Analysis of Dietary Informations in Newspapers and Magazine for Children (2002)

Moon, Hyun Kyung; Cho, Yeon Jin

Abstract

Children regard newspapers and magazines as the important source of information. Because informations about diet in the newspaper and magazines are regarded as good, it is necessary to find out whether informations provided to children are correct. Thus, this study shows the present situation of informations on diet by monitoring 3 newspapers(Kids.Chosun, Kids.Donga, Kids.Hankook) and 2 magazines (Earinee - Dongsan, Sae-But) for children. This study focused on the quantitative and the qualitative analysis for articles and advertisements. For the quantity, rate and number were calculated. For the quality, the accuracy was analyzed. Result of this study were as follow; Analyzed the number of articles and advertisements on diet, there are 2 times more number of advertisements (339 cases) than that of articles (180 cases) in the newspaper. There are slightly more number of advertisements (24 cases) than that of articles (18 cases) in the magazine. Most of advertisements are about processed foods and children' favorite foods. Especially, the advertisement of processed foods are ranked first by the quantity with 245 cases (75%) in the newspaper. In the magazine, 10 cases (42%) are about processed foods. About source of advertisements on diet informations in the newspaper, there are 300 cases (86.7%) without evidence based data and 34 cases (9.8%) of interview with entertainers, from the total 346 cases. In the magazine, there are high rate of cases without evidence based data and interview with entertainers. For the evaluation of the information about diet in the newspaper, there are 148 cases (19.7%) with no clear guidance and position, some cases with advertisements for specific products and etc. Discordance between subjects and contents, and emphasis of specified field or some parts are found from the total 750 cases. About the accuracy of contents, from the total 180 cases in the newspaper, 99 cases (55%) are inappropriate and 19 cases (10.6%) are appropriate. In magazines from the total 18 cases, 7 cases (38.9%) are inappropriate and 11 cases (61.1%) are appropriate. With these results, we can conclude that informations about diet in newspapers and magazine for children needs improvement. Therefore, for newspapers and magazines contents should be reported scienifically by inspecting contents and by taking professional advice, in order to spread the accurate information about diet. Also, there are need to manage the systematic monitoring, for children.