scholarly journals Regulating the Fast-Food Landscape: Canadian News Media Representation of the Healthy Menu Choices Act

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (24) ◽  
pp. 4939 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elnaz Moghimi ◽  
Mary E Wiktorowicz
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Food Choice ◽  
Fast Food ◽  
Structural Determinants ◽  
Menu Choice ◽  
Fast Food Consumption ◽  
Term Change ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Individual

With the rapid rise of fast food consumption in Canada, Ontario was the first province to legislate menu labelling requirements via the enactment of the Healthy Menu Choice Act (HMCA). As the news media plays a significant role in policy debates and the agenda for policymakers and the public, the purpose of this mixed-methods study was to clarify the manner in which the news media portrayed the strengths and critiques of the Act, and its impact on members of the community, including consumers and stakeholders. Drawing on data from Canadian regional and national news outlets, the major findings highlight that, although the media reported that the HMCA was a positive step forward, this was tempered by critiques concerning the ineffectiveness of using caloric labelling as the sole measure of health, and its predicted low impact on changing consumption patterns on its own. Furthermore, the news media were found to focus accountability for healthier eating choices largely on the individual, with very little consideration of the role of the food industry or the social and structural determinants that affect food choice. A strong conflation of health, weight and calories was apparent, with little acknowledgement of the implications of menu choice for chronic illness. The analysis demonstrates that the complex factors associated with food choice were largely unrecognized by the media, including the limited extent to which social, cultural, political and corporate determinants of unhealthy choices were taken into account as the legislation was developed. Greater recognition of these factors by the media concerning the HMCA may evoke more meaningful and long-term change for health and food choices.

From ‘filth’ and ‘insanity’ to ‘peaceful moral watchdogs’: Police, news media, and the gang label

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Travis Linnemann ◽  
Bill McClanahan
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Politics ◽  
News Media ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Threat Assessment ◽  
Straight Edge ◽  
Police Power ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Relationship

This paper engages the cultural politics of criminal classifications by aiming at one of the state’s most powerful, yet ambiguous markers—the ‘gang.’ Focusing on the unique cases of ‘crews’ and collectives within the ‘straight edge’ and ‘Juggalo’ subcultures, this paper considers what leads members of the media and police to construct—or fail to construct—these street collectives as gangs in a seemingly haphazard and disparate fashion. Juxtaposing media, cultural, and police representations of straight edge ‘crews’ and Juggalo collectives with the FBI’s Gang Threat Assessment, we detail how cultural politics and ideology underpin the social reality of gangs and thus the application of the police power. This paper, furthermore, considers critical conceptualizations of the relationship between police and criminal gangs.

The Gatekeeping of iNews.id about News on Worship in Mosques Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic

MEDIASI ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-107
Author(s):  
Shania Shaufa ◽  
Thalitha Sacharissa Rosyidiani
Keyword(s):  
Production Process ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
System Level ◽  
Organizational Level ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Individual

This article explains about online media iNews.id in implementing gatekeeping function. This study aims to find out how gatekeeping efforts iNews.id in the production process on the issue of preaching restrictions on worship in mosques during Ramadan in 2020. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the current media situation, especially in the midst of a crisis, encourages the public to become heavily dependent on media coverage. With a qualitative approach, researchers analyzed five levels of influence on the gatekeeping process in online media iNews.id. The results of this study show that factors that influence the way iNews.id in the production process of preaching restrictions on worship in mosques due to the Covid-19 pandemic are the individual level of media workers, the level of media routine, the organizational level, the extramedia level, and the social system level. The conclusions of this study state the most dominant levels is the organization level and the media routine level in the iNews.id.

Issue Salience and Political Decisions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Moniz ◽  
Christopher Wlezien
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Issue Salience ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Political Decisions

Salience refers to the extent to which people cognitively and behaviorally engage with a political issue (or other object), although it has meant different things to different scholars studying different phenomena. The word originally was used in the social sciences to refer to the importance of political issues to individuals’ vote choice. It also has been used to designate attention being paid to issues by policy makers and the news media, yet it can pertain to voters as well. Thus, salience sometimes refers to importance and other times to attention—two related but distinct concepts—and is applied to different actors. The large and growing body of research on the subject has produced real knowledge about policies and policy, but the understanding is limited in several ways. First, the conceptualization of salience is not always clear, which is of obvious relevance to theorizing and limits assessment of how (even whether) research builds on and extends existing literature. Second, the match between conceptualization and measurement is not always clear, which is of consequence for analysis and impacts the contribution research makes. Third, partly by implication, but also because the connections between research in different areas—the public, the media, and policy—are not always clear, the consequences of salience for representative democracy remain unsettled.

scholarly journals Addiction and Recovery: Perceptions among Professionals in the Swedish Treatment System

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 51-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Samuelsson ◽  
Jan Blomqvist ◽  
Irja Christophs
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Treatment System ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
Hard Drugs ◽  
Professional Treatment ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Societal Problems ◽  
Addiction Care

Aims The objective of the study was to explore perceptions of different addictions among Swedish addiction care personnel. Data A survey was conducted with 655 addiction care professionals in the social services, health care and criminal care in Stockholm County. Respondents were asked to rate the severity of nine addictions as societal problems, the individual risk to getting addicted, the possibilities for self-change and the perceived significance of professional treatment in finding a solution. Results The images of addiction proved to vary greatly according to its object. At one end of the spectrum were addictions to hard drugs, which were judged to be very dangerous to society, highly addictive and very hard to quit. At the other end of the spectrum were smoking and snuff use, which were seen more as bad habits than real addictions. Some consistent differences were detected between respondents from different parts of the treatment system. The most obvious was a somewhat greater belief in self-change among social services personnel, a greater overall change pessimism among professionals in the criminal care system and a somewhat higher risk perception and stronger emphasis on the necessity of treatment among medical staff. Conclusion Professionals' views in this area largely coincide with the official governing images displayed in the media, and with lay peoples' convictions.

scholarly journals Mirror, Mirror, Help Me Like My Body

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara B. Oswalt ◽  
Tammy J. Wyatt
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Media Campaign ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
University Campus ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Promotion Strategy ◽  
Marketing Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Individual

Body image is a concern for many individuals but especially for women. Few body image interventions focus beyond the individual and attempt to reach a larger population. A media campaign was developed using the Social Marketing Model and implemented on a university campus to help women recognize conversations and ideas that reinforce negative body image concepts. Details about the development and implementation of the media campaign are reviewed. Follow-up assessment revealed that almost 60% (n = 194) of women surveyed saw the materials. Many responded favorably to the campaign’s impact. Buscards were viewed most frequently, indicating a potential promotion strategy for future health campaigns. Implications for future interventions and recommendations for practitioners are discussed.

scholarly journals Media and Information Technology in Ten Years’ Time: A Society of Control Both from Above and Below, and From Outside and Inside

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg Becker
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Class Struggle ◽  
Top Down ◽  
The Social ◽  
External Conditions ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Society Of Control

In the process of continual change from the hand axe to the factory and now to industrial production 4.0, technology has had, and still has, two basically invariable functions: control and rationalisation. Each of these two terms is to be understood in a very comprehensive sense, in technical, engineering, commercial, legal and also social terms. This tenet also applies to television and to information technology. In my lecture, the terms “above” and “below” stand for a model of social stratification; they stand for capital and labour. The terms “outside” and “inside” stand for the external conditions of the class struggle from “above” and “below”. The external conditions mean the social and the inside conditions mean the psychological environment. Both television and information technology rely on content and organisational forms that run from above to below (from top to bottom). Moreover, contrary to Gutenberg’s invention of moving letters, today innovations in the media and IT fields no longer run from the bottom up, but only from the top down. While television conditions the individual from outside, users of social media internalise that same conditioning as a liberation from constraints.

scholarly journals The Global Trust Deficit Disorder: A Communications Perspective on Trust in the Time of Global Pandemics

2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-186
Author(s):  
Terry Flew
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
News Media ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Institutions ◽  
The Media ◽  
Micro Level

Abstract There has been much discussion worldwide about the crisis of trust, with evidence of declining trust in social, economic, political and media institutions. The rise of populism, and the differing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic between nations, has been drawing attention to wider implications of pervasive distrust, including distrust of the media. In this article, I develop three propositions. First, I identify trust studies as a rich interdisciplinary field, linking communication to other branches of the social sciences and humanities. Second, I argue that we lack a comprehensive account of how trust has been understood in communication, and that doing so requires integrating macro-societal approaches with the “meso” level of institutions, and the “micro” level of interpersonal communication. Third, I propose that a focus upon trust would open up new perspectives on two important topics—the future of news media and journalism, and the global rise of populism.

Agendamelding and out-group derogation

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-144
Author(s):  
Jeffrey K. Riley ◽  
Holly S. Cowart
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Group Formation ◽  
News Article ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
News Sources ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
The Media

Abstract This study is a mixed-method quantitative and qualitative content analysis that examined the overlapping presence of agendamelding theory and in-group out-group formation on the social media platform Reddit. The study looked at the top 10 posts for one month (n = 310) on the pro-Donald Trump subreddit /r/The_Donald. The results show that media choice was used to prove membership to the in-group, often by derogating the media used by the out-group. Specific patterns emerged within the derogative language as well. Links to left-wing and neutral news media sites were often commented on and criticized, while the content of the linked news article was ignored or changed. Right-wing news media sites, which were used as news sources rather than commentary, were typically posted without changes, unlike neutral news media sites, which were often posted in a mocking manner. As agendamelding suggests, participants sought to avoid dissonance by posting media to fit within the community.

When it is Us Too? How Russian and Japanese media framed sexual harassment towards their journalists

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-221
Author(s):  
Kateryna Kasianenko
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
News Media ◽  
Positive Development ◽  
Media Industry ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Individual Aspect ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Individual

This study analyses articles of three Russian and four Japanese newspapers covering the cases of journalists facing sexual harassment from their news sources. It aims to assess the ability of the news media of the two countries to expand the coverage of these cases to a larger debate on the position of women through framing analysis of 431 articles. The study reveals that most of the examined articles emphasized the individual aspect of sexual harassment, confining the understanding of sexual harassment to the private sphere. In both countries, work culture of government organizations was linked to the issue of sexual harassment while reflections on the institutional context of media industry were minimal. In Russia, representation of the issue as a conflict between the media and the government was prominent. This was reflected in the unprecedented boycott of the State Duma by Russian journalists. In Japan, the establishment of an informal network of women working in the media industry was a positive development. However, overall findings suggest that the newspapers’ potential to become a forum where the problem of sexual harassment could be debated in relation to broader issues, was not realized to its fullest.

“We’re not magicians!” On the use of rhetorical resources in Swedish news media narratives portraying the social services and social workers

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Blomberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Image ◽  
Problematic Situation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
Legal Security ◽  
Media Narratives

This article focuses on how the Swedish news media depicts the functioning of the social services and the situation of social workers. The empirical material consists of 586 articles published online during the years 2010–2015. A discursive approach makes up the theoretical and methodological framework. The aims of the article are to identify and categorise media narratives about social services and social workers, how they are portrayed, what is conveyed and how the stakeholders’ (politicians, managers and social workers) negotiate the question of responsibility for the situation in the social services. The study identifies and categorises seven different types of media narrative. In these narratives, social workers are portrayed in various ways, such as unwilling to stay in the profession, concerned, hardworking, etc. Reports on the crisis in the social services tend to dominate, e.g. how the social services fail to follow-up cases of child abuse, social workers’ heavy workload and that legal security cannot be guaranteed. Stakeholders, faced with reported criticism, maintain credibility by taking some responsibility and/or displacing liability by using various rhetorical resources. The media produces a public image of the lack of responsibility for solving the problematic situation. In this respect, the take-action-narratives are central to the debate, which argues for joint action to be taken to find solutions. Although the media is a powerful and scrutinising tool, it also needs to report on the improvements that have been made in order to give a more balanced picture of the social services.

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