In a Poetics article co-authored with Tyler Bateman and Shyon Baumann, we investigate how meat is covered in public discourse. We use topic modelling to map the discourse as it appears in news media and on blogs. We find that meat is a commodity with a highly ambiguous status. On the one hand, it is connected to environmental risks, health risks, and business risks. On the other hand, meat has a benign, taken-for-granted quality that makes these risks disappear from public view. When we compare how newspapers and blogs discuss meat, we find that blogs tend to give more emphasis to meat’s risks.
Hats off to Dr. Alexandra Rodney, who successfully defended her dissertation! Entitled “Healthy is the New Thin: The Discursive Production of Women’s Healthy Living Media,” Ali’s dissertation is an analysis of healthy living blogs and other media. It asks, “how do these media shape people’s ideas about gender, health, food and the body?” Her research provides fascinating insights on how healthy living bloggers are changing the conversation about which foods are defined as healthy, and on who gets to be considered a health ‘expert.’ It was an honour to work with Ali on this research, and I learned so much from the process.
Josée Johnston 