Media portrayal of Maori and bariatric surgery in Aotearoa/New Zealand

AIM: Media constructs in Aotearoa, New Zealand naturalise the dominant Western culture. Conversely, mainstream news about Maori is rare and prioritises negative stereotypical constructs that are often centred on Maori as economic threats via resource control and political activism. These narratives influence continued discrimination against Maori in New Zealand. Media representations of bariatric surgery in New Zealand are not widely understood. We explored the portrayal of Maori and bariatric surgery in print and online news media articles in New Zealand using an inductive approach to thematic analysis. METHOD: An electronic search of two databases (Proquest Australia/New Zealand Newsstream and Newztext) and two New Zealand news media websites (Stuff and the New Zealand Herald) was performed to retrieve news articles reporting stories, opinion pieces or editorials concerning Maori and bariatric surgery published between January 2007 to June 2017. Articles were scored using a five-point scale to assess the level of reporting as either very negative, negative, neutral, positive or very positive. Included articles were then subjected to inductive thematic analysis using the NVIVO 11 to identify and explore common themes surrounding Maori and bariatric surgery. RESULTS: Of 246 articles related to bariatric surgery over the 10-year study period, 31 (13%) were representative of Maori. Articles were scored as 'neutral' to 'positive' with a mean reporting score of 3.7 (Kappa score of 0.72 [95% CI, 0.66-0.78, p<0.0001]). Five main themes were identified, these were: Attitudes towards bariatric surgery; complexity of obesity and weight loss; access to bariatric surgery; Maori advocacy and framing of Maori. Of the five themes, access to bariatric surgery and attitudes towards bariatric surgery were most prevalent. Maori advocacy was another common theme that arose largely due to the support of public funding of bariatric surgery championed by Dame Tariana Turia. Aside from this, narratives describing equity of bariatric surgery provision and equitable outcomes following bariatric surgery for Maori were sparse. CONCLUSION: There was limited reporting on Maori health inequalities and equitable access to publicly funded bariatric surgery in New Zealand. We argue that this lack of coverage may work against addressing disparities in obesity prevalence and access to publicly funded bariatric surgery for Maori in New Zealand.