Media's Role in Performance-Enhancing Drugs

Our society has become a media-driven one in which people seem to be influenced by what they see in television. The media dictates and reinforces acceptable social norms and behavior, which has created a huge problem in terms of performance-enhancing drugs. Entertainment, news, and advertising are three aspects of television that play a role in shaping the way people view our society. In the entertainment aspect, people watch television and see attractive-looking people with great bodies while they’re lifting weights or in a pool, which influences people into wanting to be like that. Seeing attractive people motivates viewers into purchasing supplements even if they don’t know anything about them. In the news, there are so many reports of so many athletes, famous and non-famous, who use performance-enhancing drugs. The reports may say how the athletes are getting punished for using performance-enhancing drugs, but they also may mention that there are many athletes who don’t get caught. Athletes, especially young ones, see this and thing to themselves that if professional athletes can get away with using performance-enhancing drugs and make millions of dollars, then they can do it too, which creates many problems. In advertising, supplements use men and women with ripped bodies and words that attract people like “10 pounds of muscle in just weeks.” People believe in this and don’t find the need to research what they put into their bodies. This becomes a problem for the health of people who are influenced by these three things and a problem for society.

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I love this article, because it is very educational and it helps people understand the motives behind what they see in television. When people watch television, they are so unconscious about what commercials and advertisements are trying to do. They are trying to convince people to purchase the products by influencing them using words and images that are attractive and it works. It’s not even just television. I subscribe to Men’s Health Magazine and I have learned that supplement companies are in contract with magazines and they both profit off of each other, but I wouldn’t have known this without reading and educating myself about something like this. Athletes, especially young ones, need to get educated about performance-enhancing drugs so that they don’t make decisions that will affect their health negatively.

Blechman, Robert K. Performance Enhancing Drugs. 31 Jan. 2008. 27 Mar. 2009 .