MA in TV and Radio Journalism

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Browsing MA in TV and Radio Journalism by Subject "Media reporting - Health-and-fitness"

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    Do health-and-fitness magazines influence males’ and females’ perceptions of health and fitness differently?
    (Griffith College, 2017) Nolan, Emma
    The present research had to two goals: (1) to discover how healthy health-and-fitness magazines actually are, and (2) to discover if health-and-fitness is portrayed differently by health-and-fitness magazines based on gender. The study involved two separate elements: a content analysis and a survey. Study 1 involved a content analysis of four magazines over a three-month period from June 2017 to August 2017. Two male-audience targeted magazines and two female-audience targeted magazines were analysed. The magazines involved in this study were Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Women’s Health and Women’s Fitness. The content analysis revealed that both men’s and women’s health-and-fitness magazines exhibit appearance-related content more so than health-related content. However, it was discovered that they promote different types of appearance-based messages. Men’s health-and-fitness magazines are more focused on muscle gain and bulking, i.e., getting bigger, whereas women’s health-and-fitness magazines are more focused on slimming down and improving one’s glutes. It appears that male-focused magazines are encouraging their readers to gain muscle in every area of their body and make it bigger and stronger, whereas female-focused magazines are encouraging their readers to slim down every part of their bodies but their glutes. The content analysis also determined that both men’s and women’s health-and-fitness magazines largely fail to promote better health. The majority of the so-called health articles present in the magazines are mostly unproven ‘health myths’ with little or no research backing the claims. Similarly, only one health advertisement was present in the magazines analysed: P20 sunscreen. Study 2 involved a survey of 120 participants from an array of nine countries. The survey titled ‘Perceptions on Health and Fitness Survey’ proved that the majority of people are of the opinion that health-and-fitness magazines promote unnatural and unattainable physiques and contain airbrushed images. The results also indicated the majority of people who engage in physical activity do so for their health, wellbeing and enjoyment, not for appearance-related reasons, which contradicts the messages being put forward by both men’s and women’s health-and-fitness magazines.