Guest posting by Kylie Balotin
A recent lecture by Tim Caulfield about the influence of celebrities on public health made me think of how pervasive health advice from celebrities is in the media. Let’s face it – we all want to know how celebrities maintain their figures and looks, and we are fascinated by the diets and health habits they follow. However, this can be detrimental to our health, especially since scientific studies have shown that these diets are not usually beneficial. We need to make changes in order to promote healthy living in our society. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, scientists need to become more engaged and share their studies to make sure that correct information reaches the public, but this is not the only change that needs to occur. The education system and media must also change in order to educate people on how to live healthily.
Caulfield suggested an education reform that would teach students how to be more critical about what they read, especially when it pertains to celebrities’ advice. I agree that it’s important to teach young students to look for important information in articles, but the holes in our education run much deeper. During middle school and high school, I was only required to take 2 health classes that usually focused on scare tactics to ensure that students won’t smoke, drink, or get an STD. The focus was not on how to eat well or maintain a lifestyle to improve one’s overall health. We have to reform our health education curriculum to focus on these topics in order to provide the information young people need in order to enable them to live a healthy life.
In addition to changing our health education curriculum, we need to redefine the purpose of media such as magazines. It’s fun to read about what celebrities are doing and how they are maintaining their figures, but we need to make sure correct information is given. The media has a responsibility, not only to entertain, but also to provide the public with legitimate information. This is especially true for media targeting young populations such as Seventeen magazine. I remember being interested in celebrities’ diets and workout regimens in this magazine and being so disappointed when they didn’t seem to work for me. This can be detrimental to young people’s self-confidence and discourage them from trying other methods that could actually improve their well-being. Magazines should follow a style similar to the blog Celebrity Diagnosis, which reports on celebrities’ health advice and gives medical facts with regard to their recommendations. This blog is able to keep topics entertaining without losing the scientific facts that readers need to know, which should be the goal of the media, in general.
We should improve how health advice is communicated in our society by reforming the health education system, redefining the purpose of the media when it comes to celebrity health advice, and encouraging scientists to speak out about their studies on health and diets, especially since information is becoming so easy to spread on the Internet. It is critical for people to learn how to scrutinize magazine and media articles to determine if the information provided is accurate and coming from knowledgeable sources. If correct information can be distributed through these areas, people will better equipped to make good decisions regarding their health.
*Hyperlink to: http://www.celebritydiagnosis.com/