%0 Journal Article
%T Online news comments as a public sphere forum: Deliberations on Canadian children¡¯s physical activity habits
%A Lisa McDermott
%J International Review for the Sociology of Sport
%@ 1461-7218
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1012690216644444
%X While considerable scholarly research has examined online media¡¯s function as a public sphere forum, surprisingly little analysis has extended to examining the public¡¯s actual deliberations of the covered issue(s). Recognizing this gap, this discussion conceives online news comments in response to a CBCNews (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation online news) article reporting the release of Active Healthy Kids Canada¡¯s 2010 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth as such a forum. Children¡¯s physical (in)activity habits have become a central focus of various realms (e.g. medical, government, public health, educational and media), which have increasingly framed them as a pressing societal concern. And while the discursive effects of such representations have been subject to critical cultural analysis, not examined to date is the public¡¯s understanding of this issue. The online comments posted in response to the CBCNews article are thus used as an occasion to examine some of the Canadian public¡¯s sense-making of this ¡°problem¡± in terms of the discourses they invoked in their deliberations
%K children
%K obesity
%K physical activity
%K online news comments
%K overweight
%K public sphere
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1012690216644444