How to analyze media messages in relation to body image

It is important to understand how the media use different images to get you to buy their product. Oftentimes, the goal is to make you feel uncomfortable about yourself or some aspect of your life, so you feel the need to buy what they are selling.

The following are important questions to ask yourself:

1. Who constructed the message?

2. What are the creative techniques, interactive features, or software used to create the message? Do people really look that way?

3. What is the purpose of the message? Does the purpose affect how the message is communicated?

4. What are the embedded values, points of view and/or lifestyles represented in the message? What is left out of the message?

5. How might people interpret the same message in different ways? Why?

6. How might the message make someone feel about themselves? How might the message make someone feel about other people - friends, classmates, family members, someone they see at the store or online, etc.?

7. What does the message mean to you? Does it reinforce or conflict with your beliefs about positive or negative image? Does it make you want to change something about yourself?

8. What can you do to promote healthy and more diverse body images in media?

(Adapted from the media literacy framework developed by the Center for Media Literacy at www.medialit.org)