The growing population of overweight people

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Description:

There is an growing number of overweight people in first world country's.

Media globalization is one of the most prominent factor that shapes the global world. When the Bali bomb exploded in Indonesia, less than five minutes people could see the news on TV or internet. Media has a significant role to spread the news all over the world. With its wide-coverage network, media could reach almost any place in the world to give us information which has become our daily consumption.

We could not imagine how we can live without CNN, BBC, MTV, or Hollywood movies for instance. Those media has been there to accompany us wherever we go. They give us information about recent Dowjones market index, interest rates, oil price, top 40 songs, Box office movies, etc. They also give us information about new products, sales, vacation packages through their advertising which always attracts us to watch and listen. Those media somehow has also changed the way we perceive the world around us. They has changed our habits, hobbies, preferences, and even cultures that we might never realize. They introduce new ways of thinking; thinking about the world and all processes on it. They shape our oppinions to like something that might have seemed unfavorable or the other way around. They introduce the so called pop cultures to people in different regions as if those cultures are the most appropriate to adopt to be considered part of the global civilization.

CNN, BBC, MTV, Hollywood movies and many others are some agents of this media globalization. They convey information, news, advertising, and even culture from one country to another. They link and connect all part of the world with their media infrastructure; and in this respect media globalization has become an important factor that might explain the future of the 'global village'.

Enablers:

  • The advance of information and communication technology
  • The possibility to communicate and play with friends without leaving the house
  • Junkfood
  • Lazy parents

Inhibitors:

  • Popularity of sports
  • Trend of health food
  • New generation of motion-games
  • Worried parents

Paradigms:

  • Videogame culture vs. T.V. watchers
  • More deceased becuase of obesitas
  • Growing concern on (manipulated) food

Experts:

  • Marshal McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage
  • Nancy Morris, Media and Globalization: Why the State Matters
  • Monroe E. Price, Media and Sovereignty

Timing:

In a lot of countries the count of overweight children had doubled since 60's. The cases of childhood obesas are growing.

Web Resources: