Kim Hwalbin, Kim Sei-Hill
Healthcare Media Research Institution, Hallym University, 1 Hallymdaehak-gil, Chuncheon, Gangwon-Do, South Korea.
School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina, 800, Sumter St., Columbia, SC 29201, USA.
Prev Med Rep. 2018 Jul 4;11:196-201. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2018.07.003. eCollection 2018 Sep.
Marijuana legalization has been one of the most controversial issues in the public health field. Since news frames can influence the public's perceptions about public health policy including marijuana legalization, it is important to understand how the media report this issue. Thus, we explore how U.S. newspapers present marijuana legalization stories, examining two key dimensions of framing: an organizing theme and a story tone. We analyzed news articles of national and regional newspapers between 1995 and 2014 ( = 640). Findings revealed that newspapers have largely presented marijuana legalization as a law enforcement issue, rather than an economic issue or a medical issue. Marijuana legalization has been differently presented according to each presidential period. Overall, marijuana legalization stories have been described using a neutral tone. However, findings showed that newspapers that were classified as politically liberal adopted a positive tone more frequently than newspapers that were classified as conservative. Our findings can help public health providers or policy makers understand the relationships between news stories and public opinion toward marijuana legalization. Conclusively, this study can provide a comprehensive analysis of news framing of marijuana legalization, examining two key dimensions of framing: organizing theme and story tone.
大麻合法化一直是公共卫生领域最具争议的问题之一。由于新闻框架会影响公众对包括大麻合法化在内的公共卫生政策的看法，了解媒体如何报道这个问题很重要。因此，我们探讨美国报纸如何呈现大麻合法化的报道，审视框架的两个关键维度：一个组织主题和一种报道基调。我们分析了1995年至2014年间全国性和地区性报纸的新闻文章（=640篇）。研究结果显示，报纸在很大程度上将大麻合法化呈现为一个执法问题，而非经济问题或医疗问题。大麻合法化在每个总统任期内的呈现方式有所不同。总体而言，大麻合法化的报道使用的是中立基调。然而，研究结果表明，被归类为政治上自由派的报纸比被归类为保守派的报纸更频繁地采用积极基调。我们的研究结果可以帮助公共卫生提供者或政策制定者理解新闻报道与公众对大麻合法化的看法之间的关系。总之，本研究可以对大麻合法化的新闻框架进行全面分析，审视框架的两个关键维度：组织主题和报道基调。
