| Date of publication | Day, month, and year of the article's publication |
| Newspaper name | Name of the newspaper from which the article was obtained |
| Front page | Coded ‘yes’ if the article was published in the front page of the newspaper |
| Image | Coded ‘yes’ if any kind of cartoon, photo, picture, drawing, graph, or table accompanies the news story |
| Author | Regarding the article's author: (1) Medical expert or doctor; (2) Tobacco-related worker; (3) Government or official in the Health Department; (4) Reader; (5) Other |
| Article type | (1) News (factual accounts of issues and events); (2) Comments (including the newspaper's opinion on various issues); (3) Column (comment with a strong opinion by an individual); (4) Letter (usually the opinion of a member of the public); (5) Cartoon (a photo or image that often has a one-line descriptive caption); (6) Information (eg, about health knowledge; includes health columns); (7) Other (any news article that does not fit the above categories) |
| Theme | Articles coded for one dominant theme out of 13 options: (1) Health effects of smoking; (2) Second-hand smoke and related smoke-free policies; (3) Tobacco consumption; (4) Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; (5) Economics; (6) Farming and trade; (7) Products and regulation; (8) Youth access and purchase, possession and use; (9) Education, prevention and cessation programs, products and campaigns; (10) Unintended smoking-related damage (such as fires or littering); (11) Tobacco-related crimes; (12) Tobacco industry/companies; (13) Female smokers; (14) Other |
| Event slant | The newsworthy event or item relevant to tobacco issues that is being covered in the article. Coded as (1) positive for tobacco control; (2) negative for tobacco control; (3) mixed impact on tobacco control; or (4) neutral for tobacco control |
| Opinion slant | The dominant viewpoint or opinion being the author presents was coded as (1) positive for tobacco control; (2) negative for tobacco control; (3) mixed impact on tobacco control; or (4) neutral for tobacco control |
| Fear appeals | (1) Severity, (2) Susceptibility, (3) Response efficacy, (4) Self-efficacy. |