Abstract Title of dissertation: BODY IMAGES IN MAGAZINES: A CROSS-CULTURAL INVESTIGATION OF MEDIA EFFECTS IN RUSSIAN AND U.S. YOUNG WOMEN

The dissertation is a cross-cultural-generational investigation of audiences ’ perceptions of media messages. The study comparatively examines adolescent and young adult females ’ concepts of body images in beauty and fashion magazines in Russia and USA. The theoretical model for the study was developed in the intersection of mass communication and human development research traditions. Specifically, media effects and audience research traditions of media studies, in combination with social-cognitive domain theory of developmental psychology, were applied for analysis of direct and indirect impact of media messages on young women; of their motivations for reading magazines; of their critical evaluations of media content; and of their predispositions to media-associated health risks. The study was conducted in two stages: mixed research methodologies employing qualitative exploration of the stated problem followed by its quantitative examination. A total of 20 participants (10 Russian and 10 U.S. teenage females) were recruited for in-depth interviews; this part of the study focused primarily on differences in media uses and perceptions between adolescent audiences across cultures. The hypotheses and the survey questionnaire for the second part of the study were developed on the basis of these qualitative data and used to test bot