PressEthic

From the Health Watch section of the CBS News website, via WebMD.com, an incredible story of women, obesity, and the spinning of facts.

This article ran today, curiously titled “iPod May Jam Off the Pounds.” The piece is about a weight study that made the groundbreaking conclusion that listening to music can help people stick to their workout, thus increasing weight loss. Is it just me, or is this more or less common knowledge? I mean, haven’t people been “Sweating to the Oldies” with Richard Simmons since the ‘80s?

The strangest thing is the title's exclusive mention of iPods for a story that is reporting on a study that didn’t even use them. So why the gratuitous mention? Maybe the title would have made sense if the article had noted that the ease with which iPods allow a person to create their own custom playlists has rekindled some people’s enthusiasm for exercise. I would buy into the suggestion that as iPods have become increasingly ubiquitous, people have enjoyed their workouts more. But the study really had nothing to do with iPods. It states:

The researchers randomly gave some of the women portable CD players and told them to listen to their choice of music while they walked. The other women walked without listening to music.

The result of the study was that the women who listened to music lost more body fat and weight and also worked out for longer.

This article is running with a graphic that could be an advertisement for an iPod. It is a picture of a scale with two iPods in the background, one with an image of the Lost crew in it and another with U2’s Bono. Is there any reason that this article should have encouraged the use of an iPod? Not really, based on the data of the weight survey.

On a side note, why was did this scientific test only involve women? By excluding men from the study, as well as making no mention of men anywhere in the story, it insinuates that obesity and weight loss are only women’s concerns, which is far from true.