Sender and receiver

The article “How Britain got so fat” was written by Sarah Boseley in 2014 and published in the British newspaper The Guardian and in her book The Shape We’re In.

Sender

As a sender, Sarah Boseley comes across as credible and reliable. First of all, by the time the article was written, Boseley was already an award-winning journalist for her reports on HIV/Aids in Africa. The fact that she is the health editor of the British newspaper The Guardian further positions her as an expert on health-related topics.

At the same time, you should consider the writer’s personal opinions which are often blunt and suggest that Sarah Boseley is critical of the role politicians and the food industry have in perpetuating the problem of obesity in the UK: “There has been no comprehensive plan from any political party to tackle the obesogenic environment.” (ll. 126-128); “We are ill-served by many of the bodies held up as experts in food and nutrition, because they are not impartial. They take money from big corporations…” (ll. 145-148).

Boseley's opinion is also critical towards those who blame individuals for becoming overweight:

But can you really make that judgment of Georgia at the age of seven, who even then weighed 70kg (11 stone) and whom Lesley admits she fed with condensed milk as a baby, weaning her on to tinned potatoes and later filling her up with fried eggs and chips? (ll. 97-103)

Receiver

The receivers of the article are readers of British newspaper The Guardian or those who buy the author’s book featuring the article, The Shape We’re In. Considering that The Guardian is a left-oriented newspaper, we can assume that most of the readers also hold leftist views (support social equality, welfare policies, etc.). 

Given that the article is available online on the website of the newspaper, we can assume that any English-speaking person around the world is a potential receiver of the text.

As the article was also included in the author’s...