Media. In the informational era it seems to be one of the most powerful tools to influence society; if not the most powerful. People might be divided into those who believe that media is an evil creation and those who worship it and feel grateful for information it provides; yet the influence of it is out of any doubts. There are certain aspects of life that might seem to be influenced by media in a negative way, such as violence, sex, sports, and so on; however, they all can be debatable. We can argue that media triggers violence, because considering the amount of wars in previous times, the world at this very moment is not such a violent place. We can also disagree that media corrupts politics, because although some countries might use its power for brainwashing, an overall increasing spread of information help in shaping democracy. What we cannot argue about is that a rapidly increasing popularity of unhealthy nutrition does take place with the help of media, and the effects it may cause is disastrous. Dr. Gabriel from New York City Pediatric Center claims that, "fast food is a cause of high cholesterol in children as they head into adulthood" and that, "advertisements [of fast food] need to change" (GPM Pediatrics 2014). The scarier thing is that we cannot yet fully assess long-term effects, because unhealthy nutrition is a relatively new tendency. However, I am almost sure that the growing generation will have more health problems than the previous one. Maybe fast food once a week or once a month is not so damaging. But it is so much promoted in media, which nowadays almost everyone seems to listen to, that inevitably people keep consuming it and harming their health.
Undoubtedly, every medal has two sides, and healthy nutrition is promoted in media - sometimes. Such popular women's magazines as Glamour or Cosmopolitan are famous for its "healthy recipes" that encourage women to feed their families with healthy food. However, what these magazines probably do not fully realize is that a usual promotion of fresh, healthy organic products that they usually focus on does not normally suit an average person - they simply are too expensive. Women's magazines might spend hundreds of pages encouraging to go and buy organic food; yet these promotions would be probably unnoticed after a happy lady in a bright commercial says that her hamburger lunch just for 1,5 dollars made her the happiest person in the world. What, in my opinion, we lack nowadays is a sense of "quality of life" and concerns about our future and future of a growing generation. I can say from my experience: being a student demands time and dedication, and when the deadlines are due, you really are in a hurry almost all the time. Therefore, preparing a healthy meal can take more time and money than simply ordering fast food and eating it on the way. Especially seeing on TV or on a street banner that prices in McDonald's have decreased again can give you a feeling that you get both a cheap and a pleasant meal. Yet the ads that trigger you to buy fast food do not care about health effects - their goal is to grab your attention and make you buy the product. Which every one of us at some point was guilty of.
What I am really trying to say is that media does negatively affect our food choices because it is built on the advertising and the latter does not have a moral code. Media has succeed in making people believe that by buying fast food they save their time and money; what it forgets to mention is the most important thing - our health. My suggestions to the society would be not to pay so much attention to the media's promotions of food: it cares about selling, not saving your health. And choose quality over quantity: after listening that life would be better after having a hamburger, take a homemade sandwich and pave yourself a longer and a healthier life.
References:
GPM Pediatrics. "Children Confused by Healthy Fast Food Ads; Brooklyn Pediatrician Offers Insight". finance.yahoo.com. 9 May, 2014. URL: <http://finance.yahoo.com/news/children-confused-healthy-fast-food-073800254.html>
Picture retrieved from:
http://welltree.org/eating-out-on-a-raw-food-diet-made-easy/
I greatly enjoyed reading your blog, it was very informative and well-written. It's amazing to see the science behind media and advertisements for the food industry. It seems like they will do almost anything to get people to buy their food. I remember being a young child and only wanting to eat things that looked good or had a cool packaging design. I guess this is an example of the media doing their job!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that various adds influence your food choice. It happens to me many times when i have a little time to eat i instantly think of some sort of fast food just because my mind was heavily bombarded with hundreds of commercials and billboard advertisements. I simply can't think of preparing a good meal, since my brain accepted the image that those hamburgers are equally healthy ( and moreover CHEAP) as a well prepared meal at home.
ReplyDeleteI also agree, advertising, especially food promotion is very powerful. I am one of the victims. It really works and sometimes I would like to go against, but well constructed campaign hits me from the other side and I buy advertised product. I would be curious how many clients are thinking about advertised product if it is healthy before they buy it.
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