Reproducing Scientific Discourse in Media Discourse Turning Obesity

Reproducing Scientific Discourse in Media Discourse: Turning Obesity Facts into Obesity Fiction Tara Coltman-Patel Nottingham Trent University tara. coltman-patel 2011@my. ntu. ac. uk

Data and Approach British National Newspapers Lexis. Library ‘Obese’ or ‘Obesity’ had to appear more than three times 1 st January 2006 – 31 st December 2016 16, 419 articles 9. 7 million words Corpus Driven Critical Discourse Analysis Wordsmith Keyword Collocations Concordance lines

Keywords Reference corpus – British National Corpus Rank Keyword Frequency 43 Researchers 4, 775 45 Experts 4, 994 47 Dr 7, 868 53 Professor 5, 285 66 Scientists 3, 948 67 Doctors 4, 201

Collocates 5 L, 5 R – ordered by frequency Keyword Collocates Researchers found (n= 862), said (n= 543), say (n= 409), according (n= 141), (n= 4, 775) Experts believe (n= 135) say (n= 789), said (n= 428), warned (n=274), believe (n= 233), (n= 4, 994) Dr warn (n= 227), claim (n= 75) (n= 7, 868) Professor (n= 5, 285) Scientists (n= 3, 948) Doctors said (n= 1, 538), says (n= 902) said (n= 891), says (n= 427) found (n= 425), say (n= 320), believe (n= 212), discovered (n= 191), said (n= 191), according (n= 91) said (n= 246), say (n= 188), warned (n= 148) (n= 4, 201) There a total of 24 collocate pairs and collectively, they appear 9, 886 times throughout the corpus. Collocate pairs alone carry ideological weight.

Analysing the Collocate Pairs in Context Quote/Paraphrase Topics Obesity Can Cause a Multitude of Deadly Diseases Total (n= 9, 886) 3, 300 (33. 4%) Approaches to Health (Centralising Weight Loss) Causes of Obesity (Personal Responsibility) Causes of Obesity (External Factors) Obesogenic Environment Prevalence Burden on Public Resources Approaches to Health (Weight-Inclusive) Sugar Can Cause Disease Pro Sugar Tax Stigma BMI Paradox Critiquing Government Strategies Obesity Paradox Obesity and Social Class Pro Unhealthy Food Tax Against Sugar Tax 2, 105 (21. 3%) 1, 270 (12. 8%) 813 (8. 2%) 471 (4. 8%) 415 (4. 2%) 411 (4. 2%) 340 (3. 4%) 252 (2. 5%) 142 (1. 4%) 132 (1. 3%) 65 (0. 7%) 58 (0. 6%) 55 (0. 6%) 45 (0. 5%) 10 (0. 1%) 2 (0. 02%) Ø This topic accounts for 3, 300 (33. 4%) of the concordance lines analysed. Ø Enforces the wider messages: Ø Obesity is detrimental to health. Ø Action and intervention is required.

Obesity can Cause a Multitude of Deadly Diseases Fat alert in cancer forecast. Cancer experts yesterday warned rising rates of obesity will lead to an extra 300 Scots a year being diagnosed with weightrelated cancer by 2010. - Daily Mirror, 5 th December 2006 Third of heart deaths blamed on being too fat. A third of heart disease deaths are caused simply by being overweight, researchers have found - The Daily Mail, 8 th December 2009 "A big concern we have is that the group of people most likely to die are the overweight who get type 2 diabetes, and sitting in the wings is a huge population of youngsters who are overweight and likely to get type 2 diabetes, " said Professor Weissberg. - The Guardian, 10 th May 2006

Obesity can Cause a Multitude of Deadly Diseases One in five cancer deaths is caused by obesity, which is on track to overtake smoking as the main cause of the disease, doctors say- The Times 30 th May 2015 "The obesity epidemic is generating a huge burden of disease and death. " Said Dr Aseem Malhotra. - The Guardian 10 th January 2014 Dr Martin said people getting fatter will lead to an increase in the number of cancer cases - The Daily Telegraph 21 st May 2007 Obesity is fuelling a British diabetes crisis, experts have warned. - The Daily Express 2 nd October 2012

Reviewing the Science Review of scientific, medical and nutritional research into weight and obesity revealed that messages given in the media are not congruent with and representative of the opinions and narratives in the scientific community. Issue 1: Consensus This media narrative of obesity, is, for some scientists and doctors perfectly acceptable. However, there are disagreements amongst experts. The nuance and complexity of obesity’s relationship with diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer is mitigated from the media narrative.

BMI as a measure of health is imprecise and it is steeped in white supremacy. Initially formulated by a statistician, notably not a physician, Adolph Quetelet, and later developed further by a physiologist, Ancel Keys (Eknoyan 2008; Gordon 2019). In his work, Quetelet aimed to identify the characteristics of the average man (Quetelet 1835; Eknoyan 2008). The average man to Quetelet, had particular weight to height ratio’s and represented, to him, a social ideal (Quetelet 1835). Quetelet derived his formula based solely on the size and measurements of English and Belgian participants, meaning BMI was developed exclusively by and for white Western Europeans (Quetelet 1835; Gordon 2019). Its inadequacy has been proven time and time again and because of this, there are scientists and researchers who reject papers that argue obesity causes disease, when BMI is one of the only measures used.

Table of Topics Quote/Paraphrase Topics Obesity Can Cause a Multitude of Deadly Diseases Total (n= 9, 886) 3, 300 (33. 4%) Approaches to Health (Weight. Normative) Causes of Obesity (Personal Responsibility) Causes of Obesity (External Factors) Obesogenic Environment Prevalence Burden on Public Resources Approaches to Health (Weight-Inclusive) Sugar Can Cause Disease Pro Sugar Tax Stigma BMI Paradox Critiquing Government Strategies Obesity Paradox Obesity and Social Class Pro Unhealthy Food Tax 2, 105 (21. 3%) 1, 270 (12. 8%) 813 (8. 2%) 471 (4. 8%) 415 (4. 2%) 411 (4. 2%) 340 (3. 4%) 252 (2. 5%) 142 (1. 4%) 132 (1. 3%) 65 (0. 7%) 58 (0. 6%) 55 (0. 6%) 45 (0. 5%) 10 (0. 1%)

Imbalance There is a lot of research in the field with results that show that positioning obesity as a cause for disease is simplistic at best (Kissebah et al. 1982, Charles et al. 1993, Sullivan 2010). Main tenet: Weight gain and obesity, among many other factors have been found to correlate with certain medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer (Wamala, Lynch and Hornston 1999; Raphael et al. 2003; Hiatt and Breen 2008) Other factors Race Age Socioeconomic status Social environment Stress Discrimination Weight cycling

Imbalance Studies have found that compared to BMI these social correlates have a greater impact on metabolic variables such as blood pressure, cholesterol, blood fat levels and insulin sensitivity. (Diaz, Mainous and Everett 2005; Bacon and Aphramor 2011). Obesity Paradox - challenges the belief that all people with obesity are unhealthy The discussions surrounding stigma were denouncing it. No mention of the proven health risks associated with it. The discussions surrounding obesity and social class were highlighting prevalence of obesity in poorer communities. No mention poverty being associated with many of the same diseases that obesity is blamed for. Quote/Paraphrase Topics Obesity Can Cause a Multitude of Deadly Diseases Total (n= 9, 886) 3, 300 (33. 4%) Approaches to Health (Weight. Normative) Causes of Obesity (Personal Responsibility) Causes of Obesity (External Factors) Obesogenic Environment Prevalence Burden on Public Resources Approaches to Health (Weight-Inclusive) Sugar Can Cause Disease Pro Sugar Tax Stigma BMI Paradox Critiquing Government Strategies Obesity Paradox Obesity and Social Class Pro Unhealthy Food Tax Against Sugar Tax 2, 105 (21. 3%) 1, 270 (12. 8%) 813 (8. 2%) 471 (4. 8%) 415 (4. 2%) 411 (4. 2%) 340 (3. 4%) 252 (2. 5%) 142 (1. 4%) 132 (1. 3%) 65 (0. 7%) 58 (0. 6%) 55 (0. 6%) 45 (0. 5%) 10 (0. 1%) 2 (0. 02%)

Sociological Impact The imbalance of opinions and facts uncovered in the results demonstrate misinformation, or at the very least misrepresentation. Misinformation and misrepresentation in science based news discourse is not a new phenomenon (Bell 1994; Holland et al. 2011; Eker et al. 2014; Brookes et al. 2018). The misinformation in this data is subtle. Most readers will not have the knowledge at hand to rebut or question any facts presented, leaving them vulnerable and more susceptible to misinformation. The issue of obesity and its relationship with health and disease is one which has multiple different narratives, yet the media predominantly only engage with one of them. The idea that there is broad scientific consensus regarding obesity being an undeniable cause of disease is fiction.

Sociological Impact Being of a higher weight subjects you to social condemnation. Weight bias is a pervasive but underestimated issue Systemic Intersects with other sociological variables Socially acceptable form of discrimination At present, ‘concern for health’ is used as a guise for and an excuse for discrimination. This is driven by the belief that obesity causes disease. This ‘concern’ can be expressed in various overt and more subtle ways. Regardless of the method, we as a society are emboldened to do this because of this pervasive message that obesity undeniably causes these diseases. In addition to being morally reprehensible, discrimination has adverse physiological impacts.

Thanks for listening!

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