Victims and causers. A hermeneutical analysis of obesity in digital media

Abstract

Obesity is a relevant phenomenon for public health and the world economies. For Latin America, obesity represents a catastrophic expense in health systems, especially due to its relationship with diabetes mellitus II, disease tan suffer 62 million people in this region (PAHO, 2021) and causes important medical complications and disabilities. At present, there are multiple social agents that have a lot to say about how the obesity can back away, while others deal with the disease, and anothers even taking advantage of it. Among the conflicting discourses, the risks of transmitting, recommending, promoting and reinterpreting ethic and social values ​​such as health, inclusion and freedom are inevitable and invaluable. Questioning the capability of the media to spread products, attitudes, fashions and transform the perception of reality, invites us to reflect about limits and freedoms of communicators and journalists as moral agents and public opinion mobilizers. The discourse analyzed indicate, on the one hand, that the communities are victims of the context, and the other hand, some insisted on individual responsibility. This blames some and frees others. Is because of that, this paper exposed some ethical challenges for communication tasks, where priorities are faced between vital values ​​such as health and deontological ones such as impartiality, responsibility and truthfulness.