HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

In 2011, the average number of televisions per household in the United States was 2.5 with 31% of Americans owning four or more televisions. Research shows that the average American watches over 4 hours of television each day. Leading television networks reach approximately 60% of television viewers in the United States per week on average. A study conducted in 2005 by the
Kaiser Family Foundation KFF, which was formerly known as The Kaiser Family Foundation or The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, is an American non-profit organization, non-profit organization, headquartered in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. It prefers KFF, w ...
determined that eight- to eighteen-year-olds spend on average six and a half hours a day with media in general. American teenagers alone spend 11.2 hours watching television a week according to another market research study conducted by Teen Research Unlimited. They also found that these teens listen to FM radio 10.1 hours per week, spend 3.1 hours playing video games per week, and surf online for a total of 16.7 hours per week.
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
is the favored television channel to watch among both boys and girls in America, averaging over six hours a week viewing it. Research also shows that on any day a teenager is exposed to over 200 cable television networks, 5,500 magazines, 10,500 radio stations, over 30 million websites, and over 122,000 recently published books. Multiple forms of media can be seen throughout society in almost every facet.


Prime-time television

One in four teenagers report that television is their most frequented and useful source of sexual information. The prime time content of television that is most commonly viewed by teenagers is analyzed for their sexual messages. Studies have shown that sexual references are made anywhere from 8 to 10 times during 1 hour of prime time television. Teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15 claim that media entertainment is the number one source of information about sexuality. According to the American Psychological Association, they estimate that teenagers are exposed to 14,000 sexual references per year on television (Media Influence on Youth, 2001). In a study conducted on prime time television in 1971, it was found that 18.3% of the featured characters were women where the rest were men. A different study conducted in 1974 found that 70% of the characters who gave demands or assumed a serious role in prime time television were men, leaving only 30% as women. Today, awards shows such as the Fox Teen Choice Awards present categories titled "choice hottie female" and "choice hottie male". In the music category, there is an award that goes to the best "hook up song". This is encouraging teens to "hook up" with each other and view other males and females as a "hottie". The
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...
, for example, is one of the most viewed prime time shows to ever be broadcast. Super Bowl 2012 alone tuned in 111.3 million viewers setting the U.S. television ratings record for the third year in a row. With advertisements fighting to stand out, companies such as
GoDaddy GoDaddy Inc. is an American publicly traded Internet Domain name registry, domain registry, Domain name registrar, domain registrar and web hosting company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and incorporated in Delaware. GoDaddy is the world's fif ...
(featuring the race car sensation
Danica Patrick Danica Sue Patrick (; born March 25, 1982) is an American former professional racing driver and model. She is the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel car racing—her victory in the 2008 Indy Japan 300 is the only win ...
and trainer
Jillian Michaels Jillian Michaels (born February 18, 1974) is an American fitness trainer, nutritionist, businesswoman, media personality, and author. She is best known for her appearances on NBC series such as ''The Biggest Loser (American TV series), The Bigg ...
) and
Kia Motors Kia Corporation (, formerly known as Kyungsung Precision Industry (京城精密工業) and Kia Motors Corporation) is a South Korean multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, ...
(featuring supermodel
Adriana Lima Adriana Lima (; born 12 June 1981) is a Brazilian model. She was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 1999 to 2018. She was the longest-running model and named "the most valuable Victoria's Secret Angel" in 2017. She is also known as a spokesmodel fo ...
) resorted to sex and the sexualization of its actresses. Young girls are starting to hit
puberty Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a female, the testicles i ...
earlier than most young girls in the past. These young girls are not ready to deal with the issues of sexuality. Jane Brown, a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina, claims that “Twelve to fourteen year old girls who start puberty earlier are more interested in sexual content in the media.” Her studies have shown that adolescents who watched a lot of sexual content in the media are more than twice as likely as others to have sex by the time they reached the age of sixteen.


Magazine portrayals and beauty myth: "what boys like"

The Beauty Myth, a term coined by author
Naomi Wolf Naomi Rebekah Wolf (born 1962) is an American feminist author, journalist, and conspiracy theorist. After the 1991 publication of her first book, '' The Beauty Myth'', Wolf became a prominent figure in the third wave of the feminist movemen ...
, is used to describe the theory that beauty itself is a socially constructed value. Wolf discusses how unattainable standards of beauty are used against women when they are unable to conform and achieve these ideal standards. Psychologist Carol Gilligan believes that love depends on being in a relationship (meaning being in sync with another person): connected by a bond of equality and mutuality. "Both love and democracy depend on voice," she believes. Seventeen Magazine's November 2006 issue featured an article describing how a boy would be most likely to stay with a girl who would "rub on his sunscreen", "plan stuff", and "support him".
Cosmopolitan magazine ''Cosmopolitan'' (stylized in all caps) is an American quarterly fashion and entertainment magazine for women, first published based in New York City in March 1886 as a family magazine; it was later transformed into a literary magazine and, sinc ...
in past issues feature articles with titles like "The Sex Position He Craves" and "His Secret Pleasure Zone". In Cosmopolitan's August 2011 issue includes on the front cover "Guys Rate 50 Sex Moves: Thousands of Men Rank the Hot and Not-So-Hot Things You Can Do to Their Naked Bodies" as well as "The Sexy Confidence Men Can't Resist". There is plenty that tells girls what guys like, but barely anything that says what women and girls should make clear that they deserve. There are always articles like "The Sex Positions HE Craves" or "HIS Secret Pleasure Zone" but rarely the other way around. Positive aspects about magazines such as Seventeen: they always include a health section labeled "Sex Ed" with accurate facts. "Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object- and most particularly, an object of vision: a sight." This idea can be summed together by what is called the
male gaze In feminist theory, the male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world in the visual arts and in literature from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosex ...
.


Health concerns with females and media

When a survey was conducted to teenage girls, they claimed that the media was the primary source of information about health issues. A study was conducted on mass media magazines and it was found that women's magazines had 10.5 times more advertisements and articles that promote weight loss than men's magazines (National Association of Social Workers, 2001). After an analysis of 21 popular young women's magazine covers, it was shown that 78 percent represented a message about bodily appearance. What's shocking is that none of men's magazines contained those types of messages (Collins, 2002). Female fashion models are advertised everywhere, and it is found that female fashion models weigh twenty three percent less than the average female. According to the American Association of University Women in 1991, most teenage girls thought that their appearance is a major part of self-esteem. Not surprisingly, more girls than boys search the internet for health, fitness, and dieting information (National Association of Social Workers, 2001). Girls between the ages of 15 and 18 who said they used weight control pills in the last year, 73 percent of them were readers of health and fitness magazines. A big thanks to advertisements; teenage girls and young women spend over $4 billion each year on cosmetics (Collins, 2002). Excessive social media use is said to be associated with multiple psychological problems such as anxiety, depression and loneliness. Health related issue that have known to effect teens are depression with signs and symptoms of low self esteem due to the amount of time they are spending on social media and the pressure of keeping an image to impress other peers. Teens have often feel emotionally invested in their social media accounts, an anxiety inducing pressure that they must respond quickly and have perfect picture and captions posted (Gordon,S 2018). Throughout different social media platforms, young women were stressed about being "visible" by exposing their faces or bodies or emotional distress and mental health. They created a fear of how they were viewed towards others and how viewers would see them. Comments that related to appearance, even if positive, were seen as or even more likely to create higher feelings of self-objectification as much as negative appearance-related comments. Self-objectification in girls at an early age was suggested to contribute to depression, sexual dysfunction, and eating disorders. Mental health outcomes that have occurred in a high rate amongst young girls and women.


Female portrayals in the media

Writers and researchers such as M. Gigi Durham feel that the sexuality of females, not only in the United States but throughout the world, is extremely "exploitative, abusive, and harmful." Just from
child trafficking Trafficking of children, also known as child trafficking, is a form of human trafficking and is defined by the United Nations as the "recruitment, transportation, harbouring, or receipt of a child" for the purpose of slavery, forced labour, and ...
and
prostitution Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, no ...
alone, two million children (with the majority being girls) are estimated to fall victim to
Sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is re ...
. Facts like this one are taken into account when thinking about the certain effect groups such as the
Spice Girls The Spice Girls are an English girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Mel B ("Scary Spice"), Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"), Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"), Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"), and Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"). They have sold over 10 ...
have had on younger audiences. Children, mostly girls, in elementary school consist of the Spice Girls' bulk audience. The Spice Girls are most often seen wearing very high heels and exceedingly short skirts (with the exception of Sporty Spice). While some may see this as a way to show young girls a means of healthy expression, others may see this as detrimental to body image. Other more recent celebrities that fit right into this kind of image display include the
Pussycat Dolls The Pussycat Dolls were an American girl group and dance ensemble, founded in Los Angeles, California, by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995 as a neo-burlesque troupe. At the suggestion of Jimmy Iovine, Antin decided to take the troupe mainst ...
,
Paris Hilton Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American media personality, businesswoman, and socialite. Hilton was born in New York City and raised there partially; shuttling between Los Angeles and New York City; she is a great-grandda ...
, or
Kim Kardashian Kimberly Noel Kardashian (born October 21, 1980) is an American media personality, socialite, and businesswoman. She first gained media attention as a friend and stylist of Paris Hilton, but received wider notice after the celebrity sex tape ...
. The coauthor of the book Manifesta, Jennifer Baumgardner, believes that when young girls wear stiletto heals and belt out to the Spice Girls songs they are actually engaging in a "spirit of 'fierce, fun independence." There are also others who refer to the girls who engage in this sort of behavior as "prosti-tots" and "kinderwhores". There are numerous studies that have been conducted that suggest that the higher amount of mainstream media girls buy into, the higher level of importance they place on being beautiful, sexy, and desirable. To go right along with this, other studies have shown that teenage girls and college girls who "hold conventional beliefs about femininity- especially those that emphasize beauty and pleasing behavior- are less ambitious and more likely to be depressed than their peers." These girls are also less likely to enjoy
sexual intercourse Sexual intercourse (also coitus or copulation) is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion of the Erection, erect male Human penis, penis inside the female vagina and followed by Pelvic thrust, thrusting motions for sexual pleasure ...
or use
condom A condom is a sheath-shaped Barrier contraception, barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a Sexually transmitted disease, sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both external condo ...
s. A study was done where a group of female college students were exposed to a series of television commercials. The group of women were considered to be "can-do girls" enrolled in advanced
math Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
and
science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
classes. Out of six ads, four of the ads contained neutral content like cell phones or animals. The remaining two ads contained
stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalization, generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can ...
s: a female boasting about her new acne medication and another salivating over brownie mix. The group that was exposed to the stereotyped ads actually expressed far less interest in careers related to math and science compared to the group that only saw the neutral ads. In another study, two groups of both boys and girls were asked to either try on a bathing suit or try on a sweater before taking a math test. The group of students that tried on the bathing suit prior to taking the exam showed poorer results on the test than did the group that tried on sweaters. However, the male students included in the study showed no disparity.


Marketing these portrayals

As a way to appeal to these vast crowds, major companies began selling products marketed toward young girls that teamed up with the images they were absorbing from the aforementioned celebrities.
Abercrombie & Fitch Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (A&F) is an American lifestyle store, lifestyle retailer, founded in 1892 which focuses on contemporary clothing targeting customers in their early 20's to mid 40's. Headquartered in New Albany, Ohio, the company operate ...
started to make thong underwear with sayings such as "Wink, Wink" and "Eye Candy" stitched onto them. Similarly,
Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...
sells underwear in the junior's section that say, "Who needs credit cards...?".
Victoria's Secret Victoria's Secret is an American lingerie, clothing and beauty products, beauty retailer. Founded in 1977 by a Stanford graduate student and his wife, Roy Raymond, Roy and Gaye Raymond, the company's five lingerie stores were sold to Les Wexner i ...
Pink Collection, made specifically for teens, sells underwear with sayings such as "Heartbreaker", "See You Tonight", "Hello There", "Totally Hot", and other sayings along those lines.
British Home Stores British Home Stores, commonly abbreviated to BHS and latterly legally styled BHS Ltd, is an online store and formerly a British department store chain, primarily selling clothing and household items. In its later years, the company began to exp ...
(BHS) makes a line of clothes aimed toward pre-teens called "Little Miss Naughty". Its selection includes push up bras and lacy thongs.
Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...
started manufacturing a "Peekaboo Pole Dancing" kit in 2007. The kit came with a miniature garter belt and even fake money for stashing into it. Although great pressure from parents made Tesco revamp the product to something less suggestive, it still remains in the market.


Disney princesses and prince charming

In 2000,
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
started to market its characters together which had never been done before. Prior to 2000, the Disney princesses had never been marketed aside from the film's release. After only one year of selling the new Disney Princess line, sales reached over $300 million. In 2009, sales were over $4 billion with more than 26 thousand Disney Princess items floating around the market. The largest consumers of these products are girls between the ages of two and six.
Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...
saw the success of the Disney Princess line and in 2001 began to manufacture its own line of princess
Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, manufactured by American toy and entertainment company Mattel and introduced on March 9, 1959. The toy was based on the German Bild Lilli doll, Bild Lilli doll which Hand ...
dolls, DVDs, toys, home decor, clothing, etc. that they marketed together as "world of girl". Some, like author and researcher
Peggy Orenstein Peggy Orenstein (born November 22, 1961) is the author of the ''New York Times'' bestsellers ''Boys & Sex, Girls & Sex,'' ''Cinderella Ate My Daughter'' and ''Waiting for Daisy,'' as well as ''Unraveling'', ''Don’t Call Me Princess'', ''Flux ...
, believe that the mass production of clothes, makeup, jewelry, and a handsome and "Charming" husband could have quite the effect on girls. A more modern example of a princess/prince charming duo, and one that some consider to not be so damaging on the formation of relationships and image, is the spectacle of
Bella Swan Isabella "Bella" Marie Cullen (née Swan) is the protagonist character of the ''Twilight'' book series by Stephenie Meyer. She is initially an ordinary teenage girl, but during the series, Bella falls in love and marries a vampire Edward Culle ...
and
Edward Cullen Edward Cullen (né Edward Anthony Masen, Jr.) is a character in the ''Twilight'' book series by Stephenie Meyer. He is featured in the novels ''Twilight'', ''New Moon'', ''Eclipse'' and ''Breaking Dawn'', and their corresponding film adaptat ...
in
Stephenie Meyer Stephenie Meyer (; Morgan; born December 24, 1973) is an American novelist and film producer. She is best known for writing the vampire literature, vampire romance series ''Twilight (novel series), Twilight'', which has sold over 160 million ...
's ''
Twilight Twilight is daylight illumination produced by diffuse sky radiation when the Sun is below the horizon as sunlight from the upper atmosphere is scattered in a way that illuminates both the Earth's lower atmosphere and also the Earth's surf ...
'' series. Some say that the relationship of Bella and Edward "glamorizes dating abuse." Others see the construction of Bella's character to be enlightening for the current generation of young girls, teens and even young adults. Meyer characterizes her as incredibly clumsy, short of words, awkward, normal, bland and not sexy. Edward, the prince charming in this case, is still utterly attracted to her. His rigidity and traditional views on sexual intercourse is also a message of sexuality rarely seen in today's media.


"Cinderella and supergirl"

Peggy Orenstein states that this sort of contradiction and challenge of being it all and having it all is prevalent in the minds of girls in today's society. In a survey of over two thousand school-aged children conducted in 2006, the girls "repeatedly described a paralyzing pressure to be 'perfect': not only to get straight As and be the student body president, editor of the newspaper, and captain of the swim team but also to be 'kind and caring,' 'please everyone, be very thin, and dress right.'" Some believe that it is not realistic to expect girls and women to achieve all of this. If the media is in fact pouring out these messages, it is penetrating a large chunk of society. Studies also show that the number of girls who place great concern on their weight and looks increased between the years 2000 and 2006 which overcame their concern with matters such as schoolwork. In her book ''Enlightened Sexism'', Susan Douglas says, "We can excel in school, play sports, go to college, aspire to- and get- jobs previously reserved for men, be working mothers, and so forth. But in exchange we must obsess about our faces, weight, breast size, clothing brands, decorating, perfectly calibrated child-rearing, about pleasing men and being envied by other women."


Sexual double standard

A
double standard A double standard is the application of different sets of principles for situations that are, in principle, the same. It is often used to describe treatment whereby one group is given more latitude than another. A double standard arises when two ...
is where a different set of codes exists for the same issue between two groups of people. In sexual terms, the double standard is that men have more sexual freedom than women. Double standards are increasingly being presented in today's media. Much so, that it poses threat to adolescent relationships and sexual experiences. Media has been shown to directly target teen adolescents and has allowed for
social stigma Stigma, originally referring to the visible marking of people considered inferior, has evolved to mean a negative perception or sense of disapproval that a society places on a group or individual based on certain characteristics such as their ...
s to be developed. That in turn have generated double standards towards sexuality amid teen adolescent relationships. Sexuality has been presented in the media following gender stereotypes, where men are shown to have gained power as a result of their sexuality. Whereas woman are subject to being forced into this category of promiscuity. If such stereotypes are being presented in the media, young adolescents will interpret men's sexuality as being rewarded, while women's sexuality will have punishable consequences. Double standard messages presented in the media, influence adolescents attitudes towards sexuality. Gendered stereotypes are the basis for teens obtaining a reputation amongst their peers. Influences of stereotypes and double standards has promoted adolescents to care less about the physical consequences of sexual experiences and focused more on how their reputation is affected. Messages gathered from media are deciphered differently by young men and women, resulting in differences in interpretations of sexual scripts. Young women are more aware of the social stigmas that come as consequence of sexual experiences, in contrast to young men. Ultimately coming down to young adolescents becoming dominated by double standards presented in the media and society. Taking into account the various messages being broadcast in the media, it is to be understood that the messages interpreted in the media will have a direct impact on the attitudes towards double standards amongst teen relationships.


Double articulation in the media

The term ''double articulation'' refers to the process of domestication of media: # meaning of media in daily practices # media as material objects that are appropriated as meaningful technologies


Social media: Pros and cons

In today's society, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram have become a phenomenon. Nine out of ten teenagers in America have used social media (CommonSense, 2012). No matter how old the person, anyone can access these websites anywhere by using a smart phone, tablet, or laptop. What is scary is that most smart phones and tablets have Facebook and Twitter already programmed into them. However, there seem to be many pros and cons to social media sites. Social media sites such as Facebook, allow you to post statuses, pictures and videos of yourself. Facebook and Instagram seem to be more of a “competition” social media website, such as how many “likes” or comments you can get on a photo. The Center for Eating Disorders commissioned a survey about Facebook to users who are the ages of 16–40. It was found that 51 percent of the people surveyed said that seeing photos of themselves on Facebook makes them more self-conscious about their body image and weight. 31 percent said that they feel sad when they compare themselves to their friends on Facebook. Of the people surveyed, 44 percent said they spend time wishing they had the same body as a Facebook friend when they compare themselves to them, while 37 percent said they feel they need to change parts about their body when they look at people's photos on Facebook. A website called Proud2BMe.org posted a series of quotes from teenagers that describe the way they feel about body image and Facebook. “It’s only the ‘standard beauty’ who get the ‘likes’ I feel like to be the hot girl, you have to be like that, or wear your shirt too low and your skirt too high.” Not only is Facebook affecting the way women feel, but it is also affecting males too. A survey was given out to males who use Facebook and 40 percent of them claimed that they sometimes write negative comments about their own body in photos (Eating Disorder, 2012). However, there are some positive aspects about social media websites. Social media sites were not intended to make people feel bad about themselves; they were made to keep in touch with people. The Common Sense Media program conducted a major survey to more than one thousand 13- to 17-year-olds about social media websites. The results were actually found to be a bit surprising. Of all the people surveyed, most of them said that social media websites have more of a positive effect on their social and emotional well-being. 90 percent of the teenagers surveyed said that they have used a form of social media and 75 percent of them have a social media website. Due to the advances in technology, 51 percent said they check their social media website at least once a day. A little more than half of the teenagers said that social media websites have helped their friendships while only 4 percent said it has hurt theirs. Social media sites seem to be a bit of a confidence booster to the people who were surveyed. A fourth of the teenagers said that social media makes them feel more confident and 15 percent said it makes them feel better about themselves (Common Sense, 2012). Social media sites allow for young people to create their own unique social worlds online where they are able to make social connections that in-person interaction would simply not allow for. Social media can be an empowering tool that allows for young people to display their agency by navigating through their own social worlds that they both create and are actively participating in. Fear surrounding young people's use of social media sites is heavily based on moral panic and places restrictions on their agency and freedom, disempowering them. Forty three percent of the teenagers surveyed said that they wish they could disconnect from all of it. Some said that they want to go back to a time where there was no such thing as Facebook. 49 percent said that they would rather communicate in person, 33 percent said they would rather text, and 7 percent said they would rather communicate through social media. The CEO and founder of Common Sense media quotes “Today’s 13-17 year olds are the first generation to go through their entire teen years with such an array of digital devices and platforms.” Social media websites have become worldwide and will continue to expand as the years go on (Common Sense, 2012). New York Behavioral Health found that teens ages 12–17 use social media messaging as their main source of communication. Because of this, the in-person social skills that adolescents learn by being around peers and conversing with one another are learned at a slower rate. Studies show that teens who spend the most time on their electronics are also the most isolated and depressed. Although social media allows teens to connect 24/7, excessive screen time leads to loneliness and a lack of social skills. Studies show that excessive screen time is also linked to memory deficits as well as attention deficits. People that use social media excessively tend to perform worse on cognitive tests than people who use social media lightly or not at all.


References

{{reflist Mass media theories Adolescence