The appliance of science: the role of evidence in the making of regulatory policy on children and food advertising in the UK

Abstract

In 2007, the British media regulator Ofcom began to implement new restrictions on the television advertising of food and drink products to children, as part of the government’s broader attempts to combat child obesity. This is the first of two linked articles that explore the issues at stake in these developments, and their broader implications for the study of media and cultural policy. The focus here is on the ways in which evidence from research was used by the various contending participants in the debate about food advertising and children in the years leading up to Ofcom’s decision. The emphasis is not so much on the validity of the research itself, but the political uses of research (or of the claims made about research), and the relations between research and policy‐making. This analysis is set within a broader discussion of the nature and limitations of ‘evidence‐based’ policy‐making.