This book is a linguistic analysis of the British obesity media narrative, analysing a large corpus of published newspaper articles to demonstrate how the language used perpetuates common misconceptions and stereotypes about weight and obesity, and then exploring the sociological effects of these widespread conceptualisations.
Tara Coltman-Patel is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University, UK.
1. Introduction: Weight Stigma, News Media and This Research.- 2. Fear: Expert Voices and the (Mis)Representation of Science and Health.- 3. Divisiveness: The Metaphorical Conceptualisation of Obesity.- 4. Shame: Challenging Linguistic Strategies of Representation.- 5. Conclusion