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Article Excerpt
FEW APPROACHES ARE MORE EFFECTIVE in reducing misuse of alcohol and illegal drugs than the passage and enforcement of substance control policies (Toomey and Wagenaar, 2003). In turn, the importance of news coverage in influencing public concerns about issues, including alcohol-related issues, has been supported (Slater and Rasinski, 2005). Evidence also suggests that news coverage can influence individual behaviors such as drunk driving in part via its influence on public policy (Stryker, 2003; Yanovitzky and Stryker, 2001). Knowledge of the nature of U.S. news coverage regarding alcohol and other substances, therefore, is necessary to understand the potential influence of such coverage, as well as to identify shortcomings in coverage that may be addressed through media advocacy efforts (Dorfman, 2003).
The present study uses a national sample of local newspaper and television news (with an analysis of more than 10,000 news stories) as well as national television news during a 2-year period that more closely approximates national representativeness than any prior study of which we are aware. This sample permits us to characterize U.S. news coverage with an unprecedented degree of confidence. We also characterize coverage of illegal drugs to provide a point of comparison. In particular, we focus on coverage of the role of alcohol and illegal drugs in motor vehicle-related incidents, other unintended injury, and violent crime. Our objectives in this study are the following: (1) to determine the percentage of stories on violent crime and other injury that address the link between alcohol use or illegal drugs, (2) to characterize the frames of coverage for alcohol and illegal drugs, and (3) to ascertain whether coverage differs as a function of topic or media type.
Findings of prior studies of alcohol-related news coverage
Most key studies have examined news stories that are primarily focused on alcohol as a social or political issue as opposed to (as in this study) looking more broadly at stories that touch on alcohol as a contributing or related factor in crime and other injuries (e.g., Dorfman et al., 1997; Lemmens et al., 1999). In an examination of California newspapers, Myhre et al. (2002) found that 58% of news stories about alcohol use focused on individual behavior choices and responsibility (referred to as an episodic frame), 24% focused on environmental issues requiring policy intervention (a thematic frame), and 17% addressed both.
The present study builds on previous studies by broadly examining news coverage, as was done by Myhre et al. (2002) but with respect to a much more representative national sample of both television stations and daily newspapers. We will follow Lemmens et al. (1999) in examining both the valence and the type of coverage in some detail; we will move beyond prior research by analyzing the relationship between alcohol and violent crime, motor vehicle crashes, and other unintended injury present in this coverage, a relationship likely to influence perceptions of risk and support for alcohol-control policies.
Research on risk perceptions suggests that the amount of news coverage of a given risk is a major determinant of people's risk judgments (Combs and Slovic, 1978; Lichtenstein et al., 1979). We believe it unlikely that news coverage of crime and unintended injury fully reflects the very substantial contribution of alcohol to these sources of injury (see Smith et al., 1999).
Hypothesis 1. The proportion of news stories associating violent crime and other injury-producing incidents with alcohol use will be significantly less than public health estimates of corresponding alcohol-attributable fractions.
Moreover, we expect that the extent of underreporting will be greater for violent crime than for motor vehicle incidents, despite estimates that suggest an even greater percentage of violent deaths are associated with alcohol use than are associated with drunk driving (Smith et al., 1999). Drunk driving has been the focus of a great deal of public health concern and public policy attention for decades. As a result, blood alcohol concentrations are typically tested in serious or fatal car crashes; therefore, this information is often readily available to news reporters. In contrast, relatively little policy attention has been paid to the contribution of alcohol to interpersonal violence. Therefore, we expect that the news media will be less likely to mention the possible contribution of alcohol consumption to violent acts.
Hypothesis 2. The proportion of news stories associating traffic-related injuries and alcohol use will be significantly greater than the proportion of news stories associating violent crime and alcohol use.
Public concern is also likely to be a function of the news frames that characterize news coverage of alcohol and illegal drugs. Knowledge about these patterns can provide public health advocates with insights to help guide media advocacy efforts. We therefore ask the following research questions: How were stories that mention alcohol framed? How did these frames vary by media type, and how did they differ from those used in stories about illegal drugs?
Method
Sample
The following three types of news media outlets were sampled: television news, newspapers, and national news magazines. To obtain a reasonably representative sample of local television newscasts and daily newspapers, we stratified media outlets across the country based on their designated market areas (DMA), which is the most widely used approach to defining media markets (Standard Rate and Data Service, 2000).
We sampled news outlets such that their probability of inclusion in the...
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