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Through my blog, I will be conveying to my readers the effects mass communication, or media, has on pediatric obesity in today’s world. My line of inquiry will research the different types of media that impact children’s eating habits, in what areas of the world childhood obesity is most prevalent, and how parents’ seem to be enabling this media’s influence. Through the research that I have previously conducted, I have been able to narrow down my line of inquiry from obesity’s effects on the population as a whole, to obesity’s effects on specifically children. I am choosing to concentrate on childhood obesity because many advertising strategies focus on children as their primary consumer, literally, while the children’s parents pays for the product.
I started my research on obesity affected by media by watching a documentary made in 2012 called “Hungry for Change.” The documentary proceeded to inform its viewers of marketing strategies various companies use to sell a product. For example, a diet soda commercial will include young, attractive men and women drinking the beverage to show viewers that they, too, can be young and attractive if they drink the diet soda. However, that can of soda, if consumed regularly, provides a slew of health risks that will lead to quite the opposite of young and attractive. This documentary sparked my interest and inquisition for the problem of childhood obesity. It led to questions such as: Why do people eat the way they eat? Why do marketing strategies seem to “trick” us? Are we too uninformed or is advertising too misleading?
These questions are important to research because, as humans, we all must consume nutrients to obtain sustainable energy, aka TO LIVE. Having the knowledge to provide your body with healthy nutrition is a basic necessity, a necessity that provides better outcomes when acquired at a younger age. This line of research is very informative to parents of young children from the ages of five to eleven, and also the child itself, if they wish to be informed.
Diving into this line of inquiry, my opinion of media is painted in a rather negative light. Although media provides countless benefits to today’s technologically savvy world, it is also unnerving the harm media can inflict. There are more than three million US cases of pediatric obesity per year, and it can also lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. This is not all due to media’s influence, but there is a confirmed correlation between media usage and weight gain, which I will be sharing through my research and commentary!
Childhood Obesity. - Mayo Clinic. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2015.
Hungry For Change. Dir. James Colquhoun, Laurentine Ten Bosch, and Carlo Ledesma. Netflix, 2012. Film.
I started my research on obesity affected by media by watching a documentary made in 2012 called “Hungry for Change.” The documentary proceeded to inform its viewers of marketing strategies various companies use to sell a product. For example, a diet soda commercial will include young, attractive men and women drinking the beverage to show viewers that they, too, can be young and attractive if they drink the diet soda. However, that can of soda, if consumed regularly, provides a slew of health risks that will lead to quite the opposite of young and attractive. This documentary sparked my interest and inquisition for the problem of childhood obesity. It led to questions such as: Why do people eat the way they eat? Why do marketing strategies seem to “trick” us? Are we too uninformed or is advertising too misleading?
These questions are important to research because, as humans, we all must consume nutrients to obtain sustainable energy, aka TO LIVE. Having the knowledge to provide your body with healthy nutrition is a basic necessity, a necessity that provides better outcomes when acquired at a younger age. This line of research is very informative to parents of young children from the ages of five to eleven, and also the child itself, if they wish to be informed.
Diving into this line of inquiry, my opinion of media is painted in a rather negative light. Although media provides countless benefits to today’s technologically savvy world, it is also unnerving the harm media can inflict. There are more than three million US cases of pediatric obesity per year, and it can also lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. This is not all due to media’s influence, but there is a confirmed correlation between media usage and weight gain, which I will be sharing through my research and commentary!
Childhood Obesity. - Mayo Clinic. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2015.
Hungry For Change. Dir. James Colquhoun, Laurentine Ten Bosch, and Carlo Ledesma. Netflix, 2012. Film.