Framing Sugar: Neoliberal health ideology on popular and influential healthy food blogs

• In Event: 3129 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 4. Cultural Authority of Medicine

Abstract

This paper analyzes over 500 blog posts and demographic data from 50 healthy food blogs in order to understand the cultural and social value frameworks utilized in discussions about health related to sugar consumption. Some of the food blogs included in this study are followed by over 1 million people on Instagram, these blogs are undeniably influential and hold power in dissemination messages to the public. The research contributes to sociological understandings of frame analysis as well as the maintenance and reproduction of health inequalities. The analysis of these blogs reveals a dominant frame of individual responsibility and morality connected to neoliberal health ideology. A secondary frame is the role of expertise, scientific evidence and alternative health in espousing health advice. These frames and those disseminating them contribute to the maintenance and production of health inequalities through bolstering beliefs regarding what is healthy, who is healthy, and which populations need to control their health and sugar consumption in the name of public good.

Author

• Gabrielle Grace Gonzales, University of California Santa Barbara