Media Analysis Of A Current Or Potential Policy - Analysis of a Policy - Health Assessment Answer

Media Analysis Of A Current Or Potential Policy Assignment

Assignment Task

Assessment 1 - Media analysis of a current or potential policy

Task: Select a policy or potential public policy issue with a health focus that has received attention in the

Australian media (or in your home country if you are an international student) in the past three years.

Clearly state the health policy issue on the first page of the assignment.

Provide an analysis of how the media has portrayed the issue and justified or criticised the policy or

is justifying what the future policy should address with reference to the article's author/s, level of

objectivity, balance of perspectives, attitudes, ideological viewpoints and scientific rigour.

2 - Analysis of a Policy

Task: Identify a current Aboriginal health policy (state or national)

Provide a detailed analysis of the policy which includes identifying three relevant stakeholder groups

and appraising their capacity to infuence decision making on the policy from a political and power

perspective (see assessment marking criteria below).

Summarises the implementation of the policy

Appraises the capacity of the selected stakeholder groups to influence decision making on this issue from a political and power perspective

Analyses the policy clearly and comprehensively using a logical approach

Justifies whether the policy should be considered a success or a failure based on evidence of wide reading

Validates perspectives through correct interpretation and explicit linkage of relevant and current

literature (> year 2004) to the assessment focus

10% Produces correct grammar, spelling, formatting, style (report) and referencing

Introduction

TASK1: Media Analysis of the New South Wales Healthy Eating and Active Living Strategy.

Introduction

According to Bassett, Pucher, Buehler, Thompson, Crouter, (2008), New South Wales Healthy Eating policy is a plan of action aimed at reducing the rate of overweight that is being experienced in Australia recently. Obesity has become a major health crisis for New South Wales. It has been on a steady increase for the past 30 years that is between 2011 and 2012 an average of around 60% of adults in Australia was found in the class of the overweight, and another 25% were in the obese category. In 2007, a percentage of around 25% children aged between 2 to 16 years were overweight, with 6% of the 25% were in the class of the obese. The report released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2009 showed and projected that if there will be no any action taken by 2016 the adults male who will be obese will be 68% and while the adults females will be 54% in NSW. The NSW program comprises four key directions: the environment is to help healthy eating an active form of life, mention wide healthy food consumption and active living programs, provide education and information in order for making informed choices, and finally the healthy eating delivery for both food and information on exercise(Wright & Harwood, 2012).

Obesity in Australia

According to the article the obesity problem is prevailing in all groups of population, there exists a variation in how it is distributed across the Australians. An active form of life and healthy eating is what is lacking among the people. The most affected people are those in socioeconomic groups that are disadvantaged, the people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and a lot of people who are born overseas, additionally, the condition is prevalent in rural and remote areas compared to urban. There was imposition of economic burden to the society, family, and even individuals that come along with obesity (Jou & Techakehakij, 2012).

The article states to date, a breakthrough has yet to be established for the successful management of obesity. There is complexity associated with the causes, how to prevent and how to manage obesity. Since obesity can be obtained depending either on social practices, the culture; the way things are done, the surroundings, the industries involved in the manufacturing of food and their practices, the regulations meant to control the public, a person’s attitude towards foodstuffs, behaviour. Thus, this includes things such as exercise and lastly human biology both are connected(Morley, Martin, Niven & Wakefield, 2012).

Opinions on the Obesity

Different opinions in the article have been raised concerning the obesity policy. The article says some think the policy is a great idea to counter back and save generations in Australia. In order to be able to make to reduce the people affected the health sector has to partner with different sectors to get rid of this situation. Others see it as a way to sabotage the media since the media is barred from making advertisements and is through that the media makes money and markets products(Friel, 2009). Some say people and children spend a lot of time on media instead of being out there doing activities that will make them fit. Others support because some obesity programs are aired and they help people(Gortmaker, Swinburn, Levy, Carter, Mabry, Finegood & Moodie, 2011).

Role of Media on Obesity

In the article videos are posted all over Youtube showing people who cannot handle their weight, warning others to do something before their conditions go beyond handling. The videos sometimes are given a higher rating and likes with people teasing the overweight. Stigmatisation of the obese videos and pictures has been several recorded on the media(Mann & Truswell, 2012). Programs that talk about obesity have been initiated and are aired live in helping people have the tips to handle such situations. The media also has been spearheading and directing campaigns against factors causing obesity, but they put a lot of emphasis on the cardiovascular diseases (Jou & Techakehakij, 2012).

There has been launching of health campaigns by the media in order to be able to teach people. They have positively influenced masses to eat healthily and be more active(Jowsey, Jeon, Dugdale, Glasgow, Kljakovic & Usherwood, 2009). Working in line with the WHO recommendations they have urged viewers and those who listen to make alterations that are small and permanent in their diets and their way of life instead of waiting to go for short time loss of weight.

The article also talks of health campaign by the media on the obesity issues are with little doubt that it will increase the knowledge and awareness of people all over Australia(Malik, Willett & Hu, 2013). Despite doing so, there is less evidence that these campaigns will have an influence on people changing their behaviours since a change in behaviour is demonstrated where the campaigns are accompanied by many elements including the media programs(Moreno, Pigeot & Ahrens, 2011).

Weight stigmatisation on the media is on the rise according to the article. There has been documentation of negative characters that may lead to obesity in order for people to be aware(Olds, Tomkinson, Ferrar & Maher, 2010). The obese people being portrayed as people who lack intelligence and they do not have the discipline to manage their own condition. Furthermore, the obese people given a little opportunity of representation in many entertainment programs and if they are given the ugly aspect, they engage in bad behaviours of eating, and they are made the major target of laughter and shame(Swinburn & Wood, 2013). The news in the media plays a role in discouraging excessive weight by showing the overweight individuals being stigmatised and focus on the diet and lifestyle of individual as the major cause but not genetic. To many, obesity campaign is a theme of fat shaming, and is highly manifested(Sacks, Swinburn & Lawrence, 2009).

These negative portrayals make an impact. For example, programs for weight loss are there to promote self-blame and bring about the aspect of weight stigmatisation. It is believed children who have a lot of exposure to media have a disliking for obese people (Sacks, Swinburn & Lawrence, 2008).

Over decades, social media has been able to provide chances to people to connect with one another and share about many topics including health and weight. The article indicates that recent research on media has shown the presence of dialogues about weight stigma(Malik, Willett, & Hu, 2013). This has led to the recommendation of behavioural changes.

On the other side, media platforms can be comforting centres for sharing the experiences witnessed for obesity. After a period of time, this will enable people gain self-esteem and resistance to stigma. With the increase and expansion of social media, it is important to investigate how these interactions shapes the peoples discourse. There are several questions that depend on this discourse that need to be addressed, and they are: does the media promote or reduce weight ridicule? How is represented in the media? Does the dialogue about obesity and over-weight differ across the blog like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram? The answers to these questions can be provided with a comprehensive method that involves mixed investigation on obesity-related dialogue on the media. The method used to prove this are: extraction of media data and analysing which is known as linguistic corpus and mixed method data analysis. The results of the finding were presented, and it was found out that a lot of people talks involved the word fat. This was seen more so on Twitter, which was followed by Facebook. The analysis of this data shows that media is playing a role to help people learn more about obesity. The study goes ahead to show how overweight people are ridiculed. They are laughed at and even to some extent this ridicule goes to verbal aggression. Despite the criticism on the media, it was also found out that some words of acceptance were found meaning there are some people who accept the condition. Thus, this might help the individuals who are stigmatised resist the stigma. All the media are not the same since some we see some do not support the issue of overweight while others they encourage people to come out and share their obesity status and tell them the state is acceptable and not bad. On the other hand, media is seen as a contributor to obesity because a lot of children spend time watching programs that advertise junk foods that motivate them buying.

Conclusion

Indeed, the media has been in front line to support the obesity policy. The media has had several platforms where people have been involved in the discussion of over-weight issues. There are several programs being aired on the media concerning the obesity and how to handle it in case such a condition is experienced. Some have cooperated to discourage overweight. Thus, it is not the end, and can be reversed but at the end there is a need to fight obesity at all levels in order to have a great generation to replace the older one.