Press coverage as a factor in the success of tobacco tax initiatives: A textual analysis

Katherine Clegg Smith, PhD¹, Catherine Siebel, MA², Frank Chaloupka, PhD³, and Yvonne Lachmann, BA¹. (1) Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins University, 624 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, 410 502-0025, kasmith@jhsph.edu, (2) Health Research & Policy Centers, University of Illinois - Chicago, 850 West Jackson Blvd., Suite 400, Chicago, IL 60607, (3) Health Research and Policy Centers (M/C 275), University of Illinois at Chicago, 850 West Jackson Blvd, Suite 400, Chicago, IL 60607-3025

Current literature identifies cigarette excise increases as integral to effective tobacco control policy. Increased tobacco taxes prevent initiation, reduce smoking levels, increase cessation activity, and create potential funding sources to support tobacco control initiatives. Tax increases often meet with considerable public resistance, however, making this a potentially contentious policy goal. Improving understanding of how and why tax initiatives succeed and fail is an important objective for public health advocates. 2002 was a key tobacco tax year: tobacco control efforts and enormous state deficits both contributed to more than 30 states introducing tobacco tax initiatives, 21 of which were passed. Our goal is to use this unusual circumstance to begin to understand the factors underlying the success or failure of states’ taxation initiatives.

The news media is an important outlet for policy information, yet the precise nature of the media’s influence on policy success is not well understood. We seek to unpack the relationship between newspaper coverage of tax initiatives in a sample of seven states that experienced varying degrees of success in raising tax (Arizona, Connecticut, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee) and the success of the initiatives themselves. Our data consist of newspaper articles on taxation from the seven states in 2002 (n=1,693). We conduct an in-depth, qualitative textual analysis of coverage in each state with the aim of identifying key arguments being used to support/oppose tax increases, and to consider the factors making such arguments resonate with the public and policy makers.

Learning Objectives:

This presentation will analyze the nature of press coverage of tax initiatives in states with varying degrees of success in increasing cigarette taxes. The objective is to compare the nature of coverage in these states, and to identify both the most powerful arguments and strategies employed both in favor and opposition of tax increases.

At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

1. Evaluate existing literature on the effects of media advocacy on the success of policy initiatives.
2. List several key arguments formulated in the press in favor and opposition to tobacco tax increases.
3. Consider implications of the power of rhetoric for future tobacco control policy initiatives.

Keywords: Tobacco Taxation, Tobacco Control

Related Web page: www.impacteen.org/relatedprojects.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.

Tobacco and the Media: Mass Media and the Press

The 132nd Annual Meeting (November 6-10, 2004) of APHA