Body Image Drives New Environment for News Delivery

Abstract

Body shape and aesthetics have been identified as a key driver of human motivations and actions. Of six key facets of body shape identified in the literature, five are variables which can be changed directly by attendance at regular exercise sessions in fitness clubs and we suggest these have driven club membership increases and challenged both the Habermasian nature of public sphere activity and its locus, which influences the nature and practice of various kinds of journalism. This article identifies club membership activities in health and fitness clubs (gymnasiums) in Europe, North America and Australia during 2006, as precursors to established standard conversational public sphere activity noted in 2008, and the clubs themselves (in general) as important emerging modern sites of such public sphere activity, driven by the intensification of sports news programming on cable television, the development of the wireless theatre and other services aimed at increasing fitness club memberships. At the centre of this, the worldwide phenomenon of the media-equipped ‘cardio-theatre’ in fitness clubs is described and evaluated as a significant journalism and business environment. Business and research opportunities are identified.

People who move and need news: The economic and social value of providing digital journalism services for mobile and remote audiences

“…Mass migrations driven by climate ('out of Africa'), political 1.8 disruption ('out of Asia Minor') and economic variables ('out of Europe', 'out of central America') have been a central historical feature since antiquity, but air travel for business and pleasure, sea travel for pleasure and for logistics, and mass travel during retirement after professional careers, either in small groups or large convoys ('The Grey Nomads') are new factors which can be discussed. New possibilities including health clubs (Cokley & Volcic 2009) as well as futuristic realms such as space tourism and space colonisation should also be included since embryonic communities now live for long periods in orbit and larger communities are being seriously planned by the European Space Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States iv . Media enterprises and especially journalism businesses are likely to play a part in these environments because 'news from home' is an aid to social cohesion and sustainability (Cokley et al 2005;Babidge et al 2005, Rankin & Cokley 2006.…”