Myers Allison E, Southwell Brian G, Ribisl Kurt M, Moreland-Russell Sarah, Bowling J Michael, Lytle Leslie A
1 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
2 Counter Tools, Inc., Carrboro, NC, USA.
Health Promot Pract. 2019 Jan;20(1):135-145. doi: 10.1177/1524839917752108. Epub 2018 Jan 16.
Mass media content may play an important role in policy change. However, the empirical relationship between media advocacy efforts and tobacco control policy success has rarely been studied. We examined the extent to which newspaper content characteristics (volume, slant, frame, source, use of evidence, and degree of localization) that have been identified as important in past descriptive studies were associated with policy progression over a 2-year period in the context of point-of-sale (POS) tobacco control.
We used regression analyses to test the relationships between newspaper content and policy progression from 2012 to 2014. The dependent variable was the level of implementation of state-level POS tobacco control policies at Time 2. Independent variables were newspaper article characteristics (volume, slant, frame, source, use of evidence, and degree of localization) and were collected via content analysis of the articles. State-level policy environment contextual variables were examined as confounders.
Positive, significant bivariate relationships exist between characteristics of news content (e.g., high overall volume, public health source present, local quote and local angle present, and pro-tobacco control slant present) and Time 2 POS score. However, in a multivariate model controlling for other factors, significant relationships did not hold.
Newspaper coverage can be a marker of POS policy progression. Whether media can influence policy implementation remains an important question. Future work should continue to tease out and confirm the unique characteristics of media content that are most associated with subsequent policy progression, in order to inform media advocacy efforts.
大众媒体内容可能在政策变革中发挥重要作用。然而，媒体宣传努力与烟草控制政策成功之间的实证关系鲜有研究。我们考察了在过去描述性研究中被认定为重要的报纸内容特征（篇幅、倾向、框架、来源、证据运用及本地化程度）在两年时间内与销售点（POS）烟草控制背景下的政策进展之间的关联程度。
我们运用回归分析来检验2012年至2014年报纸内容与政策进展之间的关系。因变量是时间2时州级POS烟草控制政策的实施水平。自变量是报纸文章特征（篇幅、倾向、框架、来源、证据运用及本地化程度），通过对文章的内容分析来收集。州级政策环境背景变量作为混杂因素进行考察。
新闻内容特征（如总体篇幅大、有公共卫生来源、有本地引述和本地视角以及存在支持烟草控制的倾向）与时间2的POS得分之间存在正向、显著的双变量关系。然而，在控制其他因素的多变量模型中，显著关系并不成立。
报纸报道可以作为POS政策进展的一个标志。媒体是否能够影响政策实施仍然是一个重要问题。未来的工作应继续梳理并确认与后续政策进展最相关的媒体内容的独特特征，以便为媒体宣传工作提供参考。
