Article: “Fat in the Fire? Science, the News Media, and the ‘Obesity Epidemic’.” Sociological Forum 23(1): 53-83.
Summary: Watch out for news reporting on weight gain and health crisis – you might be blaming yourself for recent weight gains more than you should. While the news media and medical science publications share much in their reports on obesity and health, news media dramatize the issue more, highlight our individual responsibilities more, and blame particularly the poor, racial minorities, and women more, Saguy and Almeling (Sociological Forum 2008) find. The exponential growths of reports on obesity and weight since 1980 are the same in both medical and news publications, but the news media have continued to beat the medical publication in the article counts since the mid-1990s. The expansion of media coverage and the preferred use of sensational words like “crisis” and “epidemic” might be flaring the issue of fat in the fire.
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The battery was low
on my remote control
Too late for the off switch,
feeling sleepy,
Dr. Pavlov flashed
potato chips
fried
in omega fish oil
on the screen
I ate two jumbo bags
4,000 calories(see graph)
counted down from 4,000
fell asleep
woke in the hospital
No remote control.
The ward TV
flashed “By-Pass
is best”
and I need
a battery
in the heart of me
(keep pace with the times)
All I ask is
where’s my trend mill
or is that pepper mill?