The American lifestyle is far from a picture of health — this is no secret. Social media posts joke about the American diet, while research studies reprimand our sleep habits. We may have been conditioned to accept the latest statistics about American healthcare without the bat of an eye, but it doesn’t have to be this way. The issue demands an urgent solution — but from who?
Media sources say individuals. According to a USC Annenberg study, most news outlets shift the responsibility of our public health crisis on the individuals suffering from it.
Researchers at the university said the individualistic nature of our society is to blame. With an emphasis on individual responsibility, group-specific trends and institutional accountability often take a backseat.
Individuality might be a cornerstone of capitalism, but when it comes to public health outcomes, it is impossible to ignore the grave impact of government policies and societal factors.
Let’s take a closer look at instances in which media sources participate in blame culture or individual attribution right here in Wisconsin. A 2023 NBC26 article on Wisconsin’s obesity epidemic included an interview from a 12-year-old boy experiencing obesity.
“I had like eight bags of Takis in my trash,” the boy told the reporter. “It was terrible.”
What the article didn’t report was access to nutritious meals, neighborhood walkability and public spaces for exercise are all steeply declining in Wisconsin and undoubtedly contributing to the downfall of our health.
For instance, a data initiative by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health titled the Wisconsin Health Atlas graphed obesity rates by zip code in Wisconsin. The study found geographic characteristics can dictate obesity rates throughout the state. Rural areas experience some of the highest obesity rates due to limited facilities for physical activity and lack of transportation to grocery stores. On the other hand, urban areas can also present abnormally high obesity rates due to trends in employment, affordable housing and physical environment.
The NBC26 article did, however, include a Fond du Lac doctor’s statement that blamed obesity trends on “a healthy lifestyle: how you sleep at night, how you eat, what kind of foods you choose.”
To be clear, empowering individuals to take control of their own choices and lifestyle is without doubt laudable. Lifestyle choices are inarguably linked to individual health outcomes.
But, the article chose to leave out the elephant in the room — declines in safety net programs and widening socioeconomic inequalities are directly linked to unhealthy lifestyles. Without acknowledging these systematic disparities, the article tells only one half of our grim story.
According to a literature review conducted by researchers at USC Annenberg, this is the case for the majority of media sources across the nation. Incomplete representation can be harmful when it comes time to amend policies to promote public health. If the public is convinced that the inadequacies of Americans sprout public health crises, what need would they see for government action?
Equally concerning is the trend between media sources’ political affiliation and their focus (or lack thereof) on health disparities — their root causes and policy proposals to resolve them. According to a 2018 study by the National Library of Medicine, it is more common for liberal media sources to publish stories regarding these issues than it is for right-leaning media outlets. This establishes both a divide between the information consumed by the American public and polarizing labels between the two parties. Indeed, the study finds that conservative policymakers are likely to ignore news stories about health disparities due to the perceived association of health disparities and associated solutions with liberal ideology.
For a state like Wisconsin, where political divides dominate everything from casual conversations to the branches of our state government, the consequences are extreme. If conservative and liberal individuals believe in two separate realities, the chances of a bipartisan solution seem to fade quickly.
This constant tug of war between the Democratic executive and Republican legislature isn’t something Wisconsinites are unfamiliar with. According to WisDems, every year since Gov. Tony Evers took office in 2019, Evers has been proposing a Medicaid expansion plan that would raise eligibility and coverage. But, Republican officials have blatantly denied the existence of a health insurance coverage gap within the state every single time.
The media should be held accountable for its framing of health issues in a manner that leads to harmful attributions and policy outcomes for those suffering health injustices. Crucial health policy reform should not become muddled with polarized political rhetoric.
As messengers of the truth, media sources have the responsibility to present not just the truth, but the entire truth. When leaving out social determinants of Americans’ health decline from news articles, reporters are creating harmful individual attributions for issues perpetuated by institutional policies.
Aanika Parikh ([email protected]) is a junior studying molecular and cell biology.