Mixed messages about the meanings of breast-feeding representations in the Australian press and popular magazines

Abstract

The popular press is an influential medium for the communication of messages and meanings about health and lifestyle issues (Lupton 1993). Through language and images, the print media present selected phenomena, events and issues to readers. The choice and connections between words used can impress upon the reader specific images of the world and the attitudes toward the presented issues and ideas (Nunan 1993). Discourse analysis is used in this study to examine representations of breast feeding in articles published in the Australian press and popular magazines over a six-month period. Discourse analysis is a method of inquiry that focuses on sociocultural and political contexts in which communication occurs (Lupton 1992). Discourses revealed mixed messages and meanings. Breast feeding was seen as natural and the best way of feeding but also as problematic in practice. Dominant ideologies of power and persuasion were also evident. The media portrayed predominantly negative views about breast feeding. Such discourses may influence decisions to breast feed and have wider implications for midwives in their roles as supporters and educators of women and their families.