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Sociological Methodology Essay, Research Paper
???? In this chapter
I aim to gain a through understanding of sociological methods and???????? to look at various methods and their
merits and problems, i.e. quantitative etc. I will also attempt to show the
methods that will be used in study, and asses the reasons for? my choice. It will also be beneficial to
look at possible problems and measures to?
minimise these problemsAt a basic level research falls into two categories,
the positivist and the anti-positivist approach. However it is important to
note that sociologists generally do not use one method but combine both
approaches to obtain rounded results. And that the research must always be
reliable, valid and representative. Positivism is used by structuralists and
was used and developed by Augste Comte. Positivists carry out scientific
methods, it is otherwise known as the philosophy of science, examples of which
are; looking at statistics, or any numerical data. Also included in this type
of research are questionnaires, controlled experiments, structured interviews
etc. Positivist research can give us knowledge of something actually occurring
or existing but it cannot delve deeper and discover the reasoning behind it. The second approach to
sociological research is anti-positivism; this is where the reasoning behind
the knowledge is looked at. It is often described as the ?texture? and ?feel?
of a matter. Anti-positivists use qualitative methods of research, which
include, participant observation, unstructured interviews, direct observation,
and conversational analysis. An example of a sociologist who conducted research
in this way is Weber.Now I will look into a few
methods of research in a more detailed way, these are the methods which I am
most likely to use, either individually or a combination of both. As I have
chosen to use both positivist and anti-positivist methods, I will need to
examine a selection.Questionnaires will be very
important in my study as they will provide an insight and a feel for the general
consensus of young women as well as providing me with a set of results to work
with in numerical form. Questionnaires can either be given to people to take
away and answer or asked by me and answered n the spot. There are advantages? and disadvantages with both. If the
questionnaires are taken away, some would never be returned and I would
inevitably lose some this way. Also, people read questions differently and so,
if they read them themselves, I may receive different responses because the
question is being read in a different way. However the advantage of this is
that people are more likely to be honest when answering alone and anonymously,
especially young girls who from my hypothesis I am assuming are easily
influenced. The advantages of on the spot questionnaires are that I am
guaranteed to get answers from all those who are wiling to answer the
questions, so I will not lose any responses, however I may not get as many in
the first place because people may be intimidated by talking to me and answering
personal questions out loud. Another disadvantage with this is that I may guide
the answers with my tone of voice in the questioning. However, in the same way
I will be able to ensure that the question is read as it is intended to be
read. Also people react differently when they know they are being observed and
watched. After looking at all the advantages and disadvantages, I have decided
to send questionnaires, not stand and ask the questions, this is mainly due to
the intended nature of the questions. With both methods I think it is important
to use a mixture of closed and open ended questions. The person completing the
questionnaire will have the option, to remain anonymous and just complete the
questionnaire as well as declining the questionnaire altogether, if she decides
not to remain anonymous then she will also have the choice of agreeing to
further research, for example an in depth interview. My intended methods are
supported by P.Trowler, ?Investigating the Media?, 1991 pg 19. Courtney and Whipple,
1983 p45, Jean Baudrillard, a post modernist and Golding.Therefore interviews will be my
next method of research, from those girls who decide that they would like to be
involved in further research, I will look at their answers and to further my research
interview a selection. The interviews will give me a very in depth method of
research, it will bring me more information than the questionnaire because it
will be more personal, the interview will be semi-structured=-. I think it is
more effective to have a structured interview because it is more focused and it
very much depends on the personality of the interviewee as to if questions need
to be continually asked or if the conversation flows naturally. This is why I
think it is safer to have a structured interview, and a set list of questions.
Although I do appreciate that with this method I can only draw from the
interview the answers from the questions I have asked, very little extra
information is likely to emerge. I will tape the interview, with the
interviewees permission because it can be very disjointing to ask someone to
repeat their answer and this may result in a different answer. This method of
research is time consuming but, I think this is justified because I am only
selecting a few, maybe only four people to interview on an individual basis and
with careful time management I don?t see this as an issue. In order to draw out
the most important information from these interviews, I will present them as
case studies.Observation , direct or participant
is will not be of a great deal of use in my study, so it is not a method of
research that I am planning to use. This is because I am looking at attitudes
and values as opposed to behaviour and norms. It is important to me what people
think not so much on how they act.Each method involves a sample, a
sample is by definition. ?A method for collecting information and drawing
inferences about a larger population or universe, from the analysis of only
part thereof, the sample.? Oxford Dictionary of Sociology pg 576. So basically
a proportion of the population is selected to represent the rest the whole of
the population. For my study it is important to select a sample with a range of
backgrounds, although of similar age and the same sex. This would enable me to
find out the factors that effect young girls and if they differ between
backgrounds. There are eight different types of sampling, these are;Random: where everyone has
the same chance of being selected, therefore it is representative. His method
of sampling would not be suitable for me because I have selected an age
criteria of 16-18 years old. Systematic: where names
are selected at regular intervals on a list, this gives a greater selection of
age and background. His method of sampling would not be suitable for me because
I have selected an age criteria of 16-18 years old, unless the list was
specific to that criteria in the first place. Stratified Random Sample: Important
variables are found, e.g. in my research age and sex would be two important
variables, the sampling group is then allocated to the important variables.
This would be a very suitable method of sampling for my study beaus of the
importance of the variables. Quota Sample: This
identifies samples with particular characteristics e.g. age and gender, this
would also be a good method of sampling for my research as it would enable me
to work with a set criteria list right from the start. Cluster or Multistage
sampling: These are drawn from selections of the target group, samples from
an already drawn sample, these are often unrepresentative. This could be
useful, for extensive research, if interesting results are found I could go
back and look further into the case. Snowballing: a relative
sample is built upon using personal contacts. Convenience or Opportunity
Sampling: This method enables the sociologist to select anyone who will
answer the question, making the sample unrepresentative and biased. Non-Representative: This
method may be useful for disproving a hypothesis, and is the final sector of
the sampling process.I will produce a questionnaire as
my base, this will produce numerical data for me to analyse and a base where I
can look further into individual cases. These methods of research, enable the
research to continue, from a group, to individual case studies, to observation,
of a case study, to an in depth analysis of an individual. This is what I want,
for my study to remain open ended an subject to further analysis. I will select
the sample using stratified random sampling and from this sample I will select
50 girls at regular intervals systematically from the school registers. This
way my sample will be representative. I am aware of the limitations involved in
distributing my questionnaire, such as, not being able to distribute it to
people outside my immediate community, i.e. people outside, those who I know
and the school community. This way I think is the most ethical and effective in
receiving a fair amount of returns. In this chapter I have managed to
discus the advantages of methods of research and so have decided which methods
are suitable for my study. I will now collect my primary research using these
methods of study and discuss the results and conclusions.Context Gemma Sanders ?The media are massively present in our lives and it is this
that gives them their cultural effect, they feed into our world views and our
culture, and help to shape them? page 396, Media Imagery and Representations,
Chapter Two, New Directions. So the media is constantly feeding us images which
have the power to produce social effects in young women, this is true,
irrespective of whether they are negative or positive images or messages.
However my hypotheses states that I these effects are negative in society.Emile Durkheim used the term ?representation? to include;
?drawings, symbols, written and spoken?. Basically our conceptions of images is
what causes that symbol and that word to become a representation. Durkheim
believed that ?essentially social life is made up of representations and they
constrain our thoughts and behaviour. (Durkheim 1952, page 40). He believed
that the representations that exist come from the media and see the media as
being one of the most influential sources.I would tend not to use the study of Durkheim in this
instance relating to my hypothesis because he thought that these
representations were seen by everyone in the same way. Although in my study am
suggesting that there are huge effects I also believe that other factors are
involved such as background etc, as I believe that this can determine the way
images are represented. If this were true then there would be many more cases
of negative effects in young women than there are. I believe that the negative
social effects come not from the integration that Durkheim believes exists,
where everyone reads the images the same. I believe that the negative social
effects come from the social conflict that these representations can provide.
For example the stereotype ?pg 3? of the Sun newspaper is regarded as harmless
fun, which may in the majority of cases be true but that one image has many
different perceptions from a variety of different people.Stereotypes are representations which are often false or
misleading. Stereotypes exist within ideologies. Stereotypes are used by the
media and the media is plays a lagre part in creating an ideology within our
society. In our society people desire to follow this ideology and look to the
media for guidelines. However when issuing reason and blame for the negative
social effects caused by these ideologies an important question must be asked,
does society make ideologies or do ideologies make society? As in Marxism,
society controls the individual.In this section of my project, I will discuss to what extent
do these media images have an effect and I will incorporate some sociologists
work about this. I will look at Feminist arguments, as well as a presentation
of other secondary data.When attempting to find research studies into this area, I
found that a lot were out of date, perhaps because with the developments in
technology, i.e. television and the internet the media has only recently had
such a widespread effect and such power.A very influential part of the media is advertising as it is
solely designed to influence us, and has the capability to shape our attitudes
and behaviour. In 1985 £4441 million was spent on advertising so the messages
portrayed in these advertisements are obviously very important to the
advertiser. It is more about selling a way of life in which this product
becomes a necessity than simply getting people to buy the product. Already it
is possible to see that advertising can change the way of life for people and
as stated in? my hypothesis this could
be negative.The research of Courtney and Whipple, 1983 p45, supports my
hypothesis they concluded after looking at images in the media and their
societal effect that, ? when limited and demeaning stereotypes are as
persuasive as those involved in advertising?s portrayal of the sexes, it
becomes important to question whether those stereotypes might result in
negative and undesirable social consequences?.Feminist strands generally believe that the media is partly
responsible for creating images, stereotypes and expectations for women. In
London in 1969, feminists were beginning to take note of the ?anti-woman or
women-as-object? advertisements that surrounded them. Shelia Rowbotham, ?The
Past is Before Us?, 1989 p248 stated that, ?All around us in adverts, the
cinema, and television were images of a distorted man made femininity.? This
quote supports my hypothesis because it recognises that these images are not
real and that women have a very hard time trying to live up to them.Not only are the images hard to live upto but they ave also
been accused of trivialising women, ignoring real issues that women face and
placing them literally on face value. Therefore it made it very hard for an
intelligent woman to gain her rightful place in society unless she resembled
portrayed images. ?Women in Mass Communication, p281, complained about the
trivial portrayal of women?s issues and the oppressive place women held in
advertisements, they noted; ??unflattering portrayals and the trivialisation of
feminists? political interests.? This is most certainly a negative social
effect as it is contributing to the position of women in society. ? The three strands of feminism have slightly varying views on
the media and its representation of women. Liberal feminists that the
socialisation is the main cause for misrepresentation of women in society. The
believe that we are presented with sex roles which have become embedded in our
culture. So the media?s representation of women simply reflects these already
embedded images and messages. Liberal feminists do not believe that the media
plays no part but that it is not wholly responsible however it should present a
more balanced and accurate picture of women. Radical feminists also believe that the images are already
apparent in society through patriarchy. They believe that men use the media to
manipulate women. They believe that issues which that effects women are left
out of the media or become trivialised, similar to the liberal feminists
response. Socialist feminists blame the economic structure of
capitalism for the medias portrayal of women. They argue that women are
expected to give their labour cheaply and serve as the reserve army of workers.
The power of the companies which own women?s magazines is concentrated in male
hands. The function of women?s magazines is presented as being pastoral, giving
them solutions to their problems and promoting a code on how to be a woman,
ensuring that the woman will try to fulfil these codes. Body image is just
another one of these codes and is?
detrimental in he self esteem of women. Aside from this is the
expectation that a woman should be able to cope with a full time job and be the
main career for children. Hence all this has a massive effect on society, women
of course make up 50% of the population and whilst women are going around
trying to live up to these images and messages, society as a whole suffers
because confidence levels are on a downward spiral and women spend their whole
lives trying to be ?this?, ?that? and ?the other?.The pluralist model is a very interesting model to look at
in relation to the media. Pluralists argue that the media is a means for
voicing and responding to women?s needs and interests. They state that
advertisements now act as a way of increasing the audiences awareness of
women?s issues. This would go against my hypothesis however it does raise
interesting issues in that pluralists would say that these advertisements are
beneficial for women in society. The pluralist view of the media is a popular
image where the media provides unrestricted public airing. However the public
demand and so perhaps the media is simply responding to the demand, so the
media are a reflection of what the public are doing. It is a very complicated
debate in terms of the media being issued the blame for the social effects that
are happening when in fact it may be a viscous circle. Relating to my
hypothesis it completely disregards it, and alternative reasons for he the
social issues would need to be looked at.A valid psychological study that I will use in my primary
research is that of ?Fallon and Rozin? 1985. It looks at body images, I will
conduct the study and then find a relationship between it and the media. Body
images of male and female undergraduates were shown a figure of their own sex
and asked to indicate, a) the figure that looked most like their current shape,
b) the figure that looked most like their ideal body shape and c) the figure
that they thought was most attractive to the opposite sex. Fallon and Rozin
found that although men?s abc options would all point to the same figure.
Women?s choices pointed to all different body shapes. Showing that women are
not comfortable with their body image and I believe there is a direct
correlation to that and the media.Erving Goffman 1979 studied advertising campaigns of the
1970?s, he found that the representation of women in advertisements had a very
big part to play in the expectations that women, ?should refrain from vying
with men in matters mechanical, financial, political and so forth?. This,
directly relating to my hypothesis in the stereotypes of women is often
blatantly sexist, making women feel inadequate and causing negative social
effects. Basically if women are made to feel that there are certain things they
can?t do simply because of their genetic make up then women will have a very
hard time being equal in society, the media simply perpetuates this. Many research studies especially the more recent ones have
been looking at the representation of women and what the effects of these are.
The general findings are discovered through looking at women?s magazines.
Although they seem to revolve around women?s interests they reinforce glamorous
enhanced images of women whilst still portraying a? women with a role whether it be a traditional housewife role or a
career, setting almost impossible standards for any ?regular? women to compete.
By doing this women strive to be and act and look a certain way, a way which is
portrayed by these media images to be achievable and when the standard is not
achievable the women feel like they have failed, causing a strong negative
social effect.One of the main theories used by sociologists to investigate
the media and it?s effects, is the hypodermic syringe model also known as the
effects model. ?The effects model was derived from the rise of behaviourism in
psychology in the early years of this century which sees all human action as
modelled on the condition of reflex so that ones personality consisted of
nothing more than responses to stimuli in its environment?. Sociology New Directions
pg 373. This model suggests an injection of products, images, stereotypes and
attitudes is injected into society through individuals and that an effect of
this injection is absolutely certain. The Payne Fund, a body set up in New York
in 1928 looked at the relationship between film watching and the attitudes of
juvenile crime, they used the effects model as their base for research because
it demonstrated the relationship well. Showing and provoking that by the
injection of films in to juveniles, as a direct effects of this there was a
link with crime. Paul Lazarsfeld recognises that there are other factors are
involved, such as friends and social groups.Within my research, this model is applicable by looking at
the injection of the media images of women and the direct effect possibly being
eating disorders unsatisfaction with themselves etc. However one of the
problems with this model is the total disregard it shows for peoples conscious
efforts to make decisions of their own, giving a very narrow view of the
audience. Within my hypothesis I have allowed for this by choosing a
particularly vulnerable group in society whoa re more susceptible to media
images-young women. But in fairness it should be noted that or everyone in
society has the same level of susceptibility Jean Baudrillard, a post modernist believed that the media
massively effects society, he believed that the mass media increasingly defines
what the world in which we live actually is. Supporting my hypothesis in simply
the fact that he recognises the huge effect the media is capable of having.Golding p78) says, ?The media are central in the provision
of ideas and images which people use to interpret and understand a great deal
of their everyday experience?. This shows also how critical the portrayal in
the media is in causing effects, when the media begins to represent out of the
ordinary situations as everyday they then change the whole nature of our living
and the way we think and what we believe is normal and everyday.For Marxists, the media is a fundamental instrument of
control, owned by the dominant class, who control what is portrayed within it.
So perhaps it is another case where the powerful gain even more power by
causing these negative effects through the media. Meaning that the young women
on the end of these images have no choice but to follow them as they are being
controlled to do so. Marxists also take the view that the media is among those
institutions which reproduce social domination and control under the base of the
bourgeois capitalist society. From my research I can conclude that the majority of studies
that I have looked at accept that women?s self worth, opinions and place in
society are partly moulded by their portrayal in the media. This will of course
play a massive part in the subordination of women which is a negative social
effect, supporting my hypothesis. There are no longer outright sexist
advertisements but the simple fact that women are represented in a totally
different image to men shows that sexism exists and causes negative social
effects. My next step is to conduct some primary research of my own to discover
if the media does effects peoples self worth, and exactly what the negative
social effects are. Questionnaire Deconstruction Title: The Media Portrayal
of Women1)How old are you? A self explanatory question. Used for grouping data into
ages so that in my evaluation I can analyse differences between ages and see at
what age the media starts to effect and if we realise it is effecting us at
later stages. The most likely question to follow would be, ?are you male or
female? but my studies concentrate solely on female attitudes. However if I
were to extend my research this would certainly be a topic to look into. I do
appreciate and take into consideration however that male attitudes do play a
large part in the attitudes of females and that they are a contributory factor
as well as the media to negative social effects about body image.2)Which media are you most likely to read/listen to? I have chosen three options; a)television as many images are
portrayed on television through advertising, TV programmes, the news etc. These
images are particularly powerful because they are moving images which can give
them the realistic edge over other media. B) Magazines, teenage girl?s
absorb? lot of information from
magazines, images of older girls are often featured in these magazines and
regular information on how to look like them or for example how to create ?that
perfect Jennifer Anniston look?. Due to magazines being such a source of
interest and information to young girls I believe it is important to look at
the messages they are portraying. C)Radio, radio is a very important source of
information but I wanted to discover how many teenage girls listen to the
radio. The radio has a large advantage in that it plays music which is a
massive interest to youth. The radio is also a very interesting media as it has
no visual aids but can it still create images?3)Do you think that the media attempts to portray a
?perfect image of a women?? I think that it is important to discover if teenage girls
are aware that the media image is a pretence or if they believe that when they
grow up that is what they should aspire to look like. The word attempt in this
question is very important as I am not suggesting that the is the perfect image
but simply that an attempt is being made. It will also show if in the eyes of
teenagers they do consider these media images to be perfect.4)Would you like to like the women in these images? This question is important in identifying the difference
between simply seeing an image and actually taking it and storing it in their
minds as an image that they would like to look like. And perhaps an image that
they think they should look like.5)Do you think that celebrities have too much attention on
them through the media? The main focus of the media is celebrities.. This question
will invite respondents to say yes they think the media is intrusive upon
celebrities and it does cause negative effects or No the media focuses the
right amount of attention on celebrities and this does not pose a problem to me
or to society as a whole. 6)Have you ever known anyone to suffer from an eating
disorder? Statistics show that eating disorders are becoming
increasingly common. It will be interesting and beneficial to compare the
answers against the statistics and between the different age groups. It will
also show whether teenage girls are always aware that their friends are
suffering from eating disorders by comparing the answers to statistics. Or
perhaps if they are even aware of what an eating disorder is.7)Do you think that these images contribute to eating
disorders? The question is probing whether teenage girls actually
believe that there is a link between media images and disorders. Or indeed
whether the worry of eating disorders is another media hype. If they answer yes
then it will demonstrate that the media is leading to negative social effects.8)Do you think that these images contribute to low self
esteem? This question is similar to question 8 but far less extreme
because although they themselves would not go to the extremities of eating
disorders so that is difficult to understand they may recall bad feelings about
their body and their looks in comparison to celebrities and these images. 9)Do you think that males are subjected to similar images
and pressures through the media? This is a widely debated question as the increase for those
who suffer from male eating disorders is rising but it will be interesting to
look at how women feel that media pressures are distributed.10) Do you have any further comments about the portrayal
of women in the media? Valid comments are useful for a deeper understanding of the
subject. They will also help me with the evaluation because if the same
comments crop up consistently then it will show me that there should have been
a designated question for that issue.Comments From Questionnaire Question 10 in my questionnaire asked if their were any further
comments about the portrayal of women in the media these were the results of
that question. I found that many thought that the pressure on men is not as
much as that on women but that it definitely exists however it is not based on
such a physical sense and is not portrayed highly through the media. There
pressure on men lies more on their personality, it is important to be funny, to
have a good car, to be good at sport etc. Another strong comment that came out
was that too much attention is paid to celebrities bodies and not enough to
their personalities and this is what causes negative social effects. They are
successful and they have good bodies that is all we see of them, therefore in
order for us to be successful we must have nice bodies.There was a definite vibe through the comments that the
media?s portrayal of women needs to change, they need to start representing
?real women?. Women?s true achievements are not focused on enough either.
Apparently women?s sport is not highly covered and when it is it concentrates
on people such as Anna Kornakova, who is glamorous but a far less talented
tennis player than say Venus Williams. Some believe that almost as if the pressure begins to ease
off women it is focusing on men. These comments are very valid because they give me a deeper
understanding of the way people actually feel, reinforcing that the problems
with images of women is not just another media hype, which in itself would be
very controversial. ContentIn the context section I looked at Erving Goffmans study of
Gender and Advertising and his coding categories, in order to prove that his
research is still evident today I carried out my own research by finding
advertisements which fit into his categories.?
I was a selection of magazines from Sunday supplement magazines. I chose
this because these magazines do not have such a specific target audience as
specialised women?s magazines, so I am not limiting my findings.Relative Size (Appendix _ _) This Advertisement for ?Dannimac? shows men leading the way,
sheltering and protecting women from the weather. This advert is not explicitly
sexist but it does have connotations of sexism and agrees with Goffmans theory
of relative size.The Feminine Touch (Appendix_ _) This advertisement for Orange E-Mail services supports
Goffman?s theory that women?s hands are often pictured in advertisements. The
Orange logo is in the centre of the woman?s hand, showing that she is nurturing
it and protecting it, exactly as Goffman suggested. Function Ranking (Appendix _ _) Goffman discussed advertisements that belittle women by
showing them being instructed by men. In my Context I made the observation that
since Goffmans study this has actually turned full circle and an advert will
generate a lot more interest if the roles are reversed. Obviously the reason
for there being more interest is because the roles within society are still not
totally reversed. However the advert pictured here certainly does reverse the
roles. These men are pictured in a skip, typically a mans job with a washing
machine in front of them, this suggests that the woman has instructed them to
do the washing, explaining the blank and confused look on their faces.The Family (Appendix _ _) This advertisement shows the mother and baby, a very stereotypical
image displayed throughout the media. The woman is looking perfect and the baby
looking happy. This is the kind of advert that I believe generates negative
social effects because of the image that when you have a baby you should be
able to still look your best and keep baby content. Goffman?s study 100%
supports that this advertisement exists and that the effects of it are only
negative to society.? It is a
stereotypical image which does not exist, yet the media portray it as the norm
putting women under tremendous pressure.The Ritual of Subordination (Appendix _ _) This advertisement, reinforces Goffmans claim that adverts
exploit women?s sexuality to sell a product. The amount of skin and the
lingerie shown in this advertisement certainly show hat sex sells. The product
is a muscle toning product, so it could be argued that it is necessary to show
the midriff of the woman. Licensed Withdrawal (Appendix _ _) Goffman talked about how women are often pictured as being
disconnected from a situation and become excited about menial things, in turn
making them and their lives seem very insignificant on a larger scale. This
advertisement shows the woman with a dreamy expression on her face, there is
nothing real or powerful about this image, it simply reinforces the
insignificance of a woman in the medias eyes.These categories outlined by Goffman are still relevant
today and these recent advertisements only go towards proving this. These
advertisements were found amongst only three magazines showing that there is a
significant amount of derogatory messages in advertising. Advertising is a
large part of the media and often considered the mist powerful because of the
messages it conveys. There was one area of improvement which I found in
?Function Ranking? however the message is only so strong because it is so
controversial which takes away from the whole point of presenting women in a
different light.Comments From Questionnaire Question 10 in my questionnaire asked if their were any
further comments about the portrayal of women in the media these were the
results of that question. I found that many thought that the pressure on men is
not as much as that on women but that it definitely exists however it is not
based on such a physical sense and is not portrayed highly through the media.
There pressure on men lies more on their personality, it is important to be
funny, to have a good car, to be good at sport etc. Another strong comment that
came out was that too much attention is paid to celebrities bodies and not
enough to their personalities and this is what causes negative social effects.
They are successful and they have good bodies that is all we see of them,
therefore in order for us to be successful we must have nice bodies.There was a definite vibe through the comments that the
media?s portrayal of women needs to change, they need to start representing
?real women?. Women?s true achievements are not focused on enough either.
Apparently women?s sport is not highly covered and when it is it concentrates
on people such as Anna Kornakova, who is glamorous but a far less talented
tennis player than say Venus Williams. Some believe that almost as if the pressure begins to ease
off women it is focusing on men. These comments are very valid because they give me a deeper
understanding of the way people actually feel, reinforcing that the problems
with images of women is not just another media hype, which in itself would be
very controversial. EvaluationI will evaluate my research chapter by chapter. My rationale
states my hypothesis, ?The portrayal of women in the media causes negative
social effects in young women?. Starting with analysing my hypothesis, in
retrospect I believe that my hypothesis is too wide. The media is such a vast
area, and such a powerful tool that its effects are widespread. I should have
narrowed my hypothesis to a specific negative social effect, i.e. eating
disorders, suicide, sexism etc. Also I could have looked at a specific media
for example the television. As I feel my research was too generalised. However
I think that I made a good decision in concentrating on young women but I do
feel that at points my research strayed off this subject. Although in my
rationale I did establish that I planned to do this I think my rationale should
have been worded more specifically.It was however a good choice to look at the media because it
is a growing tool, with the internet fast approaching and all its dangers to
society. I could have looked further into the internet because concerns about
it are growing rapidly. Questions which I asked in my rationale, were; ?Does the
media help to cause eating disorders? and ?Is there something inside the young
women that triggers the effects and is stronger in some girls hence the effects
is more serious?? I think that I answered these questions well using Fallon and
Rozin?s, survey about body shape and image. This looked at the actual
perceptions young women have about themselves. My aims were to prove or disprove my hypothesis, I believe
that I strongly proved my hypothesis but also presented a balanced view by
using different research studies. I did find that the research in to disprove
my hypothesis was very limited because if people don?t believe that the media
has an affect then they are unlikely to conduct research on it.I have compared my findings with sociological research, this
is best shown when using Fallon and Rozins study to conduct my own primary
research.I produced reliable data as it was easily quantifiable and
could be put into graps and analysed effectively. My questionnaire produced
some excellent data but the questions were not as objective as they possibly
could have, possible because my aim was to prove my hypothesis. In question two
of my questionnaire the internet should be mentioned as well as newspapers and
friends because of its rapid growth as a media source. Question seven should
have been asked after question eight because if they had said yes to the first
then they are compelled to say yes to the second as the effect is worse.
Retrospectively question nine was badly worded because it assumes that they
believe there is a problem in the pressures of the media and there is no option
for them to say they believe there is no problem. Although this was a small
minority of people, I did not give the option, again because my aim was to
prove my hypothesis. Question nine also does not give the option for people to
say that the medias effect does not apply to women at all and only effects men.
Conclusively the questionnaire assumes too much. The comments gained from
question ten support my hypothesis, however those who did not have anything to
say may not say anything because they don?t see it as an issue, therefore I
would only get comments which support my hypothesis. I should have looked at
men?s views more and perhaps opened up the questionnaire to men. If I had the
chance to further my research study I would include this.My body image survey produced some valid and reliable data,
Distortions in body image survey however there are of course some improvements
in retrospect that I could have made. I could have compared height/weight
against average and healthy to see if they were actually overweight even though
they were saying that they were. I could have used a selection of 5 body shapes rather than 3
because although people didn?t always think that they had the figure of option
2 they weren?t prepared to say so chose option three whereas they may have gone
for something in between. It is important to recognise that people weren?t
always honest with me because there is an image that it is wrong to think that
you are the perfect size, in order not to sound egotistical.Using Goffmans study I analysed some advertisements of my
own to test his theory. I found that he was right. I also found that although
we can look at the negative social effects of these advertisements it cannot be
assumed that everyone deconstructs them in this way, perhaps this is why they
are so dangerous, but it is important to remember that the purpose is to sell
products and this is overwhelmingly achieved. I can see that my own values, pre-conceptions and ideas
played a part in my research but I think that to passionately want to discover
the results you need to have values to a certain extent. If I had no
pre-conceptions then choosing questions to ask in a questionnaire would be very
difficult and would make the results hard to analyse. I have a friend who
became very ill and suffered with anorexia, after being with her throughout
this, I am convinced that the media had a big part to play in her illness, this
has given me values of my own and therefore made me less objective to people
who thought that people who suffered from illnesses were simply unstable than I
perhaps should have been.Time was a great limitation when conducting my research. My
subjects were easily available girls at school, my school has a good reputation
for results meaning that they are all generally intelligent enough to be able
to deconstruct the media and understand its effects, so my research was not
particularly widespread across young women.Overall my evidence supports my hypothesis, I have found out
that people have distorted images of themselves and concluded that part of this
is because of the media. I have also discovered that young women are generally
critical of the way others look and that this plays a big part in perceptions
and self esteem. Through my findings I believe that there should be tougher
regulations within the media. The problem is money, ?mind game? adverts and
images of beautiful women sell products, the government gain money from these
products so social policy would be very hard to implement in the media. The
Internet will soon pose a real problem because it is so hard to monitor that
even if a social policy were implanted, advertisers would still get their
message across and girls would still be left feeling inadequate.I have learnt a lot about the research process as a whole. I
have learnt that objectivity is fairly impossible and that in research some
subjectivity is necessary. I have leant the process of triangulation is
important because it is difficult to conduct research which is either valid or
reliable, and quantitative methods are equally as important as qualitative
methods. I have also learnt that with the best of intentions, changes do need
to be made from the original rationale and that these changes are significant
and it does not make your research invalid, if anything it opens up your
knowledge and understanding. Theories from other sociologists give you a good
grounding to research and play an important part in giving you ideas and
methods.
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