Are My Words Weighty? A Discursive Multimodal Study of Obesity Memes on The Internet

Abstract: Discourses within society project the sociocultural realities that are portrayed through various meaning-making resources, such as the combination of both visual and textual elements in new media. Humans use the new media resources to engage in discourses that project their ideologies, beliefs, and stances about certain societal situations, which in turn influence how they position themselves as well as others. Obesity is a major public health concern that has attracted public attention in recent times. This paper examined obesity memes on the internet. Using the qualitative method, this study analyzed twenty-two (22) internet memes on obesity, to unravel public ideologies, beliefs, and stances about obesity, as well as decipher how the obesity memes are framed to portray the various ideologies. The gathered data were coded into four major themes which are body negativity, sedentary behavior, unhealthy diet, and bad parenting. The study adopted socio-semiotics and framing theory for the data analysis. Findings from the study revealed that society generally blames obese individuals and their parents, rather than considering other factors such as health or genetics which could also contribute to obesity. Also, visual and textual elements are used to stereotypically represent obese individuals in the memes that project the negative identity of overweight individuals.