Obesity in the media: social science weighs in

Abstract

Obesity has become a mainstay of media in all its forms and sociologists and others have increasingly sought to understand what reporting on obesity can tell us about the construction of social problems, health, and health policy. In this commentary, I review recent social science writing on the representation of obesity in the media. I explore three dominant themes in this research, the framing of obesity in the media, media reporting of obesity research, and media characterizations of and reporting on obesity policy. I highlight the strengths of these studies and conclude with suggestions for further avenues of research.