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- Bouvier, Gwen, et al.
(författare)
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The gendering of healthy diets : a multimodal discourse study of food packages marketed at men and women
- 2021
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Ingår i: Gender and Language. - : Equinox Publishing. - 1747-6321 .- 1747-633X. ; 15:3, s. 347-368
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Gendered identities are communicated in places as frequent and ordinary as food packaging, becoming mundane features of everyday life as they sit on supermarket shelves, in cupboards and on office desks. Multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) allows us to investigate how such identities are buried in packaging in relation to health and fitness. Despite observed broader changes in gendered representations of the body in advertising, in particular relating to the arrival of 'power femininity', the products analysed in this article are found to carry fairly traditional and prototypical gender representations, and products marketed at both men and women highlight the need for more precise body management. For women, however, this precision is related to managing the demands of everyday life, packaged as a moral imperative to be healthy, responsible and successful.
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| 2. |
- Bouvier, Gwen, et al.
(författare)
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Women and fitness on Weibo : the neoliberalism solution to the obligations of Confucianism
- 2021
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Ingår i: Social Semiotics. - : Routledge. - 1035-0330 .- 1470-1219. ; 31:3, s. 440-465
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper uses a social semiotic approach to analyse the posts of women fitness experts/influencers on Chinese Weibo. On the posts, we find a harmonized world where all parts of life can be managed by making the right choices and by having a striving attitude. Here, success and happiness become tasks to be worked on. Yet this is a decontextualized world, where there is no room for actual situations and dispositions. We discuss how these representations can be related to rising neoliberal ideas, values, and identities among the new Chinese middle classes, which, in these instances, are used to create a rather overdetermined stance against more traditional Confucian women's roles with an emphasis on caring, knowing one's position, and kinship obligations. But the one-size-fits-all rhetoric of empowerment, getting-ahead and choice leaves little room for sharing the actual restrictions, conflicts, and struggles faced by these women.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Chen, Ariel, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Changing genres and language styles in contemporary Chinese lifestyle magazines
- 2013
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Ingår i: Media International Australia. - Queensland, Australia : University of Queensland Press. - 1329-878X .- 2200-467X. ; :147, s. 73-84
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The magazine market in China has been changing steadily as global media corporations have brought their international titles into China and as local Chinese titles have had to transform in order to meet the changing market and the arrival of advertising-driven content. This article analyses the changing visual styles, linguistic genres and language styles in the women's lifestyle magazine Rayli over the past ten years, showing how these increasingly seek to foster identities, ideas and values appropriate to a global culture ideology of consumerism.
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| 6. |
- Chen, Ariel, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Connoting a neoliberal and entrepreneurial discourse of science through infographics and integrated design : the case of ‘functional’ healthy drinks
- 2022
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Ingår i: Critical Discourse Studies. - : Routledge. - 1740-5904 .- 1740-5912. ; 19:3, s. 290-308
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Riding on the rising concern of public health and the growing neoliberal self-care agenda, the food market has witnessed a surge in ‘healthy’ food despite the criticism of this food does not help consumers eat more healthily. A growing interest in CriticalDiscourse Studies (CDS) is how food marketers colonise not only the food discourse but also the broader ideas and values such as health, politics, and environment. Contributing to this growing body of research, we look at one of the fastest-growing food trends, ‘functional drinks’, which claim to target physiological and psychological processes in the body, so that consumers can manage their health and performance. Company websites rely on forms of infographics to communicate how the products work. Adopting the notion of ‘integrated design’ from multimodal CDS, we show how these infographics, drawing on their affordancesare particularly useful in symbolising classifications and causalities which could not be accounted for in running texts. The paper argues that this is a way health and science converge with a neoliberal discourse of self-management and enterprise culture. Given the increased use of forms of integrated design incommunication, more critical discursive work is needed in this area.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Chen, Ariel, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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The local and the global in the visual design of a Chinese women's lifestyle magazine : a multimodal critical discourse approach
- 2014
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Ingår i: Visual Communication. - : SAGE Publications. - 1470-3572 .- 1741-3214. ; 13:3, s. 287-301
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article uses a multimodal critical discourse analytic approach to analyse how a Chinese women's magazine has changed visually over 17 years, partly through the gradual adoption of international branding design styles and partly through consumer product influences from Japan that are used to recontextualize core Chinese values and women's identities. The authors conclude that, like established international magazine brands, this title signifies freedom, but of a very different order to that found in those counterparts.
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| 9. |
- Chen, Ariel, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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The making of healthy and moral snacks : A multimodal critical discourse analysis of corporate storytelling
- 2019
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Ingår i: Discourse, Context & Media. - : Elsevier. - 2211-6958 .- 2211-6966. ; 32
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper examines how snack brands represent themselves as producers of healthy food through corporatestories on their websites. The increased emphasis on health in ‘‘the new public health era” has createda market for products promoted as healthy or with some kind of wellbeing association. Riding onthis trend, many companies have emerged and positioned themselves as providing good food options.Employing the theory of social semiotics and using multimodal critical discourse analysis, we ask the following questions: How do these companies use corporate stories to make themselves appear as a better alternative than their competitors? How do they make their products appear healthy and attractive to consumers? And how can this kind of marketing help consumers choose healthier products? The analysis of 22 corporate stories of healthy snack companies shows that healthy eating is colonized by a moral discourse for marketing and branding purposes. Furthermore, the health qualities these companies claim to have are abstract, symbolic, and commercialized. We argue that these corporate stories provide no meaningful indication as to the healthiness of these products and can mislead consumers to consume less healthy food while having the intention to eat healthily.
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| 10. |
- Chen, Ariel, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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The mythologization of protein : a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of snacks packaging
- 2019
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Ingår i: Food, Culture, and Society. - : Routledge. - 1552-8014 .- 1751-7443. ; 22:4, s. 423-445
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper examines how protein snacks are marketed as good food choices through their packaging and how these packages reproduce a discourse – what we see as a myth – of the benefits of high protein intake. Research shows that consumers believe high protein food has a positive impact on physical performance and body composition, although there is very little evidence of this. Protein foods and beverages are nevertheless one of the fastest growing sectors in the food market and we now see food companies exploit peoples beliefs by adding protein to food that was formerly seen as unhealthy. Adopting a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) we look in detail at the packaging of a group of snacks that are usually high in fat and sugar but now appear as good food options, particularly through accentuating the protein content. The analysis shows that the packages market these products as an outcome of scientific modern technology, but this is done in playful and comforting ways. This goes along with neoliberal ideas about wellness and demands of an active lifestyle. From these findings, we discuss the limitations of existing regulations as marketing shape and capitalize on discourses of health.
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