1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910760278003321

Autore

Coltman-Patel Tara

Titolo

(Mis)Representing Weight and Obesity in the British Press : Fear, Divisiveness, Shame and Stigma / / by Tara Coltman-Patel

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2023

ISBN

9783031448546

3031448545

Edizione

[1st ed. 2023.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (222 pages)

Disciplina

616.398

Soggetti

Linguistics - Methodology

Human body - Social aspects

Journalism

Health

Sex

Knowledge, Sociology of

Sociolinguistics

Research Methods in Language and Linguistics

Sociology of the Body

News Journalism

Gender and Health

Sociology of Knowledge and Discourse

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Introduction: Weight Stigma, News Media and This Research -- 2. Fear: Expert Voices and the (Mis)Representation of Science and Health -- 3. Divisiveness: The Metaphorical Conceptualisation of Obesity -- 4. Shame: Challenging Linguistic Strategies of Representation -- 5. Conclusion .

Sommario/riassunto

This book is a linguistic analysis of the British obesity media narrative, analysing a large corpus of published newspaper articles to demonstrate how the language used perpetuates common misconceptions and stereotypes about weight and obesity, and then



exploring the sociological effects of these widespread conceptualisations. Weight stigma and weight bias are misunderstood issues, and often underestimated in terms of their prevalence and effect by society at large. The author examines topics including the role of power and persuasion, the use of metaphor, the personal stories of members of the general public, and the gendered real-life consequences of arbitrary weight standards to provide a linguistic driven study of obesity in news media. Obesity is an issue which sits at the intersection of science and the humanities, and as such, although the research methods used are firmly situated within the field of Linguistics, this book will also be ofinterest to readers from fields as diverse as Sociology, Fat Studies, Media Studies, Medicine and Psychology. Tara Coltman-Patel is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University, UK. .