TY - JOUR
T1 - Media, ‘Fat Panic’ and Public Pedagogy
T2 - Mapping Contested Terrain
AU - Monaghan, Lee F.
AU - Rich, Emma
AU - Bombak, Andrea E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2019/1
Y1 - 2019/1
N2 - Discourses regarding a ‘global obesity crisis’ and alternative frames (e.g. weight-inclusive approaches to health) have proliferated through various media of communication. These media range from traditional print and visual formats (e.g. newspapers and television shows) to digital media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube), which enable different publics to produce, and not just consume, text, images and other data relating to the body. Reflecting a sociological understanding of educational practices as extending beyond formal schooling, mediated obesity discourse and counter-movements have also been conceptualised as public pedagogies, which instruct people how to relate to their own and other's bodies, health and subjectivities. This article examines what is critically known about various media at a time when governments and agencies are reinvigorating the global war on obesity, with populations being ‘advised’ to become and remain conscientious weight watchers. In conclusion, the article underscores the salience of social studies of the media when seeking to rethink obesity, incorporating critical reference to moral panic theory and the need to better understand what media can ‘do’ as enactments of public pedagogy.
AB - Discourses regarding a ‘global obesity crisis’ and alternative frames (e.g. weight-inclusive approaches to health) have proliferated through various media of communication. These media range from traditional print and visual formats (e.g. newspapers and television shows) to digital media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube), which enable different publics to produce, and not just consume, text, images and other data relating to the body. Reflecting a sociological understanding of educational practices as extending beyond formal schooling, mediated obesity discourse and counter-movements have also been conceptualised as public pedagogies, which instruct people how to relate to their own and other's bodies, health and subjectivities. This article examines what is critically known about various media at a time when governments and agencies are reinvigorating the global war on obesity, with populations being ‘advised’ to become and remain conscientious weight watchers. In conclusion, the article underscores the salience of social studies of the media when seeking to rethink obesity, incorporating critical reference to moral panic theory and the need to better understand what media can ‘do’ as enactments of public pedagogy.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058713113&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/soc4.12651
DO - 10.1111/soc4.12651
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85058713113
SN - 1751-9020
VL - 13
SP - -
JO - Sociology Compass
JF - Sociology Compass
IS - 1
M1 - e12651
ER -