1. The Presence of Australian Tobacco Control Advocacy Groups in the News Media The Presence of Australian Tobacco Control Advocacy Groups in the News Media Emily Brennan Sarah Durkin Melanie Wakefield Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, The Cancer Council Victoria Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer

2. Introduction: Tracking news coverage Tobacco-related news coverage can influence: -policy agendas -public opinion -perceptions of social norms -smoking behaviour (cig sales & quitting behaviour) Australian tobacco-related news coverage: -varies widely by month, by state -dominated by SHS issues -about progress in tobacco control (TC) -authors’ opinions supportive of TC

3. Introduction: Advocacy groups Australian public health advocacy groups: -generate news coverage -are important commentators on TC issues -shape and frame TC issues in the media Aim to better understand the presence of advocacy groups in the news media, by measuring the extent to which they are referred to in tobacco-related news articles

4. Methods and Sample Content analysis of tobacco-related newspaper articles, from all major Australian national and capital city newspapers (n=12) High inter-coder reliability (median Kappa = 0.90, range 0.81–1.0) Articles from Jan 2001 – Dec 2006 coded for: - article type - prominence - main TC topic - event – progress or setback for TC objectives - author opinion – support or oppose progress

5. Coding for TC Advocacy Groups Articles from 2004 – 2006 also coded for whether or not they referred to any of these Australian TC groups -state-based Quit organisations -state-based Cancer Councils -Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) -Australian Council on Smoking and Health (ACOSH) -Australian Medical Association (AMA) -National Heart Foundation -VicHealth Centre for Tobacco Control (VCTC)

6. Coding for TC Advocacy Groups Direct/indirect quotes from a spokesperson for the group “ ‘The idea is to make smoking so hard that people don’t bother,’ Australian Medical Association president Dr Rosanna Capolingua said.” Sunday Herald Sun, 1/07/07

7. Coding for TC Advocacy Groups References to a spokesperson for the group, without a quote “The move has provoked a furious response from Quit Victoria, with acting director Suzie Stillman urging the Federal Government to introduce a licensing system……” The Age, 27/06/07

8. Coding for TC Advocacy Groups References to the group generally “The Cancer Council of WA kicked off the $400,000 television campaign urging parents to make their homes and cars smokefree……” West Australian, 28/05/07

9. Coding for TC Advocacy Groups Number of articles with references to TC groups indicates: -the extent to which these groups are mentioned in tobacco-related articles -not the extent to which these groups generate or influence tobacco-related news coverage

10. Volume of tobacco-related news coverage: Changes over time, by article type Number of articles

11. Volume of articles with references to a TC advocacy group: Changes over time Number of articles 18%24% 18%

12. Presence of TC advocacy groups, by article type % (n=2326)(n=202)(n=447)(n=84)(n=157)

13. Presence of TC advocacy groups, by article prominence % (n=144)(n=226)(n=916)(n=1930)

14. Presence of TC advocacy groups, by event & opinion Event (n=3216) Opinion (Commentary Articles Only) (n=733) (n=2293)(n=600)(n=154)(n=169)(n=526)(n=120)(n=49)(n=38) %

15. Presence of TC advocacy groups, by article topic SHS Issues Health Effects Educn/ Prev Tob Adv/Prom Tob Industry Product Issues Economic Issues ConsumAdd/ Quitting Other* % (n=157)(n=259)(n=1090)(n=383)(n=303)(n=177)(n=222)(n=271)(n=132)(n=222)

16. Presence of TC advocacy groups, by article topic SHS Issues (n=1090) Health Effects (n=383) Educn/ Prev (n=303) Tob Adv/Prom (n=177) Tob Industry (n=222) Product Issues (n=271) Economic Issues (n=132) ConsumAdd/ Quitting (n=222) Other* % (n=157)(n=259)

17. Presence of TC advocacy groups, by article topic SHS Issues (n=1090) Health Effects (n=383) Educn/ Prev (n=303) Tob Adv/Prom (n=177) Tob Industry (n=222) Product Issues (n=271) Economic Issues (n=132) ConsumAdd/ Quitting (n=222) Other* % (n=157)(n=259)

18. Presence of TC advocacy groups, by article topic SHS Issues (n=1090) Health Effects (n=383) Educn/ Prev (n=303) Tob Adv/Prom (n=177) Tob Industry (n=222) Product Issues (n=271) Economic Issues (n=132) ConsumAdd/ Quitting (n=222) Other* % (n=157)(n=259) 222 articles

19. References to each TC advocacy group 815 634Between 2004 – 2006, there were 815 references to TC groups in 634 tobacco-related articles -Quit Victoria (22%) -Australian Medical Association (14%) -Action on Smoking and Health Australia (10%) -The Cancer Council Victoria (9%) -Australian Council On Smoking and Health (9%) -The Cancer Cancer Queensland (7%) -The Cancer Council WA (5%)

20. References to each TC advocacy group, by article topic SHS Issues (n=222): AMA (28%); Quit Vic (18%); ACOSH (17%) Product Issues (n=102): Quit Vic (50%); ASH (18%); ACOSH (12%); AMA (12%) Education/Prevention (n=61): Quit Vic (21%); Quit SA (15%); Quit Tas (13%) Health Effects (n=44): Quit Vic (32%); Cancer Council Vic (30%); Cancer Council WA (11%)

21. Limitations and Cautions Number of articles with a references does not reflect -number of media releases issued by group -amount of media activity generated by group Not all TC advocacy groups and individuals were coded for

22. Conclusions: Presence of Australian TC Advocacy Groups in the News Media 20%20% of tobacco-related articles referred to at least one TC advocacy group Presence of TC advocacy groups varies according to main topic in the article Presence of each individual TC advocacy group varies -number of times they are mentioned -types of articles in which they are mentioned