Obesity representations: an analysis of Italian newspapers’ coverage before and after COVID-19 and the influence of political orientation

Introduction: A large body of literature has shown that media representations of obesity influence people's attitudes and contribute to weight stigma and discriminatory behaviors. The present study aimed to identify the representations of obesity in nine main Italian national newspapers and analyze how these representations varied before and after the COVID-19 lockdown (2016-2023), also in relation to the political orientation of the newspapers. Methods: The Automated Co-occurrence Analysis for Semantic Mapping procedure (ACASM) was used to identify the themes. A t test and time series analysis were conducted to test the hypotheses. Results: Findings showed that the selected Italian newspapers represented obesity according to five different themes labeled Wellness, Problem, Health, Nutrition, and Disease. It was found that the articles related to obesity increased after the lockdown. The Wellness and Health themes were found to be the more prevalent after the end of the emergency period. This result differed according to the newspapers' political orientation. Conclusion: The findings suggest considering the representations that specific newspapers convey according to their political orientation in order to promote different narratives that could have a relevant impact on obesity.