Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in the UK press: A diachronic corpus-based analysis

Vilar Lluch, Sara and Knight, Dawn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4745-6502 2026. Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in the UK press: A diachronic corpus-based analysis. PLoS ONE 21 (4) , e0348079. 10.1371/journal.pone.0348079

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Abstract

News coverage of diabetes has been observed to promote diabetes stigma of both Type 1 (T1D) and Type 2 (T2D) diabetes, and to foreground individual responsibility over health outcomes. Adopting a corpus-based approach to discourse analysis, this study examines trends in media reporting around T1D and T2D in mainstream UK news media between 2020–2024. We consider: the linguistic representation of T1D/T2D; whether news reports include representations that could promote misunderstandings of T1D/T2D and contribute to perpetuating stigma; and whether language use aligns with recommendations in guidelines on diabetes communication. UK news coverage of T1D/T2D adopts medical and free will discourses while omitting references to social determinants of health (SDH) that can condition development and management of health conditions. While the medical discourse can help mitigate stigma, omitting references to SDH foregrounds individual agency and responsibility in adopting health-preventive behaviours while overlooking inequalities that may contribute to develop T2D or interfere with T1D/T2D management. Language recommended by the guidelines is increasingly adopted, but reduction in dispreferred language is less marked. References to diabetes ‘in general’, and references to diabetes in close context with unrelated conditions are common, leading to potential misunderstandings. Recommendations to improve communication include continuing the use of language recommended in diabetes guidelines and reducing uses of dispreferred language; referring to diabetes types to prevent misunderstandings; and taking special care when referring to other conditions to avoid inaccurate inferences of causality or similarity.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > English, Communication and Philosophy
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Publisher:	Public Library of Science
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	1 May 2026
Date of Acceptance:	12 April 2026
Last Modified:	05 Aug 2026 01:58
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/186730

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