 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Caren Bacon, BS, Charlene Caburnay, MPH, and Matthew W. Kreuter, PhD, MPH. Health Communication Research Laboratory, School of Public Health, Saint Louis University, 3545 Lafayette Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63104, 314-977-4079, baconcl@slu.edu
Currently, Missouri ranks 3rd in the nation for smoking prevalence among adults, and rates have made no statistically significant decrease during the past 15 years. This study seeks to examine the link between tobacco stories, the use of personal angle, and the frequency of preventive recommendations during television news broadcasts. We tracked two small-market, local television news programs from June 1999 to July 2002. The stories were content analyzed for tobacco information, the frequency of access frames used (e.g. personal angle) and prevention information in tobacco-related news stories. About 61% of tobacco news stories provided primary prevention recommendations and 37% provided no prevention information at all. When a personal angle was used for tobacco stories, a majority of the time the story involved an interview with a victim of a tobacco-related disease and/or a current smoker. In tobacco stories with a personal angle, primary prevention information or no prevention information was provided to viewers. Currently, little emphasis is being placed on information to help quit smoking on local television news. Efforts may be increased to also include smoking cessation information as an important priority along with providing smoking initiation prevention information.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Tobacco, Media
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.