Media Messages and Eating Disorders: Taste and Price of a Message

Attila Forgács (), Enikő Bóna, Tímea Csíkos and Helga Metercsik
Additional contact information
Attila Forgács: Institute of Behavioural Sciences and Communication Theory, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
Enikő Bóna: Institute of Behavioral Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
Tímea Csíkos: Psychological Doctoral Programme, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary
Helga Metercsik: Institute of International Studies, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, Hungary

Society and Economy, 2018, vol. 40, issue 3, 401-415

Abstract: Eating habits have become increasingly irrational in the last century; a variety of eating disorders have appeared. Obesity seems to be impossible to cure. Nowadays, the impact of media-marketing is the most powerful social influence on eating habits. Media has five main messages on eating and the body: 1. “Be thin!” 2. “Consume and eat!” 3. “Be afraid of food!” 4. “Food will disappear!” 5. “You are not feminine / masculine enough!” Most of these messages and directions are inconsistent with each other: e.g. “Buy and eat more, but remain thin!” The double-bind communication of media-marketing is pathogenic and schizoid. Food-related media messages are multi-layered and contradictory on many levels, so it would be more appropriate to talk about a multiple bind. The paper offers new communication strategies in order to manage the chaotic information on eating and to decrease the inconsistencies on the topic.

Keywords: eating disorders; glObesity; media; double bind; information technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.akademiai.com/doi/pdf/10.1556/204.2018.40.3.7 (application/pdf)
subscription

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aka:soceco:v:40:y:2018:i:3:p:401-415

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Akadémiai Kiadó Zrt., P. O. Box 245, H-1519 Budapest, Hungary
https://akjournals.com/

Access Statistics for this article

Society and Economy is currently edited by Szent-Iványi, Balázs

More articles in Society and Economy from Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Kriston, Orsolya ().