Concerns, culprits, counsel, and conflict: A thematic analysis of “obesity” and fat discourse in digital news media

Cain, Patricia A.; Donaghue, Ngaire; Ditchburn, Graeme

doi:10.1080/21604851.2017.1244418

Cited by 29 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Specifically, as it relates to health, fat bodies are reframed as a burden on an overworked healthcare system due to poor personal consumption choices. Cain, Donaghue and Ditchburn (2017) clearly identified this pattern in traditional news media. These 'irresponsible individuals' demonstrate the "enmeshment of obesity discourse within the broader cultural logics of neoliberalism, and the difficulty of thinking outside individualistic frames of meaning and accountability" (Cain et al, 2017).…”

Section: Neoliberal Construction Of Fatnessmentioning

confidence: 79%

The Commodification of Body Positivity: Constructing a Neoliberal Fat Citizenship

Downey¹

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

From inspirational messages to celebrated pictures of cellulite and belly rolls, body positive content has become increasingly popular on social media platforms, particularly on image-based networking sites. With the rapid growth of communication technology, it is not surprising that social networking sites, such as Instagram, have become one of the most dominant and influential mediates to cultivating awareness, foster community, and advocate for social change. Instagram’s transition to an advertising platform, however, has introduced a consumerist structure to user activity for corporations to better direct advertisements at target audiences. A once social movement advocating for the rejection of thin beauty ideals in favour of a more inclusive and positive conception of body image has felt the impact of commoditization on its message and advocates. Through Foucauldian Discourse Analysis, this research study seeks to analyze the impact of Instagram’s transition to a commercialization platform on the self-representation of body positive advocates to better understand the influence of neoliberal and capitalist structures on social resistance movements and strategies.

show abstract

Section: Neoliberal Construction Of Fatnessmentioning

confidence: 79%

The Commodification of Body Positivity: Constructing a Neoliberal Fat Citizenship

Downey¹

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, although this may indicate some progress has been made, research suggests that such viral outrage may have paradoxical effects, creating sympathy for the transgressor (Sawaoka & Monin, 2018). Indeed, content analysis of articles about fatness and/or obesity on five major news aggregators, and the comments that followed them, indicated an extreme and sometimes vitriolic resistance against body acceptance messages, from both authors and public commentators (Cain, Donaghue, & Ditchburn, 2017). Further, many writers decrying the shaming of higher-weight individuals nevertheless position weight as problematic and individuals with higher weights as 'sufferers' in need of compassion and assistance (Cain et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fat acceptance 101: Midwestern American women’s perspective on cultural body acceptance

Bombak

Meadows

Billette

2019

Health Sociology Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Weight stigma is pervasive in the US, with body size being pathologised and weight loss urged for those of higher weights. However, there is a growing movement for fat acceptance and body positivity. The present study explored perceptions and experiences of cultural body acceptance trends among Midwestern American women who are trying to, or have tried to, "accept" their bodies. Participants (n=18) are self-identified women who have ever been labelled 'obese' on the Body Mass Index and have ever tried to develop a more positive relationship with their bodies.Participants were interviewed three times over the course of approximately one year using a semi-structured interview guide that explored their perceptions of how society represented and treated those of a higher weight. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim, and interviews and field-notes analysed thematically. Emergent themes included: greater (mixed) representation, lip service, and inclusive cultures. Ultimately, participants positioned shifting attitudes towards fat bodies within wider social trends toward greater inclusion and diversity in general, but remained frustrated by ceilings of acceptable size, disingenuous messaging, and cultural backsliding.

show abstract

“…In her analysis, Hass suggests that digital media ‘also offers increasing room to stories that contradict the more officially sanctioned trajectories, creating affective spaces that both continue the intimacy between viewer and performer and transform it into potentially even more interactive forms such as direct exchanges in comment threads on Facebook’ (p. 149). Elsewhere, Cain et al (: 184), in their study of digital news media, also reveal that ‘attempts to disrupt the dominant anti‐ “obesity” rhetoric are indeed making their way into the public discourse, albeit primarily through the more informal channels afforded by comments sections of digital media’.…”

Section: Digital Media Public Pedagogies and The Obesity Epidemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Boero, 2013;Saguy, 2013), including digital media (e.g. Cain, Donaghue, & Ditchburn, 2017;Lupton, 2017). Insights include the constitutive role of media in dramatising and amplifying the putative ills of 'excess' weight/fatness, the moralisation of health and how such practices reproduce prejudice which, in turn, shapes attitudes to health risk and policy (Saguy, Frederick, & Gruys, 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Media, ‘Fat Panic’ and Public Pedagogy: Mapping Contested Terrain

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Discourses regarding a ‘global obesity crisis’ and alternative frames (e.g. weight‐inclusive approaches to health) have proliferated through various media of communication. These media range from traditional print and visual formats (e.g. newspapers and television shows) to digital media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube), which enable different publics to produce, and not just consume, text, images and other data relating to the body. Reflecting a sociological understanding of educational practices as extending beyond formal schooling, mediated obesity discourse and counter‐movements have also been conceptualised as public pedagogies, which instruct people how to relate to their own and other's bodies, health and subjectivities. This article examines what is critically known about various media at a time when governments and agencies are reinvigorating the global war on obesity, with populations being ‘advised’ to become and remain conscientious weight watchers. In conclusion, the article underscores the salience of social studies of the media when seeking to rethink obesity, incorporating critical reference to moral panic theory and the need to better understand what media can ‘do’ as enactments of public pedagogy.

show abstract

Concerns, culprits, counsel, and conflict: A thematic analysis of “obesity” and fat discourse in digital news media

Cited by 29 publications

References 32 publications

The Commodification of Body Positivity: Constructing a Neoliberal Fat Citizenship

The Commodification of Body Positivity: Constructing a Neoliberal Fat Citizenship

Fat acceptance 101: Midwestern American women’s perspective on cultural body acceptance

Media, ‘Fat Panic’ and Public Pedagogy: Mapping Contested Terrain

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About