MEDICINE AND HEALTH

Media Representation of Food and Diet



Media Representation of Food and Diet

Introduction

The media play a significant role in bringing nutrition information to public in large. This entry describes how the media influence food-related behaviours and how health professionals can use media to communicate nutrition issues to the public. The media influence how Britishers think and feel about food in relation to politics, culture, and health. Media help to form and to communicate cultural norms and images around nutrition, provide avenues for nutrition education, and create channels for food advertising and product promotion. Nutrition information has been communicated via a variety of media, including print, radio, television, and the Internet.

The impact of media presentation through mass promotion and advertising on TV has significant impact on public eating and dieting habits. Most of the people found in UK are highly susceptible to shrewd advertisements by marketers on dieting and body image which started serious concern for public in nationwide. The objective of companies is to sell more and more products by making strong appeal of their ads for bigger chunk and higher market share. Companies produce every year number of products and services and those companies in line of food and diet products spend more than 10 million dollars annually on advertisements of their products. Various markets of food, nutrition and diet ranging snack foods, soda, candy and cereal are already leading to the maturity stage on product life cycle curve, which makes effective advertising as the only direction to encourage their consumers to take and eat their products. With the advent of these commercials in the form of TV ads, newspapers, internet and social marketing regarding the eating of junk foods and the like, these commercials put great emphasis on the way consumers take their primary nutrition plan and health issues.

Television as readily available medium for the people and most watched among the masses has great influence on food intake and dieting of people in UK. This increasing trend of people watching more and more TV and purchase products by calling on live shows from confines of their own homes have seen an increase in television channels ownership. The private domestic television channels witnessed extensive increase in investments in year 2006 in UK of around £25.8 million (BARB, 2006). Television advertisement of food and diet can further be subdivided in various categories such as running of ads on morning shows, health shows, cooking and exercise shows and even soap operas. This makes it valid that television is highly significant in influencing the food and diet habits of people across United Kingdom. This is there question that must be answered of how media representation especially television and also other medium of the advertising have power to influence viewers in changing habits of their food intake and dieting.

Discussion

It is difficult to know how much influence the media on food choices of people, although the final results are very eloquent. The food industry with thousands of brands advertised on TV is the ...