Senior Project Online Source (5)

“Specific Page Title or Article Title”	“The Media and Influence on Body Image and Beauty”
Primary Contributor to the Website (if given) (author, editor, producer, etc)	Timothy Sexton
Title of the Entire Website (not www. )	Yahoo! Voices
Publisher or Sponsoring Organization of the website (if given)	Yahoo! Inc.
Date Page was Last Revised	6 April 2006
Date You Read It	3 February 2012
<URL address> (ALL of it)	http://voices.yahoo.com/the-media-influence-body-image-beauty-28406.html

FIVE FACTS FROM THE SOURCE (Embedded):

The media is so open and free to the public that if you were to “Turn on any television show, flip through any magazine, go to any movie and if you do happen to come across someone who doesn't fit into the narrow mold of what is considered good looking”, those people usually play the role of the “bad guy” or the “nerd” (Sexton).

·         Evidence suggests that the “constant flow of images that stem from a certain ideology do have an effect on the masses” there is “little doubt that modern society's obsession with appearance can be traced to an onslaught of images holding out as the ideal a physicality that is not only unrealistic for the majority of people, but also unhealthy” (Sexton).

·         Sexton specifically mentions women and that they “objectified by an unrealistic expectation of beauty put forward by models and actresses who do not reflect the average appearance of women in society”. Not only women are affected “but men are affected as well” (Sexton).

·         He states that “Print advertising” is probably the most “egregiously unrealistic” media representations of how people should appear. In fact, “the unhealthily thin look has gotten to the point where a new term was coined to describe it: heroin chic” (Sexton).

Homer Simpson states that “statistics are meaningless; they can be used to prove anything” Today, the average woman usually “fits into a size 10 and above” and the  average model “fits into a size 2 or 3”. Nearly “80% of ten year old girls have dieted; twenty years ago the weight difference between the average woman and the average model was just 8% while today it is a staggering 23%” (Sexton).

Summary of Source (Three-Four Sentences of the Who, What, Where, Why, and How in your own words. NO OPINION):

The article was written about the topic of media’s influence on society and the way that people view themselves. It talks about multiple problems that the media has cause. To add to the credibility of the article the author himself uses different references and statistics and provides a sort of biased opinion about the topic.

Credibility of Source:
Author or Site: Who is the author? What training have they had? If there is no author, examine the site. What is the purpose of the site? Who funds the site?

The author of the article is Timothy Sexton; he’s a minor contributor to the website.

This website is a place for people to write their articles and post their opinions about different topics.

Attachment: Does the author or site have anything to gain from writing this, or is it simply informative? For example, is it a cigarette business posting an article about the benefit of cigarettes, or is it a scientific community unaffiliated with the cigarette business?

The author seems to have gained some knowledge through his article. He’s very informative at the same time and provides excellent examples and rather than speaking in an informative tone, the author writes as if he’s speaking to someone personally.

Bias: Do you detect a bias (a favoring of either side) in the author's writing?

The author doesn’t give a clear biased opinion but does seem to favor the fact that society has a negative influence on the way that everyone thinks about appearances.

References: Does the author cite references in the writing? If so, do these add or take away from the credibility?

The author does cite some references in his writing which help to add to the credibility of his article and make the topic more believable.

Use of Source: How will you use this source in your project?

I will use this article in my project to refer to many of the sources he’s given. I will also be able to use this article to show how he feels and how some other people feel about the topic. It will allow me to give better information and to make my topic and my opinion more clear to others.