Information and communication in society

UNLABELLED: In late modernity, the media is one of the most important social institutions in influencing people's knowledge, perceptions and actions. The media supply citizens with health-related messages and contribute thereby to their health development. The abundant flow of health-related messages, however, makes it difficult for the individual to separate good and reliable information from information of poor quality. The prevalence of overweight and obesity is rising each year in Sweden as well as in other countries. The future scenario is troublesome. The presented study deals with two questions: (1) How is overweight represented in the media? (2) What consequences do these representations have on public perceptions of overweight? A multidisciplinary approach has been chosen for the study. Theories and concepts are derived from four areas of research: consumption, bodily issues, risks and media & journalism. The aim was to describe, analyse and problematize how overweight is presented quantitatively and qualitatively in the media. The method used is content analysis. The study is limited to media content in Swedish daily newspapers, 1997-2001. In all, 1925 articles from four different papers have been analysed. CONCLUSION: The ideals of journalism are easy to accept but too often difficult to realize. Reporters as well as physicians and scientists must make more of an effort to communicate comprehensible and useful information about overweight and obesity to their audiences. Still we know little about the amount, the quality and the utility of health information in the media. There is a need for further research in this field if we want to understand what chances people have in making informed health-related decisions and how they make sense of and use the health information at their disposal.