Research by Dr. William Kinnally and Kristen E Van Vonderen on the effect of Media Exposure

This work by Dr. William Kinnally and Kristen E Van Vonderen seeks to explore the connection between exposure to the media and the form of the body and takes account of both social and internal influences. This is due to the growing use of mass media of far smaller women. External and internal influences have proven to be very successful in affecting the size of one body
The survey was distributed among 417 students, of which 417 were female, 68.3 percent. For their analysis, only female analytical findings (n=285) were used. This is because of their tendency to losing weight or moving with the trends displayed in the mass media and their social setting. The age of the female sample ranged from 18 to 37 (M=20.0, SD=2.22); this the age that most women usually add or lose weight very fast.
The ethnic makeup of the females was 65.7% Caucasian, 17.7% Latino, 5.8% African American, 4.9% Asian, and 7% multiracial or other (Riff, Lacy & Fico, 2014). 
Television exposure: the question here was whether the number of times one watched TV per week affected their body shape. Averagely one spent between 15-17 hours a week on television. (M=25.05, SD=17.80, α=.78). Upward comparison with media figures: the question here how many times one compared herself with the media personalities (M=3.25, SD=1.31, α=.081). Parental, peer or media thoughts and attitude towards weight: here these factors were analyzed in a seven scale from weird to I love it.(M=5.61, SD=1.00, α=.89) (Riff, Lacy & Fico, 2014). 
From the analyzed data it is nearly impossible to say that television significantly affects body size. The internal and social factors proved influential in changing one's perception of being overweight and slim. This is due to those around one_x0092_s setting has a profound connection with an individual up to the point of reversing their ideas. Hence the mass media effect comes in as an indirect effect.References
Riff, D., Lacy, S., & Fico, F. (2014). Analyzing media messages: Using quantitative content analysis in research. Routledge.