In recent years, Ozempic has gained significant attention worldwide and has evolved from a medical treatment for type 2 diabetes to a popular weight-loss solution. However, its use for non-therapeutic purposes has sparked concerns among health care professionals about potential risks, especially given the lack of long-term studies on its effects in weight management. This article examines how Ozempic is linguistically represented in the Spanish online press, particularly in relation to obesity and overweight, through a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach. For our study, we compiled a corpus of 174 news articles published between October 2022 and February 2025 from four Spanish national news websites (El Economista, El Mundo, El País, and El Confidencial) using the Nexis database. The results show that media discourses surrounding Ozempic not only promote it as a quick solution for weight loss, but also reinforce societal ideologies about body image, health, and acceptability. By medicalising weight issues, the Spanish online press perpetuates the idea that obesity is an individual problem, neglecting structural factors like poverty and genetics and contributing to the stigmatisation of obesity through language.
utppublishing.com
Veronika Koller
Delighted that Jennifer Moreno has a forthcoming article in the J of Language and Discrimination which she worked on while visiting @lancslinguistics.bsky.social ("The Ozempic Phenomenon: Linguistic representations of weight issues in the Spanish press"). Always go for a suitable top journal first!
