Television and Health
Mass Media and its Effect on the Obesity Epidemic
My family members are the most important people in the world to me. They would do anything to protect my well being, and I would like to say that I would do the same. Unfortunately, for as long as I can remember, some of my closest family members including cousins, aunts, and nephews have been overweight. They have always been influenced by the mass media including, but not limited to, posters, magazines online advertisements, internet, and, especially, television. Consequently, I have noticed that food advertisements are usually promoting surgery and fattening foods. My observations raised various questions about the mass media and its influence on obesity. How does the mass media influence the obesity epidemic?
As I began to research my topic, I found numerous articles discussing the negative influences that television has on the health of children, but one article from the American Academy of Pediatrics, titled “Children, Adolescents, Obesity, and the Media,” stood out to me. As indicated by the title, the article, by medical doctor Victor C. Strasburger, discusses the negative contributes that media, specifically television, has on childhood and adolescent obesity. Strasburger first introduces a variety of longitude studies depicting the positive correlation of television viewing and the risk of becoming obese or overweight in order to stress the negative effects of childhood and adolescent screen time. For example, Strasburger addressed a 30-year study completed in the United Kingdom; the study found that for every additional hour of television viewing on the weekend at the age of five, the risk of adult obesity increases by seven percent. Watching television impedes with physical activity and active lifestyles in general. These furthered my concern of the mass media and it’s negative impacts on individual and community health. Furthermore, Strasburger addresses the influence that media has on diet. Strasburger and the researchers that Strasburger mentioned in his article concluded that media encourages children to begin or maintain an unhealthy diet. Strasburger states that watching television while eating “suppresses cues of satiety, which leads to overeating” (Strasburger par. 7). In other words, watching television while eating unconsciously causes the viewer to eat more than expected, planned, and needed. Strasburger includes these statistics to further his argument that media contributes to a decrease in health and general wellbeing. After reading this article, my concern of the negative effects that mass media has on ending the obesity crisis significantly increased, but I wanted to find a point of view from other citizens who were not experts on the topic.
While Strasburger’s article focused on how the media affects children, he did not include any information from the perspective of children; this observation led me to my next article, from the Journal of Obesity, titled “Barriers to Lose Weight From the Perspective of Children with Overweight/Obesity and Their Parents: A Sociocultural Approach.” The authors of the article, including Anna Lilia Rodríguez-Ventura, Ingris Pelaex-Ballestas, and company, conducted a series of discussions for parents and children due to the lack of studies pertaining to barriers of losing weight from a child’s point of view. The discussions aimed to uncover the perception of health barriers from those directly impacted by the issue. Many parents apart of the study reported a difficulty in managing a healthy diet for their children. These parents stressed the need for assistance from schools and the mass media in regard to their child’s health, specifically, eating habits and physical activity. The authors continued this discussion by expressing the significant influence that media, especially television, has on behavior. The participants suggested “support from TV and Mass Media to Discriminate Information and Regulate Publicity of Junk Food” (Rodríguez-Ventura et al. Par. 9). In other words, many of the participants, parents and children apart of the study, believe that the media should assist in educating viewers on consequences and benefits of particular eating habits. The authors of this article would agree with Strasburger’s opinion regarding the influence that mass media has on children today; it encourages unhealthy eating habits. The two articles emphasize the strong influence of media on behaviors regarding health, especially within children.
The next article I came across provided a very different position to the relationship of media and obesity. The Sage Journals article titled, ‘“I see her being obesed:’ Public pedagogy, reality media and the obesity crisis” was written by Emma Rich, a doctor and lecturer at Southborough University, UK. Similar to the previous articles, Rich mainly focuses on television and it’s effect on the obesity epidemic. Specifically, Rich’s article discusses the recent evolution of “reality based media focusing on the body, diet, and exercise” (Rich Par. 1). Rich views numerous reality television shows as pedagogical programs that help to decrease the obesity crisis, in fact Rich affirms “mass media now constitute one of the most important sources of information about health and medicine” (Rich Par. 4). She emphasizes the importance of mass media in improving one’s wellbeing and learning more about specific medical topics. While in the article, “Barriers to Lose Weight from the Perspective of children with Overweight/ Obesity and their parents: A Sociocultural experiment,” parents stressed the need for mass media to educate viewers on healthy eating behaviors, Rich’s provides an example of how the mass media is already motivating people to lose weight. Rich would disagree with the authors from the previous articles in regards to the type of influence that mass media has on health. Her article addresses the positive correlation of mass media and health benefits while authors from the previous articles point out a negative correlation of the same components. Rich believes that the mass media not only motivates, but also causes individuals to live healthier lifestyles. Her argument is based on the various beneficial factors that mass media offers, most in which I have not addressed or thought about before. While I was still wary about the overall mass media influence, Rich’s article provided a unique viewpoint on the issue challenged my developed opinion.
I later found an article supporting Rich’s views on the relationship of media and obesity. This article, from Oxford Journals is titled “Using the mass-media to target obesity: an analysis of the characteristics and reported behavior change of participants in the BBC’s ‘Fighting Fat, Fighting Fit’ campaign.” The head author, J Wardle, and supporting authors addressed a study observing the behaviors of participants of the campaign, ‘Fighting Fat, Fighting Fit (FFFF).’ FFFF, launched by the British Broadcasting Corporation, was a mass media campaign aimed to improve eating habits and increase physical activity. Wardle claims that, “mass media has an important role to play in reducing obesity, through promoting healthy diets and exercise.” In other words, Wardle believes the mass media has a significant responsibility in influencing a healthy lifestyle. Similar to the opinions made in the article by Rodríguez-Ventura et al., Wardle emphasizes the need for mass media to serve as a learning source for living a healthier life. Both articles highlight the power of mass media and the ways in which it can serve as an educational platform. While Strasburger, author of “Children, Adolescents, Obesity, and the Media,” concludes that mass media discourages a healthy lifestyle, Wardle argues that mass media actually motivates adults to make healthier decisions. Although Wardle focuses on mass media campaigns and Rich focuses on certain reality television programs, both authors highlight the benefits of mass media to fighting the obesity epidemic and increasing community health. The two authors would most likely agree that mass media is a beneficial contributor to promoting a healthy lifestyle. After reading Wardle’s article, my awareness of the benefits of mass media greatly increased. I admit that the mass media contains more benefits to health than I previously believed, but I still was not convinced that the benefits of mass media overweighed the consequences when discussing to health.
The finale article that I evaluated is from the Wiley Online Library website titled “Fat in the Fire? Science, the News Media, and the ‘Obesity Epidemic.’” This article provided a completely different perspective on the relationship of mass media and obesity than any of the previous articles discussed. Instead of directly relating the mass media to a positive or negative influence of obesity and health in general, the authors of this article, Abigail C. Saguy, a professor at the University of California, and Rene Almeling, an assistant professor at Yale University, focused on the ways in which obesity is framed in the media. Saguy and Almeling addressed the role of mass media platforms, such as news reporting, and its methods in shaping the issue of obesity. Their article examines how media reporting relates to scientific examining when it comes to the obesity epidemic. The authors highlight the fact that “journalists are more likely to report on articles that lend themselves to dramatization than on those that do not” (Saguy and Almeling Par. 57). While obesity is a very serious issue, the general population is usually only introduced to the most shocking statistics and scientific findings. Saguy and Almeling would probably view information and examples from the other articles as selective reporting as the media tends to report on the heaviest and most alarming issues.
After reviewing the different perspectives from each article, I have developed a more clear and concise opinion of the issue of mass media influence on obesity. While my prior opinion was very one-sided, now that I am more informed on the issue, my opinion has changed. The articles by Strasburger and Rodríguez-Ventura supported my opinion on the negative effects of mass media. It is clear that certain mass media platforms, such as television, can increase the rate of obesity. However, the next two articles provided a different perspective that altered my opinion. The articles presented benefits that mass media platforms, such as online campaigns and even television has on fighting the obesity epidemic. Both articles contained effective examples supporting their argument. After reading these two articles, I concluded that mass media can have both a positive and negative effect on community health and the obesity epidemic. The finale article, “Fat in the Fire? Science, the News Media, and the ‘Obesity Epidemic,”’ offered a new perspective on the relationship of the mass media and obesity. This article explained how the media reports on obesity affects the issue. This article helped me to finally come to a clear and concise decision. Although each article contains heavy information supporting the authors’ views, I have concluded that the evidence showing how mass media affects obesity in a negative form far out weights the benefits of mass media.