Who Is the Biggest Loser? Fat News Coverage Is a Barrier to Healthy Lifestyle Promotion.

Through a textual and visual analysis of online news stories and public commentary about fat bodies, this article provides insights into the media's reporting on the "war on obesity." It identifies the stigmatizing role that the media plays. Specifically, the media draws on five key discourses in constructing fat bodies: pathologized, gazed upon, marginalized, controlled, and gendered. As news media coverage influences how society views health and policy issues, we argue that social marketers need to take an active role in changing the public's antifat attitudes through healthy lifestyle promotion tactics and strategies that reduce weight stigma.