Morrison Suzanne DePalma, Sutton Sonya F, Mebane Felicia E
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, USA.
N C Med J. 2006 Jul-Aug;67(4):255-9.
News organizations are an important and influential part of the social environment. They identify certain issues by the extent and nature of their coverage. To help explain what public health policy messages may have influenced school policy decisions, this content analysis provides an examination of newspaper coverage of North Carolinas 100% tobacco-free schools campaign.
Researchers searched LexisNexis for articles published in North Carolina newspapers between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2004 that included variations of "North Carolina tobacco-free schools." Researchers then conducted a descriptive analysis of 138 stories from nine North Carolina newspapers (approximately 4% of all the states newspapers) and used page placement and story type to examine the level of importance placed on the issue. Finally, frames for and against tobacco-free school policies were tracked, along with the presence of key messages presented by 100% TFS advocates.
The volume of news coverage changed throughout the study period, with peaks and valleys closely associated with external "trigger" events. In addition, a majority of the newspaper articles did not include key public health messages.
The results suggest an opportunity for public health experts and officials to work more effectively with local journalists to increase the use (and impact) of public health messages in news coverage of tobacco policies affecting youth.
新闻机构是社会环境中重要且具影响力的一部分。它们通过报道的范围和性质来确定某些问题。为帮助解释哪些公共卫生政策信息可能影响了学校政策决策，本内容分析对北卡罗来纳州100%无烟学校运动的报纸报道进行了审视。
研究人员在LexisNexis上搜索了2001年1月1日至2004年12月31日期间在北卡罗来纳州报纸上发表的包含“北卡罗来纳州无烟学校”变体的文章。研究人员随后对来自北卡罗来纳州九家报纸的138篇报道（约占该州所有报纸的4%）进行了描述性分析，并利用版面位置和报道类型来考察该问题所受重视的程度。最后，追踪了支持和反对无烟学校政策的框架，以及100%无烟学校倡导者所传达的关键信息。
在整个研究期间，新闻报道的数量有所变化，高峰和低谷与外部“触发”事件密切相关。此外，大多数报纸文章未包含关键的公共卫生信息。
结果表明公共卫生专家和官员有机会与当地记者更有效地合作，以增加公共卫生信息在影响青少年烟草政策新闻报道中的使用（及影响）。
