OBEZİTELİ BİREYLERİN GÖZÜNDEN TÜRKİYE’DE MEDYADA OBEZİTE

Abstract

One of the diseases that historically experienced stigma and exclusion is obesity. Today, as in many areas of life such as education, business life, health services and social life, discriminatory stigmatizing approaches are encountered in the media about obesity. This study aims to reveal the views and expectations of individuals with obesity in Turkey about the issues they are discriminated against in the media, the forms of stigmatization, and the representations of obesity in the media. In the study, focus group interview method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. 6 different focus group interviews were conducted: 15-24, 25-49, 50 years and older low income-high income. A total of 42 people, 22 women and 20 men, participated in the interviews. All of the participants have criticisms about the representation of obesity in the media. They stated that in the media contents, obesity should not be presented as a problem of willpower but as a disease, that accurate information about this disease should be included, and that beauty and aesthetic concerns should not take precedence over the causes and consequences of the disease. They believe that the media has a great role in this regard. As a result, stereotypes and stigmatizing discourses in the media imprison individuals with obesity within certain limits. Individuals with obesity define themselves as people who are labeled and stigmatized. In short, media content reinforces discrimination. It must be underlined that the contents/presentations that are used in order to raise awareness in the media reproduce discrimination. It is clear that improvement and correction in media content must occur quickly. There is a need for programs/series/movies that are free from deceptive and misleading information, that are far from a biased perspective towards individuals with obesity, and where obesity is framed with accurate information. Due to the power of the media in influencing and directing society, recognizing and changing such content in the media will make a great contribution to the understanding of the problems experienced by people living with obesity, and therefore, contribute to obesity treatments.