Obesity in the News
Language and Representation in the Press

How do newspapers use language to represent obesity, and how does this language potentially shame and stigmatise people with obesity?

Gavin Brookes (Author), Paul Baker (Author)

9781108836395, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 November 2021

292 pages
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.8 cm, 0.53 kg

Obesity is a pressing social issue and a persistently newsworthy topic for the media. This book examines the linguistic representation of obesity in the British press. It combines techniques from corpus linguistics with critical discourse studies to analyse a large corpus of newspaper articles (36 million words) representing ten years of obesity coverage. These articles are studied from a range of methodological perspectives, and analytical themes include variation between newspapers, change over time, diet and exercise, gender and social class. The volume also investigates the language that readers use when responding to obesity representations in the context of online comments. The authors reveal the power of linguistic choices to shame and stigmatise people with obesity, presenting them as irresponsible and morally deviant. Yet the analysis also demonstrates the potential for alternative representations which place greater focus on the role that social and political forces play in this topical health issue.

1. Introduction
2. The way in – shared keywords in the press
3. Studying difference – comparing sections of the press
4. Change over time
5. Shaming and reclaiming
6. Healthy body – diet and exercise
7. General discourses of obesity
8. 'A disease of the poor'? – obesity and social class
9. Going 'below the line' – reader responses
10. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Sociology [JHB], Media studies [JFD], Cultural studies [JFC], Linguistics [CF], Language [C]