Presentation of Primary Research: Lillie Lambert

Primary Research

These are the results of my primary research that I have collated from a questionnaire and other resources.

1.    Does the way the media views what the perfect body is affect you personally?

From the results that I have gathered I have found that up to 80% of people are personally affected by the way the media views the perfect body image. This figure is very high showing that more people are affected by the medias views than expected. Only 20% of people are not affected by the way the media views the perfect body.

2.    Does it affect your confidence?

100% of participants say that the way that the media perceives body image does not affect their confidence. This is something that I had personally not expected to see as I would have expected people’s confidence to be affected through the medias perception of body image. Personally I had thought that at least 60% of people would have confidence issues but obviously that was incorrect.

3.    Has the way the media views the ideal body ever made you want to change something about yourself?

Again 100% of people who completed my questionnaire did not believe that views in the media made them want to change anything about themselves. I did think that people would have had something that they wished to change about themselves but it was good to get feedback on what people thought of their own bodies. Most people have something they wish to change and I have found this from watching a variety of body imaged based documentaries.

4.    Do you agree with the medias ideal body?

All of my participants do not agree with the medias ideal body. So 100% of my participants do not believe that the medias ideal body is right. For me this shows that a very high percentage of people do not agree with the norm that is put onto them every day. It shows me that we are onto a topic that people will be very opinionated about, so will be great for interviews on our documentaries.

5.    Do you feel pressure to fit the ideal?

90% of my participants do not feel pressure to fit the ideal which is completely opposite to what most surveys say. Most surveys find that people feel unbelievably under pressure to fit the ideal. My questionnaire shows that only 10% of participants feel under pressure to be the ideal body that the media puts across. 

6.    Do you have friends who are affected in some way through the media’s perception of looks?

Only 10% of participants do not know anyone who has in some way been affected by the medias perception of looks. This is what I had expected when I put this question onto my questionnaire. 90% of participants knew of someone who had been affected by the medias perception of looks. This is exactly the kind of figure I had expected to find. Most people will admit to knowing someone who has been affected by the expectations the media puts on looks.

7.    Are you constantly worried about what you look like?

100% of participants are not constantly worried about their looks. This figure was unexpected as I did believe that people would be worried some of the time. This means none of the people who I used within my questionnaire are worried about their looks. I think there could have been a bias on this as people knew that their classmates would be seeing this because I know a couple of people I had spoken too  voiced concerns about the pressure they felt to look a certain way so I think it is quite a touchy subject for people to personally talk about.

8.    Has anyone ever commented negatively on the way you look?

All of the participants that took part in my questionnaire have at some point had someone comment negatively on how they look.  I think this couldn’t be truer because even if someone commented negatively at a young age it is branded into you. It was exactly what I thought would come of this question because everyone has once had someone comment negatively. This could be because people have commented through jealousy or just horrible comments.

9.    Is it a big part of your life to try and fit the ideal given out by the media?

100% of people said that ‘No’ they didn’t try and fit the ideal. This is good to have found as a lot of people take the medias ideal negatively and make it their life’s effort to fit it. So of all the people who took part none of them try to fit this ideal. I think that isn’t completely true but as my research progresses I can delve into this idea more.

10. Do you think the media’s perception should change?

All of my participants agree that the media’s perception on body image should change. I believe that this is an idea that is shared across a wide audience as it is unhealthy for people to be pushed to extreme limits or be constantly hating themselves because of what other people believe is right.  This is definitely what I had expected from this question.