School of Public Health, Fudan University, Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety, Ministry of Education, Shanghai 200032, China.
BMC Public Health. 2012 Mar 7;12:160. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-12-160.
Media coverage of tobacco-related issues can potentially shape individual beliefs, attitudes and behaviors about tobacco use. This study aims to describe news coverage of tobacco control related issues in Chinese newspapers from 2000 to 2010.
All 1149 articles related to tobacco control were extracted from the Database of Chinese Important Newspapers and content analyzed for the period Jan 1, 2000 to Dec 31, 2010. The changing pattern of tobacco control topic, article type, viewpoint, and article origin, and their relationship were analysed.
News coverage of tobacco control related issues increased significantly (p < 0.01) from 2000 to 2010, with news coverage being relatively intensive in May and June (p < 0.01), around World No Tobacco Day. 24.9% (n = 286) of all articles focused on secondhand smoke, 25.3% (n = 291) warned about the dangers of active smoking, and 10.0% (n = 115) focused on prevention and cessation programs and campaigns. Tobacco control topics varied significantly between national vs city/regional newspapers (χ2 = 24.09, p = 0.002) and article types (χ2 = 193.35, p < 0.001). Articles in national newspapers had more coverage of the dangers of tobacco and on enforcing bans on tobacco-advertising. News stories centered around monitoring tobacco use and smoke free activity, while editorials focused on enforcing bans on tobacco-advertising, youth access and programs and campaigns. Letters to editors focused on the dangers of smoking, raising tax, and smoking cessation. More articles (50.4%) took an anti-tobacco position (compared with 10.5% which were pro-smoking), with the amount of negative coverage growing significantly across the decade. National articles tended to lean toward anti-tobacco, however, local articles tended mix of pro-tobacco and neutral/balance positions. Editorials seemed to be more anti-tobacco oriented, but letters to the editor tended to show a mix of anti-tobacco and pro-tobacco positions.
Chinese newspapers are giving increasing attention to tobacco control, but coverage remains lower than in the USA and Australia. Health workers need to give higher priority to efforts to increase news coverage beyond the present concentration around World No Tobacco Day and to develop strategies for making tobacco control issues more newsworthy to both national and local news outlets.
媒体对与烟草相关问题的报道可能会影响个人对烟草使用的信念、态度和行为。本研究旨在描述 2000 年至 2010 年中国报纸上有关烟草控制的新闻报道。
从《中国重要报纸全文数据库》中提取了 2000 年 1 月 1 日至 2010 年 12 月 31 日期间与烟草控制相关的所有 1149 篇文章，并对其进行了内容分析。分析了烟草控制主题、文章类型、观点和文章来源的变化模式及其相互关系。
2000 年至 2010 年，有关烟草控制的新闻报道显著增加（p<0.01），5 月和 6 月（p<0.01），即世界无烟日前后报道较为密集。24.9%（n=286）的文章重点关注二手烟，25.3%（n=291）警告主动吸烟的危害，10.0%（n=115）关注预防和戒烟计划和运动。国家报纸和城市/地区报纸之间的烟草控制主题（χ2=24.09，p=0.002）和文章类型（χ2=193.35，p<0.001）存在显著差异。国家报纸上的文章更多地报道了烟草的危害和执行烟草广告禁令。新闻报道以监测烟草使用和无烟活动为中心，社论则侧重于执行烟草广告禁令、青少年接触和计划和运动。读者来信则侧重于吸烟的危害、提高税收和戒烟。更多的文章（50.4%）采取了反烟草立场（相比之下，支持吸烟的文章为 10.5%），十年来负面报道的数量显著增加。国家报纸倾向于反烟草，但地方报纸倾向于在支持烟草和中立/平衡立场之间混合。社论似乎更倾向于反烟草，但读者来信往往显示出反烟草和支持烟草的混合立场。
中国报纸对烟草控制的关注度不断提高，但报道仍低于美国和澳大利亚。卫生工作者需要更加重视努力增加新闻报道，除了目前在世界无烟日前后的集中报道之外，还要制定策略，使国家和地方新闻机构更关注烟草控制问题。
