The Status of Media Effects on Body Image Research: Commentary on Articles in the Themed Issue on Body Image and Media

There is increasingly convincing evidence that media-promoted unrealistic thin ideals are associated with detrimental effects on women and girls' moods, body image, and eating patterns. Accordingly, media effects on body image have become an important area of research—one with theoretical and practical implications. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief introduction to the articles included in this themed issue of Media Psychology to clarify how they inform us and what remains to be investigated. As a set, the articles well exemplify current trends in this research area and contribute to an increasingly complex and sophisticated understanding of the role of the media in body image.

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[2]  Kimberly L. Bissell.  Skinny Like You: Visual Literacy, Digital Manipulation and Young Women's Drive to be Thin , 2006 .

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[11]  Marika Tiggemann,et al.  NetTweens The Internet and Body Image Concerns in Preteenage Girls , 2014 .

[12]  Robin L. Nabi,et al.  Inspired by Hope, Motivated by Envy: Comparing the Effects of Discrete Emotions in the Process of Social Comparison to Media Figures , 2014 .

[13]  M. Tiggemann,et al.  NetGirls: the Internet, Facebook, and body image concern in adolescent girls. , 2013, The International journal of eating disorders.

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[15]  Kristen Harrison,et al.  Television Viewing, Fat Stereotyping, Body Shape Standards, and Eating Disorder Symptomatology in Grade School Children , 2000, Commun. Res..

[16]  Elly A. Konijn,et al.  Counteracting Media's Thin-Body Ideal for Adolescent Girls: Informing Is More Effective Than Warning , 2014 .

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[18]  Sarah K. Murnen,et al.  “Everybody Knows That Mass Media Are/Are Not [pick one] a Cause of Eating Disorders”: A Critical Review of Evidence for a Causal Link Between Media, Negative Body Image, and Disordered Eating in Females , 2009 .

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[20]  M. Tiggemann,et al.  Disclaimer labels on fashion magazine advertisements: effects on social comparison and body dissatisfaction. , 2013, Body image.

[21]  M. Tiggemann,et al.  Media Exposure, Body Dissatisfaction, and Disordered Eating in Middle-aged Women , 2011 .

[22]  Sarah K. Murnen,et al.  The effect of experimental presentation of thin media images on body satisfaction: a meta-analytic review. , 2002, The International journal of eating disorders.

[23]  Kristen Harrison,et al.  Virtually Perfect: Image Retouching and Adolescent Body Image , 2014 .

[24]  M. Tiggemann.  Body image across the adult life span: stability and change. , 2004, Body image.

[25]  J. Thompson,et al.  Effects of exposure to thin-ideal media images on body dissatisfaction: testing the inclusion of a disclaimer versus warning label. , 2013, Body image.

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[27]  E. Zurbriggen,et al.  The sexualization of girls and girlhood : causes, consequences, and resistance , 2013 .