Communication of obesity and weight-loss in Czech news media from a historical perspective at the turn of the millenia
Abstract
The topic of obesity and related weight loss guidelines comes to the fore in the mass media every year, especially during the period of New Year's resolutions and a few weeks before the start of the summer season. Media coverage is all the more noticeable as it speaks to us from online and social media; and more recently as a result of health crises.
However, the World Health Organization did not define obesity as a problem until the turn of the millennium. And it is precisely on this period that this research focuses.
It aims to examine the communication of obesity and the offered solutions for losing weight in the period of 1998-2002 in the Czech media environment. The results of the study indicate a relatively low use of scientific sources when providing information on how to lose weight and thus prevent obesity, as well as it shows the commercialization of the Czech media environment through products or services which are in individual articles presented as solution to prevention of overweight or obesity.
To illustrate the differences, the results are partially compared with the conclusions of Burdová's (2021) diploma thesis, which examined the coverage of the topic of obesity in the Czech media between January 2019 and June 2020.