Obesity in the media: Political hot potato or human interest story?

This paper examines the voices in Australian television news coverage of overweight and obesity. Overweight is now recognised as a serious health problem affecting the majority of Australian adults and a signifi - cant proportion of children. The increasing quantity of media coverage will be shaping public awareness and understandings of this issue but few researchers have analysed the role of the news media in the 'obes- ity epidemic'. This paper identifi es the dominant voices in obesity news (people with weight problems, experts and journalists) as well as those stakeholders who are rarely seen (politicians, industry, government of- fi cials and parents). It concludes by arguing that despite the hosting of several obesity summits in Australia since 2002, Australian television news portrays obesity largely as a personal health and human interest story not as hot political news; thus missing an opportunity to generate adequate support for the policy solutions obesity experts advocate.