Newspaper coverage of a legislative initiative

News organizations are an important and influential part of the public and policymakers' view of public health policy. This influence comes both from the news organizations choice of issues and by the nature and extent of the chosen issues. An understanding of this influence is particularly important when dealing with controversial and/or complex public health policies. This paper will examine the coverage of one such policy - the Oklahoma initiative to close the loopholes in the clean indoor air law. In the 2003 legislative session Oklahoma passed legislation banning smoking in workplaces and public places. Although at the time a very strong law, the legislation contained exemptions for stand-alone bars and allowed separately ventilated smoking rooms. No work could be conducted in these smoking rooms in most businesses; restaurants were allowed to conduct business in their smoking room. Because of sovereignty tribal facilities are not included. A coalition of organizations chose closing the loopholes as their legislative initiative for the 2010 legislative session. A subscription to a clipping service provides articles from most newspapers in the state with a focus on tobacco. These articles are catalogued in a database. All articles coded as secondhand smoke or legislation were included in this analysis. A content analysis was conducted to determine frame for or against the increase and the presence of key messages. The influence of tribal issues were also examined.