![Sample our Language & Literature journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5941/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Language-Literature.jpg"})
Abstract
Three-quarters of U.S. Black women are overweight or obese, putting them at increased risk of multiple diseases, poorer quality of life, and a shorter life span. Media provide important normative information regarding overweight and obesity. This study examines Black women's magazines' food and non-alcoholic beverage advertisements and overweight and obesity editorial content to determine whether the products advertised and the articles' content models or inhibits healthy diet and physical activity as strategies to prevent and overcome overweight and obesity. Five hundred food and non-alcoholic beverage ads and 31 related articles printed in a sample of Ebony (n = 60), Essence (n = 60), and Jet (n = 60) magazines during a 20-year period were content analyzed. Overall, results show the vast majority of advertisements in all three magazines consistently advertised foods and non-alcoholic beverages high in empty calories and low in nutritional value. In contrast, a majority of the articles named balanced diet/fewer calories and physical activity as solutions for preventing and overcoming overweight and obesity. Implications for framing public health issues using media advocacy theory are offered.
Notes
1. Scott's pi ranged from .25 to .50. Although coder agreement was high, the Scott's pi statistic was low because an artifact of the statistical measure is the assumption that if chance can occur, it does occur (Riffe, Lacy, & Fico, Citation1998). Scott's pi is not an appropriate measure if the response categories are dichotomous.
We contributed equally to this article. This research was supported in part by a Families and Communities Together (FACT) grant from Michigan State University to Teresa Mastin.
A version of this manuscript was presented at American Public Health Association, Philadelphia, PA, December 2005.