Body Image Drives New Environment for News Delivery

Abstract

Body shape and aesthetics have been identified as a key driver of human motivations and actions. Of six key facets of body shape identified in the literature, five are variables which can be changed directly by attendance at regular exercise sessions in fitness clubs and we suggest these have driven club membership increases and challenged both the Habermasian nature of public sphere activity and its locus, which influences the nature and practice of various kinds of journalism. This article identifies club membership activities in health and fitness clubs (gymnasiums) in Europe, North America and Australia during 2006, as precursors to established standard conversational public sphere activity noted in 2008, and the clubs themselves (in general) as important emerging modern sites of such public sphere activity, driven by the intensification of sports news programming on cable television, the development of the wireless theatre and other services aimed at increasing fitness club memberships. At the centre of this, the worldwide phenomenon of the media-equipped ‘cardio-theatre’ in fitness clubs is described and evaluated as a significant journalism and business environment. Business and research opportunities are identified.