Browsing by Subject "naiskuva"

There has been done some research on the relationship between girls and media before, but the amount of current studies is very little because of the vast change of media culture. Also the perspective of these researches has rarely been in the girls them selves. Thereby the porpoise of this research is to enlighten sixth grade girls' perspectives on the phenomenon at hand. The goal is to find out how these girls' interpret the female image of visual media culture and how media effects on the development of their self-image. Girls' thoughts on the necessity of media education are also in a significant role. Theme interview that was done in groups was the method that was used in this research to collect the data. Sixteen sixth grade girls were interviewed in five interview groups. Three base materials representing visual media culture were used in the theme interviews. The collected data was analyzed by theory-guided content analysis. The data was categorized mostly to themes that rose from the interviews and and results were compared to the theoretical framework. The results of this research were divided into three broader themes that were convergent with the research questions. First of all the girls analyzed and interpreted the female image of media culture. Sexualization was clearly seen in all of the base materials, but the girls reacted more disapprovingly to the material that was closet to their own everyday context. It is easier for the girls to accept sexualization in public media culture, where the objectification of women has become an ordinary phenomenon. Secondly the girls discussed medias influence on their self-esteem. The girls expressed how they get inspired through the pictures they see in media and discussed on the meaning it has on their clothing and appearance ideals. They make purchase decisions and admire sporty bodies through media, yet the true influence was hard to recognize for some of the girls. Be-cause of the many effects that media has, the girls think that issues related to it should also be talked about in school. Especially the risks and problematic situations that media contains were seen as something that should be dealt with together. All in all the sixth grade girls showed as skill-full agents of media culture, for whom social media especially is a significant part of every day life.