Browsing by Subject "dietary guidelines"

In this sociolinguistic study that applies multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) methods the aim was to examine what kinds of ideas of health are expressed in the American dietary guidelines and what kind of health discourse these ideas are a part of. Based on Machin and Mayr’s (2012) ideas on semiotic resources, linguistic and visual patterns, that can communicate ideas, ideologies, power patterns, attitudes and other messages, the study focuses on ten pages of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025. The expressed sentence structures and word choices, among other visual and linguistic factors, are evaluated, and then connected to the sociocultural background. This qualitative sociolinguistic study found that through the choices the authors and other creators of the U.S. dietary guidelines report 2020-2025 have made, the Guidelines express neoliberal health views and contribute to health discourse that has the potential to sustain similar views. Linguistic and visual analysis concludes that especially the individual’s responsibility and freedom are underlined in the Guidelines’ language and content. The analysis also notes the contrasting expression of the role of the environmental factors, such as the food and retail establishments and manufacturers, and the multimodal aspects that in addition to the neoliberal discourse of health express other discourses of health.