An Exploratory Content Analysis of the Use of Health Communication Strategies and Presence of Objectification in Fitness Influencer Social Media Posts

Abstract

Health and fitness content intended to inspire people to live healthy lives (e.g. “fitspiration”) has been linked to negative body image among girls and young women. Fitness influencers purport wanting to motivate healthy behaviors. This study seeks to examine the presence of strategies known to positively influence health behaviors (e.g. attitudes, self-efficacy) as well as of content known to have a negative influence (e.g. objectification) among fitness influencers. We conducted a content analysis (N = 441) of a random sample of one year of posts from four Instagram fitness influencers popular with girls and young women in the United States. The main analysis consisted of codes related to objectification, health promotion strategies, health-related content, and social engagement (i.e., likes). We found that fitness influencers included content that conveyed constructs previously found to positively influence health behaviors (e.g., attitudes and self-efficacy), but objectification was frequently present, in more than half of the posts. Additionally, we found that the presence of objectification in posts was negatively associated with likes, a form of social endorsement. We suggest health communicators aim to work in tandem with fitness influencers to include content that may motivate positive health behaviors and improve media literacy and that influencers aim to reduce the amount of objectifying content included in their posts. Our findings shed light on content being conveyed and possible insights into the negative effects associated with viewing such content.

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