Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Catherine Siebel, MA, Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1747 West Roosevelt Road, Room 558, Chicago, IL 60608, 312-355-4551, csiebel@uic.edu and Katherine Clegg Smith, PhD, Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 624 N. Broadway Rm 726, Baltimore, MD 21205.

As one component of the SmokeLess States evaluation, the media tracking project was designed to assess how newspapers reported tobacco-related stories. To that end, a random sample of articles (n = 40,221) was drawn from every daily, English-speaking newspaper in the United States. These articles were coded for prominence, type, content, and tone, creating an enormous database of coverage for analysis.

This presentation has two primary goals. First, it will explore statistically significant patterns of news coverage, focusing on favorable and unfavorable coverage toward SLS policies. Second, it will attempt to bridge the gap between the typical quantitative presentation and the rich qualitative detail that is available but often overlooked.

Three case studies will be presented: coverage of the 2003 ban on smoking in all bars and restaurants in New York City; news treatment of cigarette taxes in six states; and variations in Associated Press stories across four key policy areas. These case studies were designed to complement the goals of the SLS evaluation by offering qualitative detail to the broad strokes provided by statistical analyses.

Learning Objectives:

• To assess the role of the news media in evaluating nationwide programs;
• To evaluate the methodological and theoretical relationship between the statistical power of quantitative analyses and the detail offered by qualitative case studies.

Keywords: Tobacco, Media

Related Web page: www.impacteen.org/states/default.htm

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No