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Stigmatizing images in the media - a cross-national survey

Version 2 2024-06-05, 01:01
Version 1 2018-10-05, 12:52
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-05, 01:01 authored by Kate SievertKate Sievert, T Lobstein, P Baker
Images accompanying articles on obesity in the media may contribute to a stigmatizing narrative of personal blame for the condition. We report a pilot study of online newspapers in 15 countries to determine the use of positive and negative imagery used to accompany articles on obesity. We undertook a visual content analysis of images accompanying articles on obesity from the top five newspapers of each country. We then ranked countries according to the ratio of positive to negative imagery used. A total of 195 images were analysed. The majority of images scored negatively (i.e. were likely to be stigmatizing). Media in Hong Kong, South Africa, Italy and Morocco had the highest prevalence of stigmatizing imagery, whereas Japan and New Zealand displayed the lowest. Public media in all the countries surveyed show stigmatizing imagery associated with obesity, but there was variability between countries. As the global prevalence of obesity rises and advocacy groups raise awareness of stigma, we hope for an improvement in the images used in the media.

Funding

Obesity stigma in news media | Funder: World Obesity Federation

History

Journal

Clinical obesity

Volume

8

Pagination

407-410

Location

England

ISSN

1758-8103

eISSN

1758-8111

Language

English

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2018, World Obesity Federation

Issue

6

Publisher

WILEY