Navigating Alarming Media Messages About Nutrition and Health

Abstract

This study focuses the emerging need for young people to critically respond to alarming messages in contemporary media highlighting the potential benefits or harms of certain foods. Besides being technical, advancements in the field of nutrition reported in media are often of tentative and speculative character, primarily selected and constructed on the basis of their news value rather than as representing established knowledge. The study aims to study students' capabilities to navigate and critically respond to controversial media messages about health and nutrition in the context of science education. Our theoretical point of departure is in the concept "an examined life" in the critical reflection tradition of Socrates and the Stoics. We analyze how groups of upper secondary science class students engage in critical examination of a controversial message about cow's milk encountered through Swedish public service news media on the Internet. The results illuminate that even when controversial findings are produced by a reputed university and communicated through independent media, students are capable of discerning the need to scrutinize such findings and are capable of performing such critical examination drawing on experiences of scientific investigations. Students' openness to question authoritative voices in society and to illuminate the new findings on milk from multiple perspectives reflects how "an examined life" may be enacted in the context of science education. Inviting students to participate in related activities shows promise for enabling a critical examination of themselves and others in ways deemed important for democratic citizenship.

Studies in chemistry education under the perspective of the animal issue: a review on the international literature

“…Thus, it is possible that only part of the methodology and results will be discussed, focusing on the one that concerns the present objectives. Teaching energy concepts by working on themes of cultural and environmental value (Besson & Ambrosis, 2013) Navigating alarming media messages about nutrition and health: How students engage in critical examination of science in news media (Wiblom et al, 2020) Journal of chemical education…”

Topsar och cellmembran : Kroppens näringsupptag i undervisning och elevtexter på mellanstadiet

“…In Sweden and many other countries, teaching about the human body, for instance the digestive organs, starts in elementary school and continues throughout school education (Swedish National Agency of Education, 2018). It is important that children know how different nutrients are absorbed and distributed throughout the body, not least in order to be able to navigate health information in different media, and develop critical thinking in this area (Wiblom, Andrée & Rundgren, 2020).…”

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“…One of the priority lines of research in science teaching is biomedical science literacy. Nowadays, scientific knowledge is generated, modified and developed rapidly due to digitalization and use of the internet [ 3 , 4 ].…”