Authority and Solidarity : how Institutional Websites in the US and the UK Communicate Nutritional Guidelines for Children

The importance of a healthy diet has been promoted in recent decades in a wide range of countries. Both private and public organisations have shown interest and concern for nutrition-related communication, increasingly targeting their social and marketing initiatives to specific age groups (Abbott 1977; Featherstone 2007; Scollon 2005). Governments agencies may count on the unique position they hold to promote health and sustainable development as they have direct responsibility for key issues that have a major impact on the health of their citizens and/or because they represent the natural convenors of locally based agencies and citizens’ groups and community organizations. As a part of an ongoing research project on the representation of different age groups in health and dietary communication, this study presents results from an exploratory analysis conducted on selected institutional websites, in the US and the UK, providing eating guidelines for children. The main purpose of the research is to identify salient discursive features deployed, giving special attention to the lexis and phraseology used to refer to actors and the roles they are assigned. More specifically, the study will examine possible differences (or similarities) between the two datasets in the way language reflects upon such a topical issue. To what extent do ‘power’ and ‘solidarity’ act as the main ideological constructs which give meaning to and shape the concept of health? What communicative strategies are adopted to foster health-promoting initiatives, community participation, and the design and implementation of action-based plans? This study will focus on the interplay between features that seem to serve a social and informational function and those that seem to promote governmental initiatives (Bozeman, 1987).