Young Adults as a Target of the Media

            The idea that the media has an effect on its consumers is undisputable.  What is questioned, however, is what kind of effect the media produces.  The stance most often taken is that the media has a negative effect on body image and ideals.  In light of this, the media's main audience is a topic which usually goes unlooked.  Generally, the media targets whomever will bite its bait, an audience which will consume whatever form of media is presented so that a profit is created.  The true target of negative media - advertisements, television, and movies depicting the "ideal" thin body image - are adolescents and young adults.    

           It is during adolescence, the period of time between childhood and adulthood, in which humans attempt to discover themselves.  Between the ages of thirteen to early twenties, individuals explore different senses of self until a "...gradual reshaping of a self-definition unifies the various selves into a consistent and comfortable sense of who one is" (Myers 147).  Obviously, an individual could be quite impressionable during this time of discovery and change.  Psychologist David Myers explains that  between the ages of 13 and 23, a "clearer, more self-affirming identity is forming..." (148), thus making adolescents and young adults in that age group a perfect audience for the media, especially if it wishes to make a strong and lasting impression.

            The images projected by the media are so powerful because they are targeted to this specific age group – early adolescence to early adulthood– which is at its prime in terms of familiarizing itself with culture, internalization of ideas, and developing a sense of individual self.  This is obvious as the abundance of studies involving the influence of media on body image have been conducted on young men and women, the most susceptible group.  Some fashion magazines, including YM, Your Magazine, and Vogue, which contain the highest number of advertisements depicting the thin body image, are marketed to female age groups as young as thirteen (www.YM.com).  Analyses by Martin, Gentry, and Kennedy show that girls between the ages of  9 and 25 are likely to compare themselves to thin models and obtain pleasure from looking at ads containing this kind of body image (Groesz 12).  A study conducted by Kenyon College indicates that the mean negative effect of thin model images on females is somewhat greater for those younger than 19 (Groesz, 12), implying that a younger individual is more at risk to influence from outside sources.  

            Not only are individuals within the mid-teen to mid-adult age group more susceptible to the influence of the media, they are more likely to exhibit the negative effects correlated with media and its portrayal of body image.  For example, one in 10 college women has an eating disorder, 11% of high school aged children have eating disorders, 90% of all individuals who suffer from eating disorders in the United States are women between the age of 12 and 25 (Katz), elementary and middle school girls who consume fashion magazines report higher dissatisfaction with their bodies and more frequently succumb to eating disorders (Groesz, 12), 70% of college aged men are troubled by the great difference between their bodies and the ideal bodies pictured in the media, and 95% of college age men have body dissatisfaction in general (Agliata 7).  These facts and figures represent a relatively high percentage of teenagers and young adults who suffer from high body dissatisfaction and, in some cases, resultant eating disorders.  These statistics are a representation of just how vulnerable the individuals in the indicated age group are.  It may seem unfair that such a at risk group is targeted, but when the purpose is to sell, promote, or advertise, an easily influenced audience is the ticket to success.

            Individuals in this specific age group are easy to target through several forms of media: the television and movies, magazines, and advertisements. The summer of 2004 yielded high profiting films such as Catwoman, Mean Girls, and The Girl Next Door, among others, in theatres and on DVD/VHS.  Each of these movies casts a female who possesses the thin, “ideal” body type as one of the principal characters.  According to the ratings for these films, the targeted age group is thirteen and up.  The films were marketed via television commercials, periodical advertisements, and visual advertisements such as billboards and posters.  The commercials were aired on channels frequently watched by the target age group - MTV, VHI, Nickelodeon (Mean Girls only) among others (Viacom).  Similarly, periodical ads were placed in young adult fashion magazines and newspaper movie listings.  Again, the majority of consumers of this type of media fall in the target age group. Producer of such magazines, publication powerhouse Condé Nast prints eight fashion, beauty, and health magazines -- the periodicals containing the highest number of thin body images in advertisements -- geared towards females in the target age group, including Allure, Lucky, Vogue, Teen Vogue, Glamour, Jane, Vanity Fair, and Self.  The same publisher is responsible for a number of men’s magazines, such as GQ, Cargo, and Details, which contain the equivalent male body image in their advertisements.  Some specific publications are geared toward the more adult individual, but the majority of periodicals are aimed toward teens and early adults.  Once again, the media finds another outlet to target a susceptible audience and cash in.

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