, friends, schools, are left behind.“

Eating disorders seen by specialist

Herewith I am posting one scientific article written by Dr. Arthur Dingley a specialist on eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and obesity. He is writing about these disorders more concretely to details. He also uses some very interesting statistical numbers which say that bulimia occurs more often than anorexia and that obesity is the major problem of nowadays. According to Dr. Dingley there is less than 1% of people suffering from anorexia, but around 90% of them are girls, young women around the age of 17. There are 2% of people from entire population suffering from bulimia nervosa. He also suggests that obesity is not a psychic disorder so it is different in this eating disorders group. The causes of eating disorders are not clear even unknown. Dr.Dingley says: “The cause of eating disorders is unknown. It is tempting to speculate that our cultural “fixation” on idealized physical beauty is driving young women to extremes as they attempt to achieve an unattainable standard of physique. Unfortunately, there is little evidence for this. In fact, people with Anorexia Nervosa completely ignore culturally accepted norms of female beauty in pursuit of their idiosyncratic goals”.

Link to the article:

http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/riverview/psychology_articles/eating_disorder.html


Link to the video: 

Media influence on eating disorders

The first web article talks about the issue if the media cause eating disorders. It is a short article where the media influenced is discussed. Another article is about the eating disorder treatments, which inseparably belong to my topic. In the second article many kinds of treatments are discussed and recommended and at the beginning there is written important facts about eating disorders. The second article is posted because the treatments in eating disorders are very complicated, just for the fact that it is very hard to diagnose eating disorder. The situation when human suffers from eating disorders comes to you and asks for help is really very rare. And finally, the third interesting web site is Eating disorder expert. I chose the third one just for the reason that all those facts, such as causes or symptoms are presented there. It is very complex website with important contacts.  

  

Here are the links for articles, feel free to check it out:

1. http://www.articledoctor.com/eating-disorders/does-the-media-cause-eating-disorders---does-the-media-cause-eating-disorders-738

2.http://www.eating-disorder.com/

3.http://www.eatingdisorderexpert.co.uk/

And if you are interested in some personal stries here is a link, and you can find some very interesting ones:

http://caringonline.com/feelings/byvictims/

media versus eating disorders article 2

 The second article which I chose is Body image, Media and Eating disorders. The article is more less like case study, it takes the reader to the history of body image changes. It begins with colonial times together with tiny waists and large bustles. This period was really cruel because women were willing to remove, by surgery of course, their ribs, to look thinner. After it continuous with the 20^th century and, moving to 2^nd Word War to the late 1960s, when top model Twiggy, become so famous.

It describes the media influence on human body development, there is an interesting fact which says that the year 1998 was quite crucial for eating disorders, because at that time the series like Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place were recorded, and young people tend to inclined to the perfect and very well looking actors and actresses.  

The article finishes with some recommendations for parents. They should lead their children to healthy lifestyle, not based on diets ar model look, but to exercise and healthy food.  

here is the link: 

http://ap.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/30/3/257

media versus eating disorders article 1

In the article Exploring the role society and media play in a development of an eating disorder and the media influence on eating disorders it is said that not only the media should be responsible for eating disorders. The statistics say that if there are around 6 billion people on this planet more than 10 million among them suffering from some kind of eating disorder. 

The media obviously does not cause everyone´s eating disorder but it is a lot complex. Media are a bit focused on size discrimination and dieting. The most important issue here in this article is to realize that dieting does not mean equally the same as eating disorder!!!! The article talks about the problem of stereotyping like each women should look great, be attractive, with perfect body, all the time we should look fresh. Men, on the other side should have a greta body, with muscles everywhere and again act like metrosexuals. These stereotypes are always seen on TV, magazines just in different types of media.

Everywhere there is a problem with dieting, diet advertisings are everywhere!! They promise that if you lose weight you will be happy- so here is the size discrimination from the media side. Why someone with few kilos more cannot be happy? Is that really true? I do not think so, but it depends on personality. I like the division of Americans, the article suggests that there are only two types of Americans, firstly gauche potatoes and secondly those exercise freak. I think this phenomenon is not only in USA but everywhere. 

Here is the link, so if you are inerested, check it out:

link to the article:

media and eating disorders


video:

Obesity

The foods we eat every day are crucial for our well being. Foods we eat provide use vitamins and other nutrients we need for healthy body, but also the energy is being provided. It is important to realize that if we eat too much, the extra food turns into fat and we gain weight, if we do not do anything. With a passive lifestyle we may become obese and this of getting obese is very quick.

Obesity is an epidemic disease in America, but unfortunately not only there. Obesity occur everywhere The statistics say that more than half of Americans are overweight and at least 1 in 5 children too!!, which is alarming situation. Nearly 1/3 of population is obese. The problem with increasing obesity is that the food is abundant and physical activity is optional.  

In a obesity case the media trying to be helpful. There are tons and tons of exercising channels on TV. Like yoga channel, or every morning some exercise program, about 20 minutes long. Media in this case try to persuade people that it is important to eat and live healthy. There are still more and more discussion about this topics, maybe they concentrate more on children obesity, because it is definitely the major problem. Today´s children are less active than ever before, they spend hours in front of TV or computer, playing games, watching movies and eating. If they do nothing active, these passive activities resulting in gain weight. It seems to me, that our society still does not realize the danger of this issue. Firstly obese people are not able move as much as they should, because the weight is so high, that every movement hurts. In a sense that all joins have to carry the body, so it follows that knees or hipsters are getting attrite. Heart should work harder and pump up more blood, than ever before, so the potential stroke is waiting and others. The media shows that obesity is a problem and try to focus on that.      

Obesity from medical point of view

Bulimia nervosa

Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by restraining of food intake for a period of time followed by an over intake or binging period that results in feelings of guilt and low self-esteem. The median age of onset is 18. Sufferers attempt to overcome these feelings in a number of ways. The most common form is defensive vomiting, sometimes called purging; fasting. Bulimia nervosa is nine times more likely to occur in women than men (Barker 2003).

people see themselves as fat and
feel they need to reduce their weight

There is one question, why do people become bulimics? There is no easy answer to this question. Is media the majority problem? No, I do not think so. Media only presents what the society wants. They are just presenting photos, and movies and whatever, so it is a problem. Because we live in digital and electronic era so, everybody have an opportunity to find anything on internet. It is enough just to turn on the TV and see some movie, actors and actresses are simply perfect in every situation. Teenagers are influenced by media, of course. But the big issue is that the most bulimics come from families in which the emotional, physical, or spiritual needs of family members are not met in some way. In some of these households, feelings are not verbally expressed and communication skills are lacking. There may be a history of depression, alcoholism, drug abuse, or eating disorders; and, the child might unconsciously recognize that escape is an appropriate thing to do. In this context, food becomes a “good” drug, something which does not have the negative connotations of alcohol or drug abuse.  But bulimia or anorexia are not the only eating disorders, there is another one, called obesity, which belongs to one of the most common children disorder.

Why do people become bulimics?

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa

As it was mentioned in the introduction, anorexia is psychic disease which abuses more less teenager girl. It is a disease where symptoms are quite obvious like girls do not nearly anything; they lose their weight in very extreme way. The skin is getting worse and worse, they are more tired and depressed. Those girls or women want to look exactly as women, stars, on TV or magazines. And they do not realize that it is not possible. Those models are celebrities use many procedures which make them thinner or even nicer of course. I am talking about more less surgery methods, such as liposuction or any other kind of plastic surgery. They are pushing to look perfect; it is expected from them to look simply perfect.

So the question is why those girls are comparing themselves with illusions created by media and society? Why those girls tend to envy the celebrities?

The problem is that not everyone likes sport, and if someone want to lose some weight, the most effective way how to do it, is sport, but if someone does not incline to sport activity, the second easiest way how to be thinner is to reduce food. The food reduction is very effective, when it is doing in right way, but to stop eating anything you are asking for troubles with health. And those troubles are definitely very serious, it can involved hair loss, problematic skin, shedding of teeth, losing period which can resulting into infertility and in very extreme case you can endanger your heart by incoming stroke, which can be fatal. There are people, who are simply not able to stop eating, so they abuse themselves in different way, they overeat and then vomit it everything. Bulimia will be discussed in other article.    

Nowadays phenomenon-eating disorders, a synonymum for self-destruction

Eating disorders belong to the phenomenon diseases in nowadays era. These eating disorders involved diseases such as Anorexia and Bulimia nervosa and obesity. These disorders are not taken as serious as they should be, mostly because of the fact that they are very dangerous, and if the disease is pushing to the extreme, the victim can die. Anorexia, bulimia and obesity are very extreme diseases. During the anorexia and bulimia the victims can lose the majority of their weight, which means that 25 to 30 kilos for women is not an exception. On the other hand the extreme obesity is other case, people stricken by obesity can have more than 200 even 300 kilos, and that is not the maximum. In both cases, the disorders affected people´s health in very harmful way.

These disorders are psychic diseases, so it is maybe more difficult to treat it. So why people abuse themselves? The problem with anorexia and bulimia can possible be in media. When I am saying media, I mean everything such as TV, movies, magazines, internet and so on. The Hollywood stars are presenting as something perfect, without any problem, without any mistake on their beauties. The magazines also presented people as something abnormal perfect. Anorexia and bulimia are psychic disorders which are quite common in teenage, and it occurs more usual in female genders, but it does not mean that males cannot suffer from anorexia or bulimia.