Media

The human body is made up of many organs and muscles, etc. Our body expresses who we are as individuals . Being completely naked has always been seen as something sexual, however for others it’s natural and use their bodies to express emotions and beliefs. For decades, nudity has been sexualized and has taught women that they need to cover. Nudity is a natural thing and is seen as art. We see the display of nudity all over social media, magazine covers, and even television. However, nudity is shown in many different ways. In some ways it’s meant to be sexual and some ways its not. This idea has brought up controversial arguments that nudity has been sexualized. Many people don’t pay attention to the fact that being naked is a way of freedom of expression and look at the negative side, where a woman is just putting herself out there and is “asking” for it. Why has it become so normal for men to degrade women for being naked and have them be known as a slut? Why has it become so normalized for celebrities to put themselves out there and be judged when sometimes they’re just trying to send out a message. Nudity has been viewed more than just exposing too much but viewing a woman’s body as a sexual object. Having major influencers like celebrities greatly impact what people view nudity to be.

When we think of the word nudity, we usually refer to women, sex, and shame. On average across the nation magazines, one among two advertisements that featured women depicted them as sex objects. It seems to be just about nudity but really seems to be about the portrayal of the use of a woman’s body for advertising.The sexual victimization of girls is seen to be used solely on advertising. The exposure of women’s bodies occurred concerning four times as typically compared to the exposure of men’s bodies in magazines. Magazines tend to send combined messages concerning gender ideals alongside with body image. This has brought an effect on the way girls view themselves and create unrealistic goals that they believe is perfect. Most magazines are targeted towards younger girls because they usually feel like they are in a competition to look the best and attract the most boys. Magazines use women to advertise what they are trying to promote even to the extent of photoshopping their bodies to meet their unrealistic expectations to make their presentations “better’. Nudity in this kind of aspect is used negatively and encourages viewers to think that nudity is shameful. Creators behind the scenes might argue that it’s just “art”, but art is not sexualizing a woman’s body for the benefit of making money and becoming known. This is significant to the public eye, because it teaches young girls who look up to these magazine companies to create impractical goals for themselves. Additionally, the mainstream of media has learned to use nudity to catch the eyes of many viewers because they know it is not something a normal person would see on a daily basis. This is where it becomes beneficial for them. This exhibition is teaching young viewers that it is okay to use their bodies as objects for display.

Although nudity has been viewed as something shameful and too revealing, their have been efforts from other mainstreams that seek out to send empowering messages. The Body Issue is an edition of ESPN The Magazine that features dozens of athletes in nude and semi-nude photograph. ESPN shows the public a different kind of normalization on their covers, where these people aren’t seen as ordinary athletes. Their covers range from people who are covered in tattoos to people who are amputees. It is significant that this source puts out these kinds of images on their covers because it gives society a different kind of perspective of what normal athletes look like. Each cover explicitly shows athletes naked, but are pictured to send out an important message to the public. This kind of display implies the idea that nudity is being used to show regular people that it’s okay to be different. This is evidently shown through the naked covers of famous athletes. The cover of Sarah Reinstein reveals her body differently where not only is she completely nude, but she is an amputee with a prosthetic leg. This cover is something the world is not used to seeing. Her prosthetic leg is clearly present as it is the main focus of the cover. Her being nude is nonetheless the smaller picture in this cover. The world is used to seeing naked women on two feet with a “nice body” but Reinertsen cover resembles a different kind of beauty and normalization of what an athlete should look like. Behind this cover, the audience gets a glimpse of her story. Having naked athletes on the covers of ESPN has represented more than just nudity, but the message of empowering athletes who set out examples to be inspirations for the public view. These kinds of images seem to more than just about nude athletes showing “off’ their sculpted bodies but more about the message of trying set out a positive example of their characteristics and that being different is okay. In this case ESPN’s cover is nowhere near being sexualized.

Nudity has always offended a certain number of people. Throughout many years women have been told that they are suppose to cover up and not expose their body part parts to the media . However, this idea has grown out to be a kind of normalization where women are beginning to use their own will and express their bodies as a piece of art. The use of naked photos seems to be more than just about art but more about how celebrities potrary their nude bodies as art. Celebrities have a huge impact to the world where the majority of the world look up to these kinds of people because they are so well known. Celebrities have began the movement of expressing their bodies as a message to what they are trying to represent. Kim Kardashian for example, has posted many images on her social media explicitly showing her body completely naked. One post in particular was an image of herself naked and pregnant. For many months, she kept quiet and did not respond to any comments. In an interview she stated that it was her way of expressing a womens body undergoing a life changing experience and should be viewed as a piece of art where women are given this kind of privilege to experience. She states that her image was posted to send the message that big or small, we are beautiful, and that it is an amazing thing that our bodies do to create life. Reading through the many comments it is clear that most would not agree that posting a nude photo even if pregnant is appropriate, however Kim Kardashian’s posting does influence older women to feel good about their bodies undergoing a significant change in their bodies. It is significant that this post is still up and has not been taken down because it is able to remain up and running for viewers to go back and look to see what the real message she is trying to put out.

Nudity has always offended a certain number of people. Throughout many years women have been told that they are suppose to cover up and not expose their body part parts to the media . However, this idea has grown out to be a kind of normalization where women are beginning to use their own will and express their bodies as a piece of art. From magazine covers to social media posts. Celebrities have began the movement of expressing their bodies as a message to what they are trying to represent. Though the viewpoint of nudity may just seem to be out sexualization, nudity is more about the idea of use and expression. It allows creators and viewers to determine what they think should be acceptable the the limits photographs should have to be displayed to the public eye.

There are many impacts on how we see men and women and media is the most common. Therefore, it is the most powerful one. Women during our everyday lives, media inject their intelligence in our consciousness in each turn. Advertisements are a crucial and accessible way for organizations to make themselves popular in society. The popular strong ways of commercial are television, journals, or Magazines. It’s mostly because the majority of societies prefer giving awareness to those varieties of technological communication. There are three different ways to represent media gender. First, the women are under-represented which inaccurately states that men are the cultural kind and women are worthless or vague. Next, men and women are labeled as stereotypical behaviors that reflect and encourage culturally supported aspects of gender. Third, the representation of relationships in men and women indicate pleasant roles and normalize power upon females.

In Jean Kilbourne’s article, ‘Two Ways A Woman Can Get Hurt’, the author explains how the advertisement presents females and males as vulgarized and sexualize in commercials. For one example, she influenced out how some brands use nudes on the commercials or advertisements so they can sell their products. She claims that men and women are being misled as sex symbols and tools by the quantity of media. Kilbourne told that pornography is extremely more dangerous when its praise of abuse and violence represents in the mass media. Greatest of the intensity in the male is performed by these certain ads because as they see in mass media, males are displayed beyond everybody and they imagine to like them in the real society or community.

In the Jamie Santa Cruz’s article, ‘Body Image Pressure Increasingly Affects Boys’, the author names out, how the interest of weight and eating disorders are rising in men but the predictions are not the same in men’s and women’s. Cruz’s debates that the mass media acts a major role in men’s physical fitness. Most of the advertisements simply show fit in men’s in their advertisements and even the figures or models are showing more thins. The runway models perform major roles in middle and high school teenagers and they look up to them. This is the central purpose why most boys try to lose weight and gain muscle. However, in the exceptional result, they happen to get there self in depression and change in their actions.

The idea of Jamie Santa Cruz’s is to show how body media includes the way young women, and men see beauty and sexuality. In the Article ‘Body Image Pressure Increasingly Affects Boys’ talk, especially in which the females are described in the mass media. In the Documentary ‘Miss Representation’ she had an interview with school kids, they explain the influence they all had to face to see great. They endure being harassed for being ugly. One girl said her sister’s story that how did she cut herself after being called ugly. As it’s stated in this documentary that regarding 75% of the ladies hate their bodies at the age of 15. For instance, in the documentary stated, that just 17% females are in Congress, also, 3% in media, 7% of directors and 13% of authors of the total of 51% the whole community. Therefore, Another important idea is how this media formed an illustration of ladies. In all commercial, the ladies are presented as naked or using them as sex objects. It additionally discusses how the high advertiser makes the young women’s looks very perfect, and the teen ladies require to look alike them. The documentary stated that how there’s no control of showing sexual commercials on tv. she explains that females can be very judgmental including even dangerous if it occurs to different woman’s sexual behavior. The changes and solution that documentary recommends making that we need extra leadership education programs.

There should be a further approach to spots of authorization in politics and in the mass media, an original problem stands to stop the media from showing females as rivals and opponents however it shows them as supports, friends, and families. she decides to show the great character of females in advertising, she just wants them to recognize that people need to use common sense as for the image they present of man and especially females and that it can have difficult times against the community. However, by requiring necessarily to have an important and acceptable view in her arguments, she often changes to the point she is fighting for. Kilbourne shows “When power is unequal when one group is oppressed and discriminated against as a group when there is a context of systemic and historical oppression, stereotypes and prejudice have different weight and meaning”. However, those kinds of advertisements can hurt us more than they can support us. In addition, she thought about how most men can’t take no for a response, and it approximately seems alike in some of the commercials that the female is saying no, can really be represented as a come on.

Kilbourne and Santa Cruz both explained good thoughts. I do agree with both of them, that advertisement is generating intensity upon females and males. Most of these commercials represent men’s and girls nudes on the front page such as in journals, magazines, and newspaper. It shows incorrect information to young men’s considering women’s right intentions. I also like how she indicates that females can be so judgmental and even cruel when it happens to different woman’s sexual behavior.

The most crucial division of her article is her appearance of women’s negative approach towards sufferers of physical assault. Sometimes we view several ways when girls wear some sorts of clothes. As Cruz stated in her article that unrealistic bodies are being convinced in most of the advertisement. Additionally, females and Males both hurt from advertisements and from the media. For men, it’s necessary to look bigger and buffer, and for women, it’s being thinner and slimmer. The community must change and acquire realistic figures rather of people who have an overeating disorder or were edited over. Organizations and the media shouldn’t much further to show those unrealistic bodies, but instead, the majority of media require to work on promoting the normal bodies in magazines. So that people would stop seeing at those unhealthy skinny models and can bypass arranging eating diseases.

In result, Sex in advertising is mostly pornographic in fact it’s due to dehumanizes and objectifies characters. Commercials should act entertaining, informational or several different things, but shouldn’t be sexualized picture of males and females. Only by developing our methods of advertisements, we can change the process the world looks and beliefs about males and females and relationships.

September 11, 2001, was a day that all of America will never forget. The attacks that hit the Pentagon, a crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, took the lives of more than three thousand people in total. This historical event affected the country in multiple ways and the media is definitely an area that was overlooked.

After the terrorist attacks, entertainment media knew some alterations were going to need to be made. This affected movies, television shows, and video games causing their release dates to be pushed back.

In 2002, the fourth season of “Sex in the City” had to change their opening credits because there were many shots of the World Trade Center. The show decided to replace the shot with the Empire State Building. A snow globe containing both towers was left in. There were many small changes made to the very popular video game ‘Grand Theft Auto III’ after 9/11, including the removal of one terrorism-related mission. The game was also was delayed multiple weeks because the Rockstar Games office was near Ground Zero.

This made the finalization of production for the game very difficult. Several episodes of the television series “Power Rangers Time Force’ were altered to remove images that might evoke the 9/11 attacks or the World Trade Center. This included the removal of a speech broadcast by the villain, Ransik, that came off pretty similar to the ones in Osama bin Laden’s videos.

The movie ‘Armageddon’, released in 1998, shows New York being wrecked by meteors, with iconic landmarks like Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building. A shot of the aftermath featured the two towers of the World Trade Center slowly burning. This shot was removed in the broadcast TV version of the movie.

Lastly, the extremely popular education children’s television series, Sesame Street was affected by 9/11 as well. They added storylines that were somewhat related to the events of 9/11 that aired after 9/11. A grease fire at Mr. Hooper’s store traumatizes Elmo and Big Bird has to help his friend.

On Sept. 11, 2001, all journalists and reporters were faced with a crisis that forced them to make a very difficult decision. In every newsroom across the United States of America, the decisions that were made left a lasting effect on how media outlets will cover stories even to this day.

The level of sensitivity changed after the video of the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. The times before then media outlets would exploit video, however, media now is more censored and sensitive. In the days after the attacks, the president of ABC News ordered that video of the planes hitting the World Trade Center not to be repeated over and over to try to avoid disturbing the viewers.

That was a major decision, especially because of how many times Americans had been exposed to video of the Space Shuttle Challenger. Today, news organizations will examine coverage of stories that are graphic and decide that even when there is video available, it still may be too graphic to air on television.

Cell phones played a huge part in covering the events of 9/11. People not only used them to call for help but to record video of the tragedy that was happening right in front of them. News managers had to decide the best way to communicate the videos and pictures that were posted online.

A primary question was whether to use only the images that were sent directly to the news outlet or to use whatever you can find on the Internet. However, that would disregard the right of privacy or ownership to the owner of the footage.

People such as politicians and newscasters began wearing U.S. flag pins after the attacks. These pins, which were made to show that the country would stand strong after the attacks, unfortunately, looked at by critics as signs of political support for the policies initiated by President George Bush.

Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy aka is known for his style of rap that inspired a lot of people. He is most known for his musical albums “17” and “?”. He is an American and mostly Jamaican rapper from Florida. He has won a lot of awards for his inspiring words or message.

Early Life

Jahseh was born on January 23, 1998. He was born in Plantation, Florida, USA. He has three sibling with one being a half. He was mainly raised by his grandma Collette Jones due to his mother financial issues. Jahseh always had a passion for music so it made him join choir he was soon kicked for attacking another student. He also was involved in many fights so he had to change a lot of schools on a regular bases. When he was in middle school he learned how to play the piano and guitar.

Career

Jahseh’s career as a musician began on June 2013 when he released “News/Flock”. He went to juvenile detention in July 2013,while in Juvenile detention he met Stokley Clevon Goulbourne another he was another artist known as Ski Mask The Slump God, during their time they became very good friends and began freestyling. When he was released from Juvenile he released his first official song called “Vice City” on SoundCloud. In 2016, Jahseh quit his job as a call center operator due to his growing music career and moved in with rapper Denzel Curry.

Career

In 2017 “Look at me”gained traction peaked at number 34 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and top 40 on the Canada Hot 100. He was named as the tenth pick on XXL 2017 Freshman class. He released his debut commercial project called “revenge”on May 16, 2017. He released his debut album on August 25, 2017 the album debuted at number 2 on the US Billboard 200!

Jahseh began to use his long-time Youtube channel “xxxtentacion” previously used to upload music he uses it to upload gaming videos and vlogs. He uploaded the #helpinghandchallenge where he donated musical instruments, video game consoles and other gifts to foster homes. In June 18, 2018 he died due to gunshots from a drive-bye when he was exiting a motorcycle shop in Deerfield, Florida.

Soon after his death his debut album “17” won Favorite Album -Soul/R&B- he also won best new hip-hop artist. On June 23, 2018 Jahseh’s mother announced that his girlfriend is pregnant his son will be called Gekyume a word that Jahseh made that means “a different state” or “next universe mind set.”

Conclusion

I picked Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy aka XXXtentacion because he is very inspiring by his positive music they all had a very unique and creative meaning. He is also very brave because everyone told him that he was going to be nothing in life all his teachers would tell him that he was useless because he wasn’t good at any subject in school. But he showed them that he can be someone in life because he inspired so many people around the world and his death had a big impact to every single one of his fans.

Homosexuality has been inaccurately portrayed in the media since the mid-1900s, and it is more of an issue than some may think, considering that 40% of Americans develop their own direct opinion on the homosexual community from images and reports obtained from various outlets. (McGovern, M.) And it makes sense that a lot of Americans develop their opinion from media, being that young adults spend about 20% of their awake-time watching television. (Fouts, G., & Inch, R) For a while, homosexuality was deemed a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association, which was a huge factor in the personality of a homosexual character in the media. Stereotyping, medicalization, sexualization, secrecy, and normalization are all examples of how the media represents homosexuality. (Kuhar, R.) As a society, we have moved forward toward the equality of the LGBT community, resulting in a more positively portrayed image in the media.

Stereotyping

Stereotypes are defined as a conventional or formulaic image or conception; in simpler words, when thinking about stereotypes, one mostly thinks about the general opinion or idea they have of a certain group. Stereotypes are commonly used as propaganda, which is a force that is used to influence and affect people. Within the media and LGBT community, there are a lot of stereotypes that are pretty well known to viewers, such as a gay male being portrayed as a musical theater buff, or a Madonna lover.

Some others that may not be as common are that homosexuality is an illness (see medicalization), that homosexual men and women are unreliable and should not be trusted, and that homosexuals are very knowledgeable and open when it comes to the topic of sex. (Tagudina, I.) One of the best examples of this stereotype being used today is the character Kurt Hummel from Fox’s serious Glee. In the show, Kurt fits the stereotypes to a tee, with his personality and style being very feminine, as well as him being a musical theater kid.

While you could spend hours upon hours finding examples of stereotypes against the gay community in media, there is one more example that is pretty well known and relevant. The movie Mean Girls has their gay character, Damian. Damian, who is described throughout the film as “too gay to function”, is very feminine and flamboyant, which is what the media usually portrays gays as. One of the things that Mean Girls did was have Damian introduce himself and his sexuality almost immediately after meeting the main character, giving viewers that label to connect his personality to.

Medicalization

Homosexuality was not removed from the official Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders until the year 1973, when it was voted to be removed. Unfortunately, that information was able to help the media represent homosexuals as “deeply disturbed deviants in need of treatment”, and thus was able to fabricate a fear in the minds of the American people, which is known as ‘homophobia’. (McGovern, M.) Another way to describe it is “moral panic”, which occurs when “a group or type of activity is perceived as a threat to the stability and well being of society”. (McGovern, M.) With so much of the media spotlight being put on a singular group, that lead to a creation of an overwhelming amount of security on that group’s every move. In result of this, during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s going into the 1990s, Americans perceived the disease as only affecting people of the LGBT community, which was false information. (McGovern, M.)

Sexualization

Its pretty clear when it comes to media that one of the biggest issues with the LGBT community in the over-sexualization that comes with it. For some reason, when it comes to homosexuality, people are quick to assume that their relationships are centered around sexual contact, which is certainly not the case. Homosexuals are no different than normal people, especially in terms of relationships, but the media has the power to convince people that what they are seeing is the truth. While you can think to use the excuse ‘sex sells’ the justify the oversexualization that is happening, it really isn’t justifiable. Being gay is not just about the bedroom, it is about love and companionship, which comes with any healthy relationship.

The idea of over-sexualization in the LGBT community is pretty consistent, except when you get to the groups of lesbians and bisexuals. For some reason, in the media and otherwise, lesbians are considered to be especially pleasing for many people, and may even be thought of as just a ‘sexual fantasy’. For example, a popular modern television show known as Glee, has a lesbian character (Santana), who is often classified as a “Latina fetish” and is oversexualized.

Secrecy

Many people know that for a while, homosexuality was not accepted in society. It was something that had to be hidden from others, in fear of unacceptance and degradation. Children who considered themselves to be homosexual might not tell their friends or family in fear of being rejected for who they are. However, homosexuality is becoming more and more accepted in today’s society, which affects everything, including media portrayal. More modern television shows will show you the struggle the LGBT community has to face, with them accepting themselves for who they are, “coming out” to their friends and family, and their friends and family coming to terms and accepting the change.

Today, you see a lot more of support from friends and family in these shows, which puts a positive image in the viewer’s mind. While it will take a while for the negative connotations that come with homosexaulity in the media to die down, this is a good first step in the right direction towards positive connotation.

Normalization

The rise of LGBT characters in television series has been ongoing since 2007, where the percentage of LGBT characters on the networks was at a low 1.1%. As of September, 2010, that percentage has risen, but it’s still at a low 3.99%. As mentioned before, for a while, homosexuality was deemed as a mental illness. Homosexuals were portrayed as “freaks” and “monsters”. A huge example comes from an older film, known as The Detective, starring Frank Sinatra. In the movie, the killer ends up saying that he “felt more guilty about being a homosexual than being a murderer”. Obviously, a lot has changed from 1968 (the year the movie was filmed), and that’s where normalization comes in. The start of normalization began primarily in the late 1990s, where pictures and media of homosexuals as criminals, psychiatric patients, etc. were surpassed. (Kuhar, R.) Normalization is typically defined as ‘to make normal’, which seems to be what the media industry is attempting to do now with homosexuality.

Homosexuality is certainly not a new concept to any of us; it was not new when the media started picking it up. However, for a period of time, people did not know much information about it. During that time, media came into play and has used methods such as stereotyping, medicalization, and sexualization to mold a picture into the viewers heads of what a gay person ‘should be’. However, the media is constantly changing, and when you look at homosexuals in the media today, you see a lot more acceptance and normalization.

Many shows today, such as Pretty Little Liars, The Vampire Diaries, and The Walking Dead have incorporated LGBT characters into their shows, in attempt to fit in with the changes that society has made towards the equality of the LGBT community. (Purcell, M.) While there may be a lot more work to be done towards to movement of equality, the media is definitely taking the steps they need to towards it, and from looking back on the history of the power of media, this may just lead to acceptance in all forms, from all people.

The media is everywhere. In your homes, in schools, in the workplace. It is very powerful in its influence. It can change peoples’ lives and affect the way they think. The media is very versatile. It can be used for several purposes, from explaining things to persuading you to give money to charity or vote for a certain political party. In this essay I will compare two different media texts. They are both persuasive leaflets: the first trying to get you to chose to rent a McCarthy & Stone retirement apartment, the second is advertising hiking holidays in Ireland.

The former of these leaflets came through my letterbox, and is aimed at retired pensioners. The latter, I got from a travel agency. It is aimed at 18-30 year old trekkers. I don’t think one would find these leaflets anywhere else because they are very specific in both their aim and their target audience.

A company called McCarthy & Stone, who rent out retirement apartments to the retired and elderly, made the first leaflet. Its purpose is a persuasive advert. It has a green, black and white colour scheme, with plain modern font and important information in bold. It is laid out on an A5 sheet that isn’t folded or perforated. It has a picture, a map, and where there is a piece of important information, it is boxed out in red or green. It contains a quote from a customer, in which the lady (Mrs. Griffiths) talks about how cheap it is to heat the apartments:

“It’s very reassuring to know you can keep your home comfortable all the time without the worry of facing a sudden big bill.”

There are also contact details, such as an address and a telephone number, and there is a website address on the header at the top. There is a logo underneath the header with the words “McCarthy & Stone” written in a semicircle above a silhouette of two people who look slightly aged. Directly underneath this, there is a slogan that reads:

“The natural choice for a happy retirement.”

This could be quite effective because the target audience would be people generally over sixty-five, and stereotypically, older people like to be cosy, maybe more so than younger people. About two fifths of the way down the page, there is a very large sized banner that simply says “Warm and Cosy”. This would appeal to the target audience for the same reasons as the slogan.

The picture at the bottom of this page is very clever in its composition: regardless of where your eye falls, it will instantly be lead around the entire photograph. On top of that, all the furniture in the picture is arranged to make the room look bigger than it is. To enhance this effect, the furniture in the centre of the room is very thin legged and spindly with darker colour, and the furniture around the outside is quite bulky, but brightly coloured. All the colours used in the photograph are quite soft, natural colours suck as browns, yellows and reds. The walls are painted a very neutral beige colour, which allows the viewer to picture how the room would look if they lived there far easier. This photograph could almost be used to sell any kind of accommodation or furniture, yet works particularly well here because it portrays a very tranquil setting.

The language is interesting in that it uses both formal and informal language, depending on what the company is trying to say. This could be very effective, but in this case it is poorly edited and sends out a very confused message. It uses quite a lot of persuasive vocabulary, and involves the audience very well, but still insufficiently. It concentrates a lot on a story about an old woman who has one of these homes. In honesty, no reader wants to read about the success this company achieved for another person – at least not to this extent. There are a couple of examples of superlative language, such as “highest” and “latest”. One of my favourite pieces of language in this leaflet is an oxymoron that reads:

“It all adds up to costing you less”

This short sentence is very clever, because it is just ludicrous enough to get the reader to stop and think about what they are reading.

I think this would be quite successful in its aim, largely because its target audience is so limited, and it is easier to appeal to a fifteen-year age range that, for example, a forty-five year age range. The informal language would appeal, stereotypically, to the ‘lower-class’ type person, and the formal would appeal, again stereotypically, to the ‘upper-class’ range.

The second leaflet is advertising trekking holidays in Ireland, under the company name ‘Shamrocker’, carrying the slogan:

“World famous adventures for backpackers.”

Its purpose is to advertise.

The layout is quite different from the first leaflet; it is much less structured (i.e. it doesn’t look at first glance as if it has been aligned to a grid) whereas the first leaflet looks very square. However the colour scheme is similar, including lots of green and dark blue (like the black on the first leaflet). It is presented on double-sided A4 thick paper, which like the first leaflet is unfolded and imperforated. There are many images, including CGIs, maps and photographs. The font of the writing varies quite severely – there are seventeen different styles of writing in total. There are segments of writing enclosed in boxes to highlight information that the company wants you to see first. There are, like the first leaflet but more detailed, contact details, including email, telephone number, website and company address.

There are about three photographs on this leaflet, but they are all quite small. However, they are clear enough, and all have a similar theme – a group of people looking happy, either in front of a rock or an Irish road sign. On the front, the top quarter of the page is taken up by the words “The Shamrocker Ireland: Live the legend”. Underneath this, there is a photograph of a man in front of what appears to be a large grave headstone. The back is mostly blocks of writing, laid out in blocks under headings such as “Our Mission”, and then descriptions of different holidays the company offers. The lower eighth is the small print.

The language used is very informal, persuasive and superlative, but it is in my opinion slightly boring. It involves the audience well, but there isn’t much to say for this leaflet when it comes to language.

This leaflet would be very successful towards its target audience (which is stated in the small print, and is “17 – 35 year olds”) but wouldn’t get much interest for younger or older people because as they are trekking holidays, people over this age group may be physically unable to participate, and people under this age range may not be interested in walking for six days, just for the sake of walking, with no ‘prize’ or incentive. The informal style would appeal to the target audience.

In this essay, I have compared two different leaflets, both advertising. They both would, in theory, be very effective at achieving their goals. I believe that the companies chose the leaflet as their selected form of media because it can reach many people; they are cheap to produce in mass and are effective at getting their message across.

As a teen, I myself think it’s pretty safe to say that TV, as well as movies and other media, are some of our primary sources of information about sex and sexuality. Statistics estimate that the average teen will be exposed to around 15000 references to sex each year on TV. TV shows and movies make it seem normal for teenagers to have sex. And let’s be honest, it probably is. But the fact of the matter is the media has a whole lot of influence over the way we perceive sexuality, and actually a great deal of it comes from the music industry, especially through music videos.

You try to think of one song that’s been on MTV music channel, that hasn’t mentioned anything remotely to do with sex or a broken relationship. Now think of one music video you’ve watched on 4music channel that didn’t include one scrap of sexual imagery or expose and focus on a scantily clad female. Yeah, didn’t think you could. What’s worse is that a recent study of video games teenage boys regularly play found that the few female characters in those games are often highly sexualized—wearing tight revealing clothing and having unrealistically large breasts, and unnaturally disfiguring small waists.

Is this distorting the way guys view real women? Well, sorry for the wakeup call boys, but you’re in for a shocking discovery. Another study of network television commercials found that nearly one in 4 commercials includes some type of sexual attractiveness as a base for the message. What is going on with the world? Are we so unimaginative we’ve resorted to sexual attraction as a method to persuade people to buy shampoo?

Is this nation as gullible to believe that ‘when you buy this insanely expensive bottle of shampoo, you’ll automatically transform from your naught-over-average self into this booby-blonde bimbo who probably eats an average of 200 calories a day’ really? Why don’t we just change it from ‘Advertising Executives’ to freaking ‘Pornography Wholesale’ and be done with it?! Which brings me to another point. Young girls were quoted as saying that they would prefer to have cancer, lose both their parents, or live through a nuclear holocaust than be fat.

You might be thinking, ‘Is this a joke? ’ I really wish it was. Because take it from someone who has grown up with only one parent, being fat is the least of your worries. And this problem isn’t limited to just girls, oh no. Because the amount of males with eating disorders has in fact doubled over the past decade. Sorry lads, but you’re not faultless. On the other hand, nobody is. Even the media can’t hide from you that basic fact – the new Rimmel girl, quite frankly, looks almost the double of a frogmouth catfish. Not that they don’t put up a good fight.

Take one look at any middle-shelf magazine and you’ll see exactly what every single other woman in the country no doubt sees, – today’s airbrushed perception of the perfect beauty. The elementary trend in the media industry at present is to promote slim, almost unnaturally skinny women’s bodies, and sell it out as the only way to be accepted as beautiful. Women, especially young women, take one look at magazines, TV programmes, movies and other media products and accept this falsified version of a human being, and distressingly of all, believe in it.

These images are distinguished in the mind of young women as being a role model to follow, and aspire to be like. Unfortunately girls, attaining this emaciated look doesn’t come naturally (unless you’ve been blessed with an insanely high metabolism – for which, I am extremely resentful), and inevitably leads to exercising some form of diet, excessive amounts of exercise or aberrant eating behaviours. In actual fact, the number of people with some form of eating disorder is triple the amount of people with AIDS.

Two in five women have admitted that they were unhappy with their bodies, which means 40% of you reading this know exactly what I’m talking about. The media does affect us, and there isn’t much we can do about that. What you can do, is stop comparing yourself to the cover models – because they’re not real women. Beauty is natural, not airbrushed, and natural is how you are in yourself – not how you adapt yourself around an image’s expectations.