The recent news has been reporting this event that occured late 2014. This article was posted on a website called ThinkProgress but similar articles were found on other sites, including USA Today. This select article contains very informative links that provide opportunites for further exploration.

1. Navigate this article with the links provided and develop a position statement addressing how the media impacts women and potentially impacts health related issues for women. (For example, does advertising only showing women as thin and beautiful likely contribute to eating disorders, depression, or poor self-esteem.)

One of the contestants in this year’s Miss USA pageant made national headlines last week even though she didn’t ultimately win the competition. Social media users praised Miss Indiana for having a “normal body,” rather than being a “complete twig” in her bikini. “I think the normality that everybody keeps talking about is just the fact that I’m relatable,” the contestant, whose real name is Mekayla Diehl, said in an interview with People Magazine. “I’m confident in my own skin. I didn’t obsess over being too skinny or not being tall enough.”

The positive reception for Diehl isn’t the only recent example of pop culture sparking a larger conversation around the unrealistic expectations for women’s bodies.

Earlier this year, the lingerie line Aerie and the British department store Debenthams won widespread praise for announcing they won’t retouch their underwear models anymore. Brands like Pantene, Special K, and Dove have released ads specifically intended to empower women. Seventeen Magazine promised not to alter the body sizes or face shapes of its models after anonline petition asking for more images of “real girls” went viral. An increasing number of celebrities are expressing disappointment with having their photographs altered. And this past spring, TV viewers reacted with horrorwhen the winner of the reality show “The Biggest Loser” appeared to have losttoo much weight.

So are we getting closer to a tipping point where unrealistic images of women’s beauty are going out of style? Are brands starting to recognize that photoshopping hurts their bottom lines? Will TV viewers start rejecting contestants who are unrealistically thin?

Well, not exactly, according to Dr. Renee Engeln, a psychology professor at Northwestern University who studies media objectification and body image issues.

“I think it tells us how far down the rabbit hole we’ve gone when an unusually tall and thin woman with no visible cellulite and plenty of visible musculature is seen as representing the ‘average’ American woman simply because she is not dangerously thin,” Engeln said in reference to Miss Indiana, who is a size 4. “She looks healthy — and that’s great. But it’s worth backing up for a moment and noticing that we’re talking about a contest that involves women walking around in bikinis while others evaluate the worthiness of their physical appearance.”

And of top of that, it’s important to remember that companies like Aerie, Debenthams, and Dove are still very much in the minority. The movement toward non-airbrushed images is “so minuscule as to be practically invisible,” according to Engeln, and even ads that aren’t retouched don’t necessarily feature real diversity when it comes to age, race, and body size.

“There’s a paradox at work here: Many women like looking at the very same images they feel hurt by,” Engeln pointed out. “Advertisers shows us highly idealized, airbrushed images because we find them so compelling, because they help to sell products. Much of the effectiveness of advertising rests on creating a sense of vulnerability in the consumer and offering a product to allay that vulnerability. We claim we want to see more realistic images, but we also like looking at beautiful people.”

“There’s certainly a middle ground there,” she added, “and I hope more advertisers find it.”

Conversations about unrealistic portrayals of women are hardly new. Dove’s “real beauty” campaign — which purports to celebrate women of all shapes and sizes, but which has garnered some criticism for being too patronizing — recently marked its 10th anniversary. Over the past two decades, the issue of retouching models was covered in documentary films and television showsbefore it was the subject of Jezebel posts. But thanks to the internet, these discussions now have wider reach.

“We’ve known this was going on for a long time. However, women may be starting to care about the issue more than they used to,” Engeln said. “What we’re seeing in the past few years is that ‘sharing’ instances of particularly egregious photoshopping and videos about photoshopping has become a regular part of social media for women.”

Some members of Congress are beginning to take notice, too. The “Truth In Advertising Act of 2014,” introduced by Reps. Lois Capps (D-CA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) this past March, would allow the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on companies that use overly retouched images in their ads. “The dissemination of unrealistic body standards has been linked to eating disorders among men and women of varying age groups, but it has a particularly destructive health effect on children and teenagers,” the legislationnotes. Anti-eating disorder groups lobbied in support of the bill this spring, but it hasn’t moved yet.

2. Construct a position statement that addresses whether media portayal of women appears more positive or more negative based on examples(s) gathered from actual advertisements, films, television, and other displays of women during women-focused events.

• Create a position statement to contribute to a debate concerning: Do you feel that the present media portrays women more positively or more negatively? Utilizing the resources in this module, formulate a position statement and post to the open forum. At the conclusion of this assignment, we will analyze to identify the consensus for this question. Although no citation is required, I will require that you provide at least one example for your position. This may be derived from television or magazine advertisements or events that will reflect validation for your statement.

Overview

Create a 4-6 page annotated bibliography and summary based on your research related to best practices addressing a current health care problem or issue of interest to you.

For this assessment, you will select and research a current health care problem or issue faced by a health care organization. Read each portion of the assessment carefully and use the Suggested Resources to help you complete the assessment. This assessment provides an opportunity to apply research skills to a current health care problem or issue.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

Competency 1: Apply information literacy and library research skills to obtain scholarly information in the field of health care.

· Identify academic peer-reviewed journal articles relevant to a health care problem or issue and describe the criteria used for the literature search.

· Summarize what was learned from developing an annotated bibliography.

Competency 2: Apply scholarly information through critical thinking to solve problems in the field of health care.

· Assess the credibility and relevance of information sources.

· Analyze academic peer-reviewed journal articles using the annotated bibliography organizational format.

Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and respectful of the diversity, dignity, and integrity of others, and that is consistent with expectations for health care professionals.

· Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.

· Write following APA style for in-text citations, quotes, and references.

Assessment Instructions

Note: The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. At a minimum, be sure to address each point. In addition, you are encouraged to review the performance level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.

For this assessment, you will research best practices related to a current health care problem. Your selected problem or issue will be utilized again in Assessment 3. To explore your chosen topic, you should use the first two steps of the Socratic Problem-Solving Approach as described on Campus to aid your critical thinking.

1. View the Assessment Topic Areas media piece linked in the Resources and select one of the health care problems or issues in the media piece to research. Write a brief overview of the selected topic. In your overview:

. Describe the health care problem or issue.

. Describe your interest in the topic.

. Describe any professional experience you have with this topic.

· Conduct a search for scholarly or academic peer-reviewed literature related to the topic and describe the criteria you used to search for articles, including the names of the databases you used.

. You will want to access the applicable Undergraduate Library Research Guide related to your degree (found at the NHS Learner Success Lab) for tips to help you in your search.

. Use keywords related to the health care problem or issue you are researching to select relevant articles.

· Assess the credibility of the information sources you find.

. Determine if the source is from an academic peer-reviewed journal.

. Determine if the publication is current.

. Determine if information in the academic peer-reviewed journal article is still relevant.

· Select four current scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles published during the past three to five years that relate to your topic.

· Explain the relevance of the information sources.

. Describe how the health care problem or issue is addressed in each source.

. Discuss what kind of contribution each source provides on your selected topic.

· Analyze the scholarly literature or academic peer-reviewed journal articles using the annotated bibliography organizational format.

. The purpose of an annotated bibliography is to document a list of references along with key information about each one. The detail about the reference is the annotation. Developing this annotated bibliography will create a foundation of knowledge about the selected topic.

. List the full reference for the source in APA format (author, date, title, publisher, et cetera) and use APA format for the annotated bibliography.

. Make sure the references are listed in alphabetical order, are double-spaced, and use hanging indents.

. Follow the reference with the annotation.

· In your annotation:

. Identify the purpose of the article.

. Summarize the source:

. What are the main arguments?

. What topics are covered?

· Include the conclusions and findings of the article.

· Write your annotation in a paragraph form. The annotation should be approximately 150 words (1 to 3 paragraphs) in length.

· In a separate paragraph or two at the end of the paper, summarize what you learned from your research.

· List the main points you learned about.

· Summarize the main contributions of the sources you chose and how they enhanced your knowledge about the topic.

Example Assessment: You may use the assessment example, linked in the Assessment Example section of the Resources, to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like.

Additional Requirements

1. Length: At least 4 typed, double-spaced pages, not including the title page and reference page.

2. Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.

3. APA Template: Use the APA Style Paper Template as the paper format and the APA Style Paper Tutorial for guidance. See the Resources for these documents.

4. Written communication: Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.

5. Content: Provide a title page and reference page following APA style.

6. References: Use at least four scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles.

7. APA format: Follow current APA guidelines for in-text citation of outside sources in the body of your paper and also on the reference page.

8. Turnitin: Submit your assessment to Turnitin prior to grading. Then, only submit your final assessment to faculty for grading.

Note: Review the Applying Research Skills Scoring Guide for the grading criteria applied to this assessment.

If you would like assistance in organizing your assessment, or if you simply have a question about your assessment, please do not hesitate to ask your courseroom instructor or the teaching assistants in the NHS Learner Success Lab for guidance and suggestions.