The portrayal of food marketing policy by Canadian news media

Unhealthy food marketing influences children’s food preferences, intake and rates of obesity. Currently, there is no mandatory national food marketing policy that restricts food marketing to youth in Canada. Little is known about the effects news media may have on the policy process with regard to food marketing. This study aimed to investigate how the Canadian media portrays the issue of food marketing policy, what perspectives are being framed, and who is being quoted. An article search of Canadian news sources on the databases Eureka and Factiva was conducted for the period 1 November 2015 and 1 November 2021. Sixty-five unique news articles on food marketing regulation were identified and a content analysis of each was conducted. The majority of news articles on food marketing regulation framed the topic around health (e.g. obesity, poor dietary intake) and lack of regulation. Food marketing regulation was identified as a solution to the problem in nearly all articles analyzed and was presented positively in 64.6% of articles. Few harms of marketing regulation were identified, while the two main benefits observed were reduced child obesity rates and exposure to food marketing. This study emphasizes the agenda-setting role of news media that were supportive of promoting public health goals. The Canadian media positively promotes government regulation of unhealthy food marketing.