Clear link between newspaper coverage and declines in youth smoking rates

Though the role of anti-tobacco advertising in reducing youth smoking has been fairly well established in recent years, a new study by researchers at RTI International indicates newspaper editorial coverage also may have a significant indirect impact.

The study, published in the August edition of Communication Research, evaluates the relationship between newspaper coverage of the Florida Tobacco Control Program's health promotion campaign with declines in youth smoking reported in statewide surveys of middle school and high school students between 1998 and 2002.

Though teens rarely read newspapers, the researchers found a clear relationship between newspaper coverage and declines in youth smoking rates.

"We suspect the decline in youth smoking related to newspaper coverage is the result of several factors working indirectly to influence youth behavior," said Dr. Matthew Farrelly, a co-author of the study. "The most likely is that increased news coverage concerning the negative effects of youth smoking leads to changing norms about smoking behavior. In general, we believe the negative newspaper coverage creates a less-favorable or less-supportive youth smoking environment."

Launched in 1998, the Florida Tobacco Control Program included the well-known "truth" anti-smoking campaign, community-based "Students Working Against Tobacco" or SWAT groups, public relations and school-based tobacco prevention education curriculum.

In conducting the study, researchers isolated the effects of these components to measure their relative contributions to the youth smoking decline within the state.

"Perhaps the bottom line is that those contemplating a health promotion campaign should not overlook the potential value of editorial news coverage in addition to paid advertisements," said Dr. Jeff Niederdeppe, lead author and researcher at the University of Wisconsin. "This study demonstrates the indirect benefits or multiplier effect that news coverage had on other campaign components."