Media — including social media, advertising, television, and online platforms — is one of the most powerful influences on food beliefs, values, and behaviours. For VCE Food Studies, understanding how media shapes what people eat and how they feel about their bodies is essential for critically evaluating food information.
Food advertising operates on emotional and psychological levels, not just informational ones:
- Aspirational messaging: Linking food products to happiness, success, beauty, or belonging
- Celebrity endorsements: Using trusted faces to transfer positive associations to products
- Fear-based messaging: “Don’t get caught without [product]” — exploiting anxiety to drive purchase
- Greenwashing: Claiming environmental credentials without substantive evidence
- Health washing: Adding terms like “natural,” “wholesome,” or “high protein” to discretionary foods to create a health halo
Australia’s children see an estimated 16+ food advertisements per hour on commercial television, predominantly for discretionary foods, establishing food preferences and brand loyalty from an early age.
Platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have created a new ecosystem for food content:
| Platform Role | Effect on Food Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Food influencers promoting diets | Rapid spread of food fads (e.g., carnivore diet, detox teas) |
| #WhatIEatInADay content | Normalises restrictive eating; distorts perception of adequate intake |
| Recipe content | Can improve cooking skills and food literacy |
| “Clean eating” aesthetics | Associates worthiness and morality with food purity |
| Food delivery promotion | Normalises ordering out; increases ultra-processed food consumption |
Social media algorithms amplify popular content, meaning extreme dietary advice and dramatic body transformation content receives disproportionate reach regardless of its accuracy or safety.
Body image refers to how a person perceives, thinks about, and feels about their body. Media heavily influences body image through:
- Presenting narrow, edited, and often digitally altered “ideal” body types
- Linking thinness or muscularity with health, success, and desirability
- Disproportionate representation of certain body types in “health” and “wellness” contexts
Research shows repeated exposure to idealised body images correlates with:
- Lower body satisfaction (particularly in adolescents and young women)
- Increased disordered eating risk, including restriction, purging, and binge eating
- Higher rates of depression and anxiety related to appearance
Media-promoted diet culture contributes to cycles of:
1. Exposure to “ideal” body → body dissatisfaction
2. Belief that dieting will achieve the ideal → restrictive behaviour
3. Metabolic adaptation and psychological deprivation → dieting failure
4. Self-blame and shame → reinforced negative body image
This cycle — known as the diet-binge cycle — is perpetuated rather than resolved by diet media.
Media also drives emotional eating:
- Advertisements deliberately trigger nostalgia or emotional associations to create desire
- Stress caused by unrealistic media comparisons can lead to comfort eating as a coping mechanism
- Social media use (particularly passive scrolling) is associated with greater emotional eating and dissatisfaction
Critical media literacy — the ability to analyse and evaluate media content — is an essential skill for food-literate consumers. Students should evaluate media food content using:
- Source: Who produced it and why? Is there a commercial interest?
- Evidence: Are claims backed by peer-reviewed research?
- Language: Is emotive, fear-based, or moralistic language used?
- Representation: Are diverse body types and dietary approaches depicted?
- Context: Does it address individual needs and the complexity of diet?
KEY TAKEAWAY: Media shapes food beliefs, values, and behaviours through advertising, social media, and cultural narratives. The emotional responses it triggers — body dissatisfaction, fear, aspiration — can lead to restrictive dieting, comfort eating, and disordered eating behaviours.
VCAA FOCUS: Be able to analyse a piece of media (an ad, social media post, magazine article) for techniques used and potential effects on food choices and body image. Practice identifying specific techniques (not just “it’s advertising”).
COMMON MISTAKE: Students often describe media influence as entirely negative. A balanced response acknowledges both harmful effects (diet culture, body dissatisfaction) and potential positives (cooking inspiration, food literacy campaigns, public health messaging).
