The portrayal of food marketing policy by Canadian news media

Unhealthy food marketing influences children's food preferences, intake and rates of obesity. Currently, there is no mandatory national food marketing policy that restricts food marketing to youth in Canada. Little is known about the effects news media may have on the policy process with regard...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Critical public health 2024-12, Vol.34 (1), p.1-12
Main Authors: Gillis, Grace, Soares Guimarães, Julia, Potvin Kent, Monique
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Canada
Childhood obesity
Children
Content analysis
Diet
Dietary intake
Food
Food intake
Food marketing
Food preferences
Food processing
Food sources
Government regulations
Health education
Health promotion
Healthy food
Marketing
Mass media effects
Mass media images
News media
Obesity
Pharmacists
policy
Policy making
Public health
Regulation
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Summary:Unhealthy food marketing influences children's food preferences, intake and rates of obesity. Currently, there is no mandatory national food marketing policy that restricts food marketing to youth in Canada. Little is known about the effects news media may have on the policy process with regard to food marketing. This study aimed to investigate how the Canadian media portrays the issue of food marketing policy, what perspectives are being framed, and who is being quoted. An article search of Canadian news sources on the databases Eureka and Factiva was conducted for the period 1 November 2015 and 1 November 2021. Sixty-five unique news articles on food marketing regulation were identified and a content analysis of each was conducted. The majority of news articles on food marketing regulation framed the topic around health (e.g. obesity, poor dietary intake) and lack of regulation. Food marketing regulation was identified as a solution to the problem in nearly all articles analyzed and was presented positively in 64.6% of articles. Few harms of marketing regulation were identified, while the two main benefits observed were reduced child obesity rates and exposure to food marketing. This study emphasizes the agenda-setting role of news media that were supportive of promoting public health goals. The Canadian media positively promotes government regulation of unhealthy food marketing.
ISSN:0958-1596
1469-3682
DOI:10.1080/09581596.2024.2306282