Food Allergy Framing in Entertainment Media: The Use of Humor and Its Influence on Health Thoughts and Behaviors
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 26, 2019
- Creator
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Opper, Chloe Elizabeth
- Affiliation: Hussman School of Journalism and Media
- Abstract
- With the rising rate of food allergies in the United States and across the globe, learning how food allergies are portrayed in the media is becoming an increasingly important public health and communications issue. With no current cure, awareness and knowledge of allergies and appropriate responses in emergent situations are essential for the health and well being of those with severe food allergies. Entertainment media can help shape viewers’ perceptions of ambiguous heath issues like food allergies. Further, humor can exacerbate perceptions when negative attitudes and stigma already exist about a population. This study investigated whether people’s perceptions about food allergies differ after viewing a humorous or nonhumorous portrayal of food allergies in entertainment media. A Qualtrics survey with video stimuli was given to 163 participants from the UNC-Chapel Hill journalism participant pool. No difference emerged based on the clip grouping. However, participants liked the actor having a food allergy when they did not personally have an allergy or when the participants knew someone with a food allergy. This and other significant statistical relationships that emerged suggest further research with a more diverse sample and different clip selection.
- Date of publication
- spring 2015
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Funding: None
- Advisor
- Carpentier, Francesca
- Degree
- Bachelor of Arts
- Honors level
- Highest Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Extent
- 82
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