Representations of obesity and Covid-19 in leading stock photography websites

Atanasova, Dimitrinka (2022) Representations of obesity and Covid-19 in leading stock photography websites. Visual Communication Quarterly. ISSN 1555-1393 (In Press)

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Abstract

Emerging research on the news representation of obesity and Covid-19 has found that obese individuals are overwhelmingly presented in stigmatising ways in news article texts, but the visual representation of obesity and Covid-19 has been understudied – even in the increasingly ubiquitous in the news stock photographs. This study analysed the representation of obesity and Covid-19 in 111 editorial stock photographs from Adobe Stock, Getty Images and Shutterstock using visual content analysis and semantic field analysis. In contrast to past research which has found well over 65% of the analysed photographs to be stigmatising, only slightly over half of the analysed editorial stock photographs were stigmatising. Potentially destigmatising associations of obesity with attractive appearance and positive emotions were also present.