Physical activity in the mass media: an audience perspective.

Physical activity's role in promoting health is highlighted in public health campaigns, news and current affairs, reality television and other programs. An investigation of audience exposure, beliefs and reactions to media portrayals of physical activity offers insights into the salience and influence of this communication. An audience reception study was conducted involving in-depth interviews with 46 adults in New South Wales, Australia. The sample was stratified by gender, age group, area of residence and body mass index. Most respondents could only recall media coverage of physical activity with prompting. Television was the primary channel of exposure, with reality television the dominant source, followed by news programs and sports coverage. The messages most readily recalled were the health risks of inactivity, especially obesity, and the necessity of keeping active. Physical activity was regarded as a matter of personal volition, or for children, parental responsibility. Respondents believed that the media had given physical activity inadequate attention, focused too heavily on risks and not provided practical advice. In Australia, there is a need to counter the framing of physical activity by reality television, and engage the media to generate understanding of the socioecological determinants of inactivity. Physical activity campaigns should deliver positive and practical messages.

Reporting Physical Activity: Perceptions and Practices of Australian Media Professionals.

BACKGROUND: Advocacy informed by scientific evidence is necessary to influence policy and planning to address physical inactivity. The mass media is a key arena for this advocacy. This study investigated the perceptions and practices of news media professionals reporting physical activity and sedentariness to inform strategic communication about these issues. METHODS: We interviewed media professionals working for major television, radio, newspaper and online news outlets in Australia. The interviews explored understandings of physical activity and sedentariness, attributions of causality, assignment of responsibility, and factors affecting news reporting on these topics. Data were thematically analyzed using NVivo. RESULTS: Physical inactivity was recognized as pervasive and important, but tended to be seen as mundane and not newsworthy. Sedentariness was regarded as more novel than physical activity, and more likely to require organizational and environment action. Respondents identified that presenting these issues in visual and engaging ways was an ongoing challenge. CONCLUSIONS: Physical activity researchers and advocates need to take account of prevailing news values and media practices to improve engagement with the news media. These include understanding the importance of novelty, narratives, imagery, and practical messages, and how to use these to build support for environmental and policy action.

Mapping solutions to obesity: lessons from the Human Genome Project.

OBJECTIVE: To discuss appropriate endpoints for research designed to prevent obesity. Research investigating practical solutions to the complex multi-factorial global obesity epidemic may be stalled by undue emphasis on reduced body weight as the only acceptable endpoint. APPROACH: Considering prevention research in cardiovascular disease and tobacco control, we contend that investigations of intermediate endpoints make an important contribution to the multi-faceted approach needed to combat the complex problem of obesity. CONCLUSION: Intermediate endpoints are respected in other public health areas: reductions in risk factors such as high blood cholesterol or smoking are acceptable study endpoints for research aimed at reducing heart disease or lung cancer. Likewise, practical endpoints can be valuable in studies investigating interventions to reduce identified and potential intermediate risk factors for obesity, such as soft drink consumption. IMPLICATIONS: Reduced obesity is the global aim but obesity is not caused by one exposure and will not be solved by a single modality intervention. A wider debate about endpoint selection may assist research which identifies individual building blocks of obesity prevention in the same way as individual gene mapping contributed to the Human Genome Project.

Choice and voice: obesity debates in television news.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether television news and current affairs coverage of overweight and obesity frames obesity in ways that support or oppose efforts to combat obesity. DESIGN AND SETTING: A content and framing analysis of a structured sample of 50 television news and current affairs items about overweight and obesity broadcast by five free-to-air television channels in New South Wales between 2 May and 31 October 2005. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Dominant discourses about causes of overweight and obesity; proposed solutions and location of responsibility for the problem; the age-group focus of television items; the relative prominence of stakeholders; and the aspects of obesity which attract news attention. RESULTS: Most television items (72%) framed obesity as a problem of poor nutrition. Obesity was largely seen as the responsibility of individuals (66% of items). Just over half of news items (52%) focused only on adults while 26% focused only on children. Obesity was framed largely as a problem to be solved by individual nutritional changes, exercise and surgical and medical interventions. CONCLUSIONS: While individual lifestyle is crucial to controlling weight, the research community now recognises the importance of sociocultural and environmental factors as drivers of the obesity epidemic. However, television news portrays obesity largely as an individual problem with individual solutions centred mostly on nutrition. Media emphasis on personal responsibility and diet may detract attention from the sociopolitical and structural changes needed to tackle overweight and obesity at a population level.