Reho Matteo, Campedelli Virginia, Veneziani Giorgio, Luciani Federica, Langella Alfonso, Lai Carlo
Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Obes Facts. 2025 Apr 10:1-16. doi: 10.1159/000542544.
A large body of literature has shown that media representations of obesity influence people's attitudes and contribute to weight stigma and discriminatory behaviors. The present study aimed to identify the representations of obesity in nine main Italian national newspapers and analyze how these representations varied before and after the COVID-19 lockdown (2016-2023), also in relation to the political orientation of the newspapers.
The Automated Co-occurrence Analysis for Semantic Mapping procedure (ACASM) was used to identify the themes. A t test and time series analysis were conducted to test the hypotheses.
Findings showed that the selected Italian newspapers represented obesity according to five different themes labeled Wellness, Problem, Health, Nutrition, and Disease. It was found that the articles related to obesity increased after the lockdown. The Wellness and Health themes were found to be the more prevalent after the end of the emergency period. This result differed according to the newspapers' political orientation.
The findings suggest considering the representations that specific newspapers convey according to their political orientation in order to promote different narratives that could have a relevant impact on obesity.
大量文献表明，媒体对肥胖的呈现会影响人们的态度，并助长体重歧视和歧视行为。本研究旨在确定意大利九家主要全国性报纸中对肥胖的呈现方式，并分析这些呈现在新冠疫情封锁前后（2016 - 2023年）如何变化，同时也分析与报纸政治倾向的关系。
使用语义映射自动共现分析程序（ACASM）来确定主题。进行t检验和时间序列分析以检验假设。
研究结果表明，所选的意大利报纸根据五个不同主题呈现肥胖，分别标记为健康、问题、健康、营养和疾病。研究发现，封锁后与肥胖相关的文章有所增加。在紧急时期结束后，“健康”和“健康”主题更为普遍。这一结果因报纸的政治倾向而异。
研究结果表明，应考虑特定报纸根据其政治倾向所传达的呈现方式，以推广可能对肥胖产生相关影响的不同叙述。
