Characteristics of POS tobacco control-related newspaper content, by year, 2007–2014
| Total (n=917) | 2007 (n=72) | 2008 (n=99) | 2009 (n=149) | 2010 (n=68) | 2011 (n=62) | 2012 (n=78) | 2013 (n=81) | 2014 (n=304) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article type (%) | |||||||||
| News article | 77.5 | 75.0 | 68.7 | 75.8 | 82.4 | 82.3 | 83.3 | 80.2 | 77.3 |
| Letter to the editor | 11.9 | 15.3 | 21.2 | 6.0 | 11.8 | 11.3 | 12.8 | 12.3 | 10.9 |
| Editorial | 10.6 | 9.7 | 10.1 | 18.1 | 5.9 | 6.5 | 3.8 | 7.4 | 11.8 |
| POS policy domains discussed (%)* | |||||||||
| Tobacco retailer licensing, locations and density | 49.1 | 36.1 | 49.5 | 15.4 | 35.3 | 33.9 | 46.2 | 30.9 | 80.3 |
| Other POS policies (eg, flavour, MLSA) | 29.3 | 16.7 | 26.3 | 42.3 | 22.1 | 30.6 | 35.1 | 55.6 | 19.7 |
| Federal (eg, FSPTCA) | 26.8 | 50.0 | 25.3 | 75.2 | 27.9 | 25.8 | 10.4 | 11.1 | 6.3 |
| POS health warnings | 9.7 | 6.9 | 4.0 | 23.5 | 23.5 | 17.7 | 10.4 | 7.4 | 0.7 |
| Advertising | 9.6 | 16.7 | 8.1 | 26.8 | 11.8 | 11.3 | 5.2 | 7.4 | 0.7 |
| Product placement | 7.3 | 8.3 | 4.0 | 6.1 | 8.8 | 11.3 | 7.8 | 27.2 | 2.3 |
| Non-tax approaches to raising price | 5.6 | 4.2 | 3.0 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 12.9 | 7.8 | 21.0 | 3.6 |
| Frames present (%)* | |||||||||
| Regulation | 71.3 | 90.3 | 75.8 | 97.3 | 85.3 | 74.2 | 82.1 | 86.4 | 41.8 |
| Health | 45.3 | 31.0 | 32.7 | 31.5 | 29.4 | 45.2 | 24.4 | 45.7 | 68.4 |
| Economic | 26.1 | 20.8 | 19.2 | 8.7 | 16.2 | 17.7 | 28.2 | 6.2 | 46.4 |
| Political/rights | 17.4 | 15.3 | 26.3 | 21.5 | 20.6 | 16.1 | 29.5 | 18.5 | 9.2 |
| Other frame | 5.4 | 4.2 | 5.1 | 2.7 | 9.0 | 3.2 | 11.5 | 8.8 | 4.3 |
| Sources present (%)*† | |||||||||
| Government or law enforcement | 52.3 | 61.3 | 47.9 | 71.6 | 60.0 | 48.0 | 63.1 | 59.7 | 37.3 |
| Tobacco retailer or retailer association | 39.6 | 21.0 | 45.2 | 9.2 | 32.7 | 32.0 | 34.4 | 32.3 | 61.6 |
| Public health advocacy group/coalition | 35.8 | 47.5 | 31.5 | 44.0 | 37.0 | 32.0 | 40.0 | 37.1 | 29.6 |
| Community member/public citizen | 23.6 | 18.0 | 24.7 | 14.7 | 13.0 | 22.0 | 18.5 | 19.4 | 33.3 |
| Tobacco industry or spokesperson | 22.0 | 32.3 | 13.7 | 39.4 | 31.5 | 24.0 | 20.0 | 14.5 | 14.1 |
| Health department official/staff | 21.5 | 18.0 | 27.4 | 8.3 | 20.4 | 28.0 | 16.9 | 35.5 | 22.9 |
| Educational/research institution faculty | 12.7 | 13.1 | 6.9 | 15.6 | 7.4 | 22.0 | 3.1 | 14.5 | 14.1 |
| Smoker, vaper, tobacco user—individual | 10.1 | 6.5 | 9.6 | 10.1 | 1.9 | 8.0 | 3.1 | 19.4 | 12.9 |
| Hospital/healthcare provider | 7.0 | 4.9 | 1.4 | 4.6 | 3.7 | 4.0 | 1.5 | 3.2 | 14.1 |
| Smoker, vaper, tobacco user—org/association | 2.5 | 0.0 | 4.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.6 | 14.5 | 2.0 |
| Evidence (%) | |||||||||
| No evidence | 31.4 | 31.9 | 35.4 | 34.9 | 55.9 | 37.1 | 29.5 | 28.4 | 22.8 |
| Data/statistics only, with a source | 35.1 | 27.8 | 27.3 | 24.2 | 17.6 | 37.1 | 42.3 | 35.8 | 46.1 |
| Data/statistics only, without a source | 20.9 | 26.4 | 23.2 | 29.5 | 17.6 | 22.6 | 17.9 | 21.0 | 16.1 |
| Both data and narrative/story | 9.2 | 11.1 | 11.1 | 9.4 | 2.9 | 3.2 | 6.4 | 11.1 | 10.9 |
| Story/narrative/personal anecdotes only | 3.2 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 5.9 | 0.0 | 3.8 | 3.7 | 3.6 |
| Localisation (%) | |||||||||
| Localised: both local quote and local angle | 41.8 | 38.6 | 54.5 | 20.8 | 41.2 | 51.6 | 65.4 | 50.6 | 35.9 |
| Not localised: no local quote, nor local angle | 40.5 | 34.7 | 25.3 | 66.4 | 42.6 | 27.4 | 17.9 | 32.1 | 44.1 |
| Partially localised: local quote or local angle only | 17.6 | 16.7 | 20.2 | 12.8 | 16.1 | 20.9 | 16.7 | 17.2 | 19.7 |
| Overall slant (%) | |||||||||
| Protobacco control | 49.7 | 50.7 | 42.4 | 48.3 | 37.3 | 45.2 | 35.9 | 55.6 | 58.7 |
| Mixed (both points of view) | 32.7 | 31.0 | 38.4 | 31.5 | 37.3 | 32.3 | 44.9 | 32.1 | 27.7 |
| Neutral (no opinion) | 11.2 | 8.5 | 9.1 | 8.7 | 19.4 | 14.5 | 10.3 | 11.1 | 10.9 |
| Antitobacco control | 6.5 | 9.9 | 10.1 | 11.4 | 6.0 | 8.1 | 9.0 | 1.2 | 2.6 |
*Per cents do not sum to 100% because more than one source type could have been quoted, more than one frame could be present or more than one policy domain discussed in the same article.
†Hospitality industry source not shown because total per cent=0.6.
FSPTCA, Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act; MLSA, minimum legal sales age; POS, point of sale.