The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #71395

Katherine Clegg Smith, PhD¹, Melanie Wakefield, PhD², Yvonne Terry-McElrath, MSA³, Sherry Emery, PhD⁴, Lloyd Johnston, PhD³, Patrick O'Malley, PhD³, and Frank Chaloupka, PhD⁵. (1) Health Research & Policy Centers, University of Illinois - Chicago, 850 West Jackson Blvd., Suite 400, Chicago, IL 60607, 312-996-4960, kmcsmith@uic.edu, (2) Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria, Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, 100 Drummond Street, Carlton, Victoria, 3053, Australia, (3) Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Survey Research Center, Room 2341, 426 Thompson Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2321, (4) Health Research and Policy Centers, University of Illinois at Chicago, 850 W Jackson Blvd., Suite 400, Chicago, IL 60607, (5) Health Research and Policy Centers (M/C 275), University of Illinois at Chicago, 850 West Jackson Blvd, Suite 400, Chicago, IL 60607-3025

Most tobacco control programs include media advocacy efforts aiming to shape news coverage of tobacco issues. There has, however, been limited systematic study of its influence on smoking-related beliefs and behavior, especially among youth. Newspaper coverage is unlikely to directly influence youth, but press coverage both shapes and reflects local circumstances that influence youth smoking.

The nationwide Youth Smoking and the Media (YSM) study tracked a sample of 1/3 of all articles from daily newspapers covering tobacco issues in 424 US communities in 2000-2001, corresponding to sites in which the annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) school survey was administered. Articles were coded for date and publication locale, prominence, 13 content areas within tobacco control, and two measures of slant (positive, negative, mixed or neutral for tobacco control objectives), reflecting the event being reported, and the writer’s opinion. Newspaper circulation rate data in the relevant communities allowed us to attribute a likelihood of exposure to particular tobacco related issues and perspectives for each community for each month. Community-level data were matched with individual-level data from MTF respondents. We report on multi-level analyses exploring the relationship between the amount and type of tobacco-related news coverage in a community and youth attitudes and beliefs about smoking.

Funded by the NCI State and Community Tobacco Control Initiative (#RO1 CA86273-01)

Learning Objectives:

Describe the content and slant of newspaper articles on tobacco and variation between communities
• Assess the relationship between tobacco-related press coverage and youth smoking-related attitudes, beliefs and behaviors
• Discuss implications for tobacco-related media advocacy

Keywords: Tobacco Control, Tobacco Policy

Related Web page: www.impacteen.org/media/home.htm

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.