กระบวนการที่สื่อมวลชนมีอิทธิพลต่อการสร้างภาพลักษณ์ร่างกายสตรี : ศึกษากรณีนิสิตหญิงระดับปริญญาตรีของจุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย / นนทกร สิทธิพลากุล = The influence of Mass Media process in reconstructing body image : a case study of Chulalongkorn University undergraduate students / Nonthakorn Sittipalakun
The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of mass media process in reconstructing female body image. The study investigates mass media exposure in influencing thin ideal through magazine and television. The study explored two hypotheses: (1) the relationship between the awareness of thin ideal in mass media and the internalization process (2) the relationship between internalization process and its effect on increasing body dissatisfaction. This study used both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data was made possible through survey questionnaire. The quantitative samples consisted of 200 female Chulalongkorn undergraduate students. For data analysis, descriptive statistic, percentage, frequency. Arithmetic mean, and standard deviation were used to describe demographic characteristics. Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient was used to test the relationship of the variables. The findings concemed mass media exposure showed that the three most important sources of Western mass media exposure came from television shows and movies, music videos, and women’s magazines. The findings from hypothesis testing revealed that : (1) Awareness of thin ideal in mass media has a significant relationship to the internalization process. This result showed that female ideal body image is reconstructed largely by Western mass media. Moreover, this hypothesis testing also revealed that Thai female students internalized the three thin-related body types : thin and Western height body type, thin athlete body type, and thin-chest body type. (2) There was no significant relationship between the internalization process and body dissatisfaction. Therefore, the findings suggested that the internalization process had no influence on Thai female body dissatisfaction. To complete the picture of what the quantitative data showed, the researcher selected eleven female Chulalongkorn undergraduate students who filled in the survey questionnaires for further in-depth interviews. The descriptive data revealed that Western fashion shows and reality television programs with emphasis on plastic surgery are gaining popularity among their age group. Most importantly, the interview data highlighted that most Thai female students have media literacy skills – that is, they have a realistic understanding that they could not achieve Western body types in reality due to their genetic limitation and the picture they saw were retouch. Therefore, it would be impossible to achieve those body types in real life. Lastly, the findings also showed that the pressure to obtain thin ideal body image largely came from comparing their bodies wit their friends.