No one disputes the power of the media's influence or the important role it plays in the lives of individuals and of society. But the direction that power takes depends directly on how deeply a subject is framed, on how it is handled, and on the grounds the communicative approach rests upon.
What we observe is that subjects are still treated without the epistemic dimension that would let the media perform a genuinely useful function. Take an example much circulated in broadcast programming- one whose airtime on radio and television doubles in summer in particular, since it is among the near-permanent fixtures of media coverage.
That example is obesity. One sentence recurs so persistently that it is scarcely absent from any broadcaster who takes the matter up: obesity is the graveyard of beauty. This subject, more than any other, exposes the weakness of media treatment and its inability to build lines of inquiry with any epistemic solidity- because obesity is approached from a cosmetic angle, concerned with appearance, rather than from the angle of health.
When the treatment of an important subject is this thin, the coverage is weak; and with a subject as serious as obesity, weak coverage veers into something close to the distortion of public awareness. So, when the media speak of obesity as a graveyard of beauty- of how to shed weight and lose the paunch in time for swimming season, for weddings and celebrations, to keep up with fashion and the new trends that suit slender figures- the approach is not equal to the gravity of the subject. Obesity is not a women's matter, nor the gendered topic it is marketed as. It concerns both sexes, and it is not governed chiefly by standards of beauty so much as it is, first and foremost, a question of health.
The question is this: what prevents obesity from being taken up through a health-based approach, drawing on health data, so that we achieve health objectives- one dimension of which would in any case feed into appearance and form as judged by the prevailing standards of beauty?
Obesity deserves to be a permanent fixture in media programming- not as part of the discourse that markets appearance and the globalized image of beauty, but because it costs the global economy severe losses, estimated at $1.2 trillion a year in direct medical treatment. The World Obesity Federation expects the total direct and indirect economic burden to exceed $4 trillion a year by 2035.
From this standpoint, persuading people to resist and treat obesity is not done on the grounds of appearance and fashion, but by adopting a sound and rigorous method. Obesity is among the causes behind 200 different diseases; it is a cause of diabetes and is responsible for 70 percent of the total cost of treating it. It is linked to 23 percent of the global bill for treating heart disease, on top of its close relationship to disorders of the digestive and respiratory systems. And since obesity is the principal cause of most of the illnesses described as chronic, 8.4 percent of the world's total health budgets goes to obesity-related disease.
The question, then: is raising obesity from the angle of figure, slimness, and the culture of appearance stronger, more important, and more credible- cognitively, medically, and journalistically- than focusing on the relation between obesity and diseases of the heart, the pancreas, the digestive tract, and the lungs?
To divert a subject as dangerous to health, and as economically costly, as obesity toward thoroughly secondary points of view amounts- if we are to be entirely serious- to media distortion, since dwelling on the secondary and ignoring the essential is an unwitting enlistment in the culture of objectification. The requisite grounding in health knowledge, by contrast, would let the media hit every target at once, the medical and the cosmetic alike.
And since obesity and its associated diseases will, according to international reports, cut average life expectancy by three years by 2050, the matter does not belong on the pages given over to lifestyle, entertainment, beauty, summer, admiration, and attraction. It is a matter of life, of health, of life expectancy- a graveyard of health, not merely a graveyard of beauty.
Media and knowledge today are two sides of the same coin. It is no longer possible to practice journalism without a grounding in precise data, a methodology, a vision, and a scientific point of view. Yesterday the news item was the key to professional journalism; but developments in communications technology have turned it into a commodity with a very short shelf life, available to every outlet. What sets professional journalism apart now- the journalism worth respecting, the journalism that yields benefit and positive influence- is how a subject is framed and handled, and what information it offers to help the audience understand and grasp it.
