Weight bias amongst health professionals on Instagram : A critical multimodal discourse analysis

Abstract: Weight bias and weight stigmatization are independent risk factors for poor health, and are brought up within health promotion, as focus areas when it comes to interventions targeting body weight (WHO, 2017; Pearl, 2018). Discourses within the society, can either reinforce weight bias and weight stigmatization towards people in larger bodies, or disrupt them. A gap in the literature exists, when it comes to health professionals and their means of communicating health on social media platforms, such as Instagram. This gap was the inspiration for the present study. The study sought to critically examine the discourses communicated by doctors and registered dietitians on the social media platform Instagram. With the specific focus of examining their presentation of body weight and health, the manifestations of roles and the discourses presented. The study was based on the theory of social semiotics, using critical multimodal discourse analysis, that include elements from the critical discourse analysis framework, by Fairclough (2010) (Machin & Mayr, 2012). The study found that the chosen health professionals generally presented weight bias and presented body weight as a sum of individual choices, as well as body weight as a personal responsibility. The health professionals used both visual and verbal techniques, to establish authority and power, and were generally promoting health as a commodity, as well as using their own body to promote the thin ideal. The strongest discourses present were those of healthism, paternalism and aesthetics defining health, findings that are supported within the literature, when looking at other health promoting entities, such as personal trainers.  The study brought forth important implications within health communication on social media platforms, thus that healthism is an area that is important to educate health professionals within, as well as there being basis to further investigate this notion. The study also brought  forth important considerations for ethics and validity within this type of research.