The Good News About Smoking: How do US Newspapers Cover Tobacco Issues?
TL;DR: Strong evidence for newsworthiness is found, and a tendency for coverage to highlight policy approaches to tackling tobacco, and areas where tobacco control efforts seem to pushing against ideological boundaries are revealed.
Abstract: Media advocacy, or advocacy seeking media attention, can shape the policy environment, but the relationship between the nature of news media coverage of public health topics and policy outcomes has received insufficient research attention. We present the first large-scale study of news coverage of tobacco to focus on the potential impact for policy outcomes. Through our analysis of 9859 tobacco-focused news articles from ioo leading US daily newspapers between 2001 and 2003 we examined whether tobacco issues are newsworthy, and if so, whether coverage is favorable to policy progress. We found strong evidence for news-worthiness, and a tendency for coverage to highlight policy approaches to tackling tobacco. Coverage emphasized successes rather than setbacks, and newspaper editors lent support to tobacco control positions. There were, however, areas that did not garner sufficient attention to sustain a meaningful policy message. Our analysis of coverage of controversial issues also revealed areas where tobacco control efforts seem to pushing against ideological boundaries.
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TL;DR: A diversity of generally undocumented yet pervasive markers of the “spoiled identity” of smoking, smokers and the tobacco industry are identified, illustrated with examples from Australia, a nation with advanced tobacco control.
Abstract: Background: In nations with histories of declining smoking prevalence and comprehensive tobacco control policies, smoking-positive cultures have been severely eroded. Smoking, smokers and the tobacco industry are today routinely depicted in everyday discourse and media representations in a variety of overwhelmingly negative ways. Several authors have invoked Erving Goffman’s notions of stigmatisation to describe the process and impact of this radical transformation, which importantly includes motivating smoking cessation. Efforts to describe nations’ progress toward comprehensive tobacco control have hitherto taken little account of the role of cultural change to the meaning of smoking and the many ways in which it has become denormalised. Methods: This paper identifies a diversity of generally undocumented yet pervasive markers of the “spoiled identity” of smoking, smokers and the tobacco industry, illustrated with examples from Australia, a nation with advanced tobacco control. Results: We caution about some important negative consequences arising from the stigmatisation of smokers. Conclusions: We recommend that schemes rating the comprehensiveness of national tobacco control should be supplemented by documentation of markers of this denormalisation.
278 citations
TL;DR: Gaining and keeping tobacco on the media agenda is an important tool for tackling youth smoking as volume appears to be the driving factor, media advocacy may be best targeted towards generating events and highlighting issues likely to increase and sustain news attention.
Abstract: Objective: Geographic variation in youth smoking prevalence suggests that community-level factors influence risk of tobacco use. We examine the extent to which newspaper coverage of tobacco issues is related to youth smoking attitudes and behaviours. Design: We conducted a content analysis of 8390 newspaper articles on tobacco issues from 386 daily newspapers circulating at 5% or more in 2001–3 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey communities. This resulted in the creation of community level measures of news volume, content and valence. Associations between news and youth outcomes were assessed using logistic regression analyses adjusting for individual, geographic and tobacco policy factors linked to youth smoking and attitudes. Subjects: 98 747 youth participating in the nationally representative school-based MTF annual surveys between 2001 and 2003. Main outcome measures: Perceived harm of smoking, perceived peer smoking, disapproval of smoking, smoking within the past 30 days, daily cigarette consumption. Results: In the five months preceding survey administration, newspapers in MTF communities published an average of 11.9 tobacco related articles (range 0–55.7). Each 10-article increase in newspaper volume over the five-month period was associated with increased odds of perceiving great harm from smoking (OR = 1.04, p Conclusions: Gaining and keeping tobacco on the media agenda is an important tool for tackling youth smoking. As volume appears to be the driving factor, media advocacy may be best targeted towards generating events and highlighting issues likely to increase and sustain news attention.
59 citations
TL;DR: Reviewing studies analysing media coverage of non-communicable disease (NCD) debates, focusing on how the industries marketing commodities that increase NCD risk are represented, indicates coverage tends to be dominated by two contrasting frames.
Abstract: Media representations play a crucial role in informing public and policy opinions about the causes of, and solutions to, ill-health. This paper reviews studies analysing media coverage of non-communicable disease (NCD) debates, focusing on how the industries marketing commodities that increase NCD risk are represented. A scoping review identified 61 studies providing information on media representations of NCD risks, NCD policies and tobacco, alcohol, processed food and soft drinks industries. The data were narratively synthesized to describe the sample, media depictions of industries, and corporate and public health attempts to frame the media debates. The findings indicate that: (i) the limited research that has been undertaken is dominated by a focus on tobacco; (ii) comparative research across industries/risk-factors is particularly lacking; and (iii) coverage tends to be dominated by two contrasting frames and focuses either on individual responsibilities (‘market justice’ frames, often promoted by commercial stakeholders) or on the need for population-level interventions (‘social justice’ frames, frequently advanced by public health advocates). Establishing the underlying frameworks is crucial for the analysis of media representation of corporations, as they reflect the strategies that respective actors use to influence public health debates and decision making. The potential utility of media research lies in the insights that it can provide for public health policy advocates about successful framing of public health messages and strategies to counter frames that undermine public health goals. A better understanding of current media debates is of paramount importance to improving global health.
56 citations
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: Bridging the Gap (BTG) is a collaborative research initiative supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that examines these factors at multiple levels of social organization, including schools, communities, and states as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: BACKGROUND
Bridging the Gap (BTG) is a collaborative research initiative supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Ten years ago, BTG was created to assess the impact of policies, programs, and other environmental influences on adolescent alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use and related outcomes. This multidisciplinary, multisite initiative examines these factors at multiple levels of social organization, including schools, communities, and states. More recently, the significant increases in obesity among children, adolescents, and adults led BTG to expand its efforts to include research on the role of policies, programs, and other factors on adolescent obesity and the physical inactivity and dietary habits that contribute to this growing problem. Eleven papers resulting from BTG's obesity-related research are contained in this supplement, along with two papers describing the National Cancer Institute-supported efforts to track relevant state policies.
METHODS
Bridging the Gap involves a variety of data-collection efforts built largely around the Monitoring the Future (MTF) surveys of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students. These include: surveys of administrators in the MTF schools that gather extensive information on the school food environment, physical education in schools, and other relevant information; collection of contextual information from the communities in which the MTF schools are located; tracking of relevant state policies; and gathering of a wide variety of data from archival and commercial databases. These databases are analyzed individually and in various combinations.
DISCUSSION
Bridging the Gap's extensive research has shown the importance of a range of school, community, state, and other influences in affecting adolescent substance use and related outcomes. BTG's early research on adolescent diet, physical activity, and obesity--much of which is contained in this supplement--similarly demonstrates the role of environmental factors in influencing these outcomes and in explaining observed racial/ethnic and socioeconomic-related disparities in them.
CONCLUSIONS
The growing recognition of the public health and economic consequences of childhood, adolescent, and adult obesity has led to a variety of policies, programs, and other interventions to stimulate healthy eating and physical activity, often despite the lack of evidence on their impact. BTG and others are working to build the evidence base for effective interventions to address this significant problem, but much remains to be learned.
55 citations
TL;DR: US newspaper coverage of food systems’ effects on climate change during the study period increased, but still did not reflect the increasingly solid evidence of the importance of these effects.
Abstract: Background: There is strong evidence that what we eat and how it is produced affects climate change. Objective: The present paper examines coverage of food system contributions to climate change in top US newspapers. Design: Using a sample of sixteen leading US newspapers from September 2005 to January 2008, two coders identified ‘food and climate change’ and ‘climate change’ articles based on specified criteria. Analyses examined variation across time and newspaper, the level of content relevant to food systems’ contributions to climate change, and how such content was framed. Results: There were 4582 ‘climate change’ articles in these newspapers during this period. Of these, 2?4% mentioned food or agriculture contributions, with 0?4% coded as substantially focused on the issue and 0?5% mentioning food animal contributions. The level of content on food contributions to climate change increased across time. Articles initially addressed the issue primarily in individual terms, expanding to address business and government responsibility more in later articles. Conclusions: US newspaper coverage of food systems’ effects on climate change during the study period increased, but still did not reflect the increasingly solid evidence of the importance of these effects. Increased coverage may lead to responses by individuals, industry and government. Based on co-benefits with nutritional public health messages and climate change’s food security threats, the public health nutrition community has an important role to play in elaborating and disseminating information about food and climate change for the US media.
54 citations
Cites background from "The Good News About Smoking: How do..."
...It is established that media coverage plays a key role in shaping which issues are considered important by the public and elected officials((31,32)) and that it can be associated with behaviour change((33))....
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References
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Book•
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: The Sociology of News examines journalism as a social institution and analyzes the variety of forces and factors-economic, technological, political, cultural, organizational-that shape the news media today as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The Sociology of News reviews and synthesizes not only what is happening to journalism but also what is happening to the scholarly understanding of journalism. In the Second Edition, each chapter of the book has been updated to account for the radical changes that have reshaped the news industry over the last decade. With a new chapter on the sharp contraction of the news business in the United States since 2007, The Sociology of News examines journalism as a social institution and analyzes the variety of forces and factors-economic, technological, political, cultural, organizational-that shape the news media today.
987 citations
Book•
07 Oct 1993
TL;DR: Media Advocacy and Public Health lays out the theoretical framework and practical guidelines to media advocacy strategies, and eight case studies illustrate how media advocacy has been successfully applied.
Abstract: Media Advocacy and Public Health develops the concept of media advocacy as a central strategy for the prevention of public health problems. How we think about health problems, and what we do about them, is largely determined by how they are reported on television, radio, and in the newspaper. Often, crucial issues of public health policy are discussed and decided only after they are made visible by the media. A traditional communication strategy like social marketing focuses on giving people a message. Media advocacy gives people a voice. Media Advocacy and Public Health lays out the theoretical framework and practical guidelines to media advocacy strategies. Eight case studies, ranging from alcohol to AIDS, illustrate how media advocacy has been successfully applied.
This resource is part of the Public Health Advocacy Website Collection.
345 citations
TL;DR: Results of empirical studies on cigarette advertising and promotions, antismoking advertising, product placement in movies, on television and in music media and news coverage about smoking conclude that the media both shape and reflect social values about smoking.
Abstract: This paper summarizes results of empirical studies on cigarette advertising and promotions, antismoking advertising, product placement in movies, on television and in music media and news coverage about smoking. In addition, we provide an overview of some of the theoretical literature relevant to the study of media uses and effects. Finally, we discuss empirical findings in the context of these theories to draw some conclusions about media influences on smoking and identify issues for further research. We conclude that (a) the media both shape and reflect social values about smoking; (b) the media provide new information about smoking directly to audiences; (c) the media act as a source of observational learning by providing models which teenagers may seek to emulate; (d) exposure to media messages about smoking also provides direct reinforcement for smoking or not smoking; (e) the media promote interpersonal discussion about smoking; (f) the media can influence ‘intervening’ behaviors that may make teenage smoking less likely; and (g) antismoking media messages can also set the agenda for other change at the community, state or national level. We outline priorities for further research which emphasize the need for longitudinal studies, multi-level studies, an awareness of the probably dynamic relationship between tobacco advertising and antismoking advertising, the importance of determining appraisal of tobacco industry youth smoking prevention efforts and the dearth of research on news coverage about smoking.
317 citations
TL;DR: It is concluded that while the tobacco industry has created a central message and theme which has been used constructively and consistently over time, the tobacco control movement has not developed a consistent, powerful, and compelling message.
Abstract: For more than three decades, public policy makers and public health officials have had conclusive evidence of the hazards of tobacco use, yet tobacco products remain legal, accessible, and acceptable in our society. Public health advocates have been unable to develop a consistent, coordinated message powerful enough to combat the influence of the tobacco industry. Studying the way in which the tobacco issue has been framed in the mass media over the past decade may provide important clues as to why public health efforts to overcome the tobacco industry's influence on public policy and on tobacco use have not been entirely successful. This paper describes and analyzes the predominant framing tactics used by the tobacco industry and by tobacco control advocates for the last 11 years by reviewing 179 front-page articles from the New York Times and the Washington Post during this period. We conclude that while the tobacco industry has created a central message and theme which has been used constructively and consistently over time, the tobacco control movement has not developed a consistent, powerful, and compelling message. Developing such a message may be important if the nation is to restore progress in reducing tobacco use.
222 citations
TL;DR: The public reports paying the most attention to stories about public health, followed by health policy and disease-related stories, and individuals who follow health news stories closely are significantly more likely to give the correct answer to knowledge questions about those stories.
Abstract: The Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health Health News Index, a series of 39 surveys with a total of over 42,000 respondents from 1996 through 2002, measures how closely Americans follow major health stories in the news and what they understand about the issues covered in those stories. On average, four in ten adults reported following health news stories closely. The public reports paying the most attention to stories about public health, followed by health policy and disease-related stories. While knowledge about health news varies, individuals who follow health news stories closely are significantly more likely to give the correct answer to knowledge questions about those stories.
171 citations