Research

I have looked at many different types of sources for my research so that I had a wide angle on the subject.  For example I have looked at magazines, television programmes, photography, writers, commercial adverts, online news paper articles and beauty campaigns that have statistics to show how some women feel about the media and the impact it has on them.  The media is a large industry so I have tried to cover many areas of it, but I have done extensive research on magazine, looking at many different types which include, ‘Closer’, ‘Now’, ‘Heat’, ‘Reveal’, ‘Cosmopolitan’, ‘Beauty’, ‘Bazaar’, ‘Tatler’ etcetera. 

As I said before in the ‘Theoretical Content’ my research has helped to develop my ideas and widened my idea that the media has a strong influence on women.  A key theorist was B. Gunter because he explains that beauty is defined by what is constructed in one’s society socially and culturally, for example what is ‘beautiful’ and what is not.  This has given me an idea for some research I will conduct next term, for example I was thinking of looking at the different types of ‘beauty’ in other cultures.  One can argue that different societies and cultures define beauty differently, for example beauty in the religion Muslim is seen through the woman’s eyes, because the rest of her body is covered up.  

Next term the research I still need to do is look into more depth about the media and the power it can have on women and how it affects them personally.  I am going to do various interviews and questionnaires towards women asking them if the media affects how they fell about their appearance and if so how does it make them feel.  Doing this form of research will give me evidence that it does affect women and I can show this in my photographs.  I would also like to look at in further detail how advertising of products can potentially persuade a woman to buy it because it promotes ‘beauty’ or how to achieve it.  For example in Diana Vickers advertisement for her clothing range ‘Very’ (online clothing store) she is in a jumpsuit and says, ‘It can also make you taller and slimmer.’  These techniques that certain media sources use can be said are initiated as a device to attract their audiences to the products.  Suggesting it will help with their appearance, for example making them look skinnier.

Theoretical books that I have found which I will read in depth for next term are, ‘Body Image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women, and children 2nd ed’ by Sarah Grogan, ‘The ‘fat’ female body’ by Samantha Murray, and ‘Cosmetic Surgery: A feminist primer’ by Cressida Heyes and Meredith Jones.’  The sources will hopefully give me more insight into my project idea.

Youtube. (2011) Diana Vickers Very Commercial [online].  Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BIvlBJ-KtE [Accessed 3 December 2011].