Which has more influence on the Spaniard’s citizens dieting: The media’s information and social networks, health professionals or close experiences of relatives and friends?

Author: Carolina Moreno-Castro – University of Valencia, Spain

Co-authors:

  • Lorena Cano-Orón – University of Valencia, Spain
  • Isabel Mendoza-Poudereux – Unviersity of Valencia, Spain/li>
  • Ana Serra-Perales – University of Valencia, Spain
  • Empar Vengut-Climent – University of Valencia, Spain

Spaniard’s consumption habits have been subjected to a high mutations process since approximately the 80s, coinciding with the increased emergence of great media corporations, advertising agencies, the audio-visual industry, and at this time, social networks. It has been a slow process, but continuous throughout the time, that has managed to modify the Spaniard’s habits (based on a Mediterranean diet) and impact the whole population’s health. The main objectives of this study are to know:

1) What do media and social networks role play in the decision to decline for one food or another?
2) Which channels do citizens to use to look for nutrition information?
3) Which are the favourites sources of information to understand information related-food?

To respond to these questions, at October 2019, ScienceFlows team has launched a questionnaire to 100 Spaniard people, population-representative; i.e. gender, age, academic training, ethnicity, impaired people, and professional career. The survey incorporated variables to know if the choice of a diet by citizen were based by the information popularised on the digital media, social networks, political, moral, religious influences, or intimate experiences from relatives and friends. Then, people from the selected sample sent the questionary to friends and relatives through WhatsApp. Finally, we have received 325 responses. We are working in the analysis of the role played by the digital media or social networks in the social construction on diet and food. This study is part of a big project (ESMODA-ECO-RTI2018-099663-B-I00), funded by the Spanish government and FEDER funds from the European Commission.

Presentation type: Visual presentation
Theme: Transformation