Effects of Media Framing of Obesity Among Adolescents

Explanatory Reporting in Video Format: Contrasting Perceptions to Those of Conventional News

“…This reveals the added value of qualitative research. While more of those exposed to conventional news did report emotional arousal than those viewing the explanatory report-confirming existing findings (Gross 2008;Aarøe 2011;Shen et al 2012;Kühne, Weber, and Sommer 2015)-the main takeaway here was different. Specifically, our findings echoed Major's (2011) conclusion that the question for future research should not be whether one genre elicits more emotions than the other, but rather, what kind of emotions are elicited.…”

“…On the one hand, there are indications that explanatory reports using thematic frames are more successful in altering highly consequential attitudes, such as support for political reforms addressing the issue at hand (Coleman and Thorson 2002;Major 2009;Gollust, Lantz, and Ubel 2010;Coleman, Thorson, and Wilkins 2011;Hart 2011;Springer and Harwood 2015;Waheed et al 2015;Sun et al 2016;Major and Jankowski 2020). On the other, some research has reported the opposite, specifically, that conventional episodic reports influence opinions more because they are more emotionally involving (Aarøe 2011;Shen et al 2012;Kühne, Weber, and Sommer 2015). One study found no significant difference in attitudes by genre but confirmed the higher emotional involvement for conventional reporting with episodic frames (Gross 2008).…”

“…Extant research on potential genre-based variations in the eliciting of (2) attitude change and emotional response paints a more mixed picture. This is because all reporting can influence attitude formation and touch audiences emotionally, but this may be as Coleman and Thorson (2002), Wilkins (2011), Gollust, Lantz, andUbel (2010), Gross (2008), Hart (2011), Kühne, Weber, and Sommer (2015), Major (2009), Major (2011), Major and Jankowski (2020), Shen et al (2012), Springer and Harwood (2015), Sun et al (2016), Waheed et al (2015) Emotions -↑ Aarøe (2011), Gross (2008), Kühne, Weber, and Sommer (2015), Major (2011), Shen et al (2012…”

Framing Obesity: Effects of Obesity Labeling and Prevalence Statistics on Public Perceptions

“…As Entman (1993) noted, frames can suggest the nature, definition, and evaluation of a problem. In obesity studies, the literature suggests that nearly all of the obesity framing effects research to date has included substantial differences in information when switching between frames to emphasize contrasting opinions on the antecedents, consequences, and solutions to obesity (e.g., see Barry, Brescoll, & Gollust, 2013; Gollust, Niederdeppe, & Barry, 2013; Hoyt, Burnette, & Auster-Gussman, 2014; Shen, Lee, Sipes, & Hu, 2012). Frames are operationalized as either arguments made in the message, or the overall narrative structure of the story.…”

“…For example, Gollust et al (2013) found that among the 11 framed messages that highlighted different aspects of the consequences of childhood obesity, the health consequence frame triggered the strongest support for government-level solutions. When an obese individual is featured as an example in the story compared with depicting the issue in broad societal terms, Shen et al (2012) found that readers were more likely to draw individual causal attributions and Barry et al (2013) found that respondents were less likely to support policy interventions.…”