TY - JOUR
T1 - Edutainment’s Impact on Health Promotion
T2 - Viewing The Biggest Loser Through the Social Cognitive Theory
AU - Mocarski, Richard
AU - Bissell, Kimberly
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, 2015 Society for Public Health Education.
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - Through a critical rhetorical analysis using Bandura’s social cognitive theory as a lens to view The Biggest Loser (TBL), this article illustrates the contradictions between the show’s health promotional aims and its entertainment aims, which show the problems the show creates for health promotion practitioners working on obesity. The social cognitive theory constructs of observational learning, psychological determinants, and environmental determinants emerged from this reading of TBL as central to how the show masquerades as a health promotion tool. This reading reveals that TBL promotes a neoliberal construction of health and obesity that challenges the worldview that many health promotion campaigns take and, therefore, complicates our own efforts to combat obesity. With this revealed, it is suggested that TBL be incorporated into health promotion campaigns only as a foil.
AB - Through a critical rhetorical analysis using Bandura’s social cognitive theory as a lens to view The Biggest Loser (TBL), this article illustrates the contradictions between the show’s health promotional aims and its entertainment aims, which show the problems the show creates for health promotion practitioners working on obesity. The social cognitive theory constructs of observational learning, psychological determinants, and environmental determinants emerged from this reading of TBL as central to how the show masquerades as a health promotion tool. This reading reveals that TBL promotes a neoliberal construction of health and obesity that challenges the worldview that many health promotion campaigns take and, therefore, complicates our own efforts to combat obesity. With this revealed, it is suggested that TBL be incorporated into health promotion campaigns only as a foil.
KW - obesity
KW - social determinants of health
KW - social marketing/health communication
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U2 - 10.1177/1524839915613026
DO - 10.1177/1524839915613026
M3 - Article
C2 - 26534900
AN - SCOPUS:84950262600
SN - 1524-8399
VL - 17
SP - 107
EP - 115
JO - Health promotion practice
JF - Health promotion practice
IS - 1
ER -