Lose twenty pounds in one month : A quantitative research about how dieting figures on news bills

Almost half of the population in Sweden suffers from obesity and the cases of eating disorders are increasing. We are exposed daily to the belief that losing weight will make us happier and it will just be through this particular diet. Even if it has been proven that short dieting plans like “lose 20 pounds in one month” doesn’t give a long-term result, society continues to buy into the idea that they do. Every day 16000 placards are placed around us in Sweden with loud yellow colors and big black letters which make them almost impossible to avoid. Their main purpose is to attract and get as many people as possible to buy single copies. This essay deals with several questions: How diet tips figures on placards and how this has developed through years. Also which consequences the result has on the society and our body ideals. The theories and concepts are derived from five areas of research: commercialism, media influence, source criticism, body issues and dietary. Our aim is to map, analyze and problematize how diet tips are presented quantitatively on placard. The method is quantitative research and the study is limited to the media content on placards for evening papers (Aftonbladet and Expressen) 2009, and a comparison between four years; 1979, 1989, 1999 and 2009. An important conclusion from this study is that dieting has an important place in the media agenda. The number of placard about dieting increase after Christmas and before the summer and in April 2009 could you every two days read one. This shows that the newspaper plays on our self-esteems and diet tips on placard are commercially viable. Media has engrained in our minds that "thin is in", and "stout is most definitely out" and they use celebrities and “the ordinary person” to convince us to buy the newspaper. Another conclusion is that diet tips as a phenomenon is here to stay, a matter of fact it has gone from 3 placards about dieting 1979 to 97 placards 2009, and nothing indicates that it will decrease. The diet tips are confusing, misleading and have no credibility, which deeply impacts society in a negative way. Overweight people who need to lose weight get incorrect information, and thinness standout as healthy