Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: Mar 20, 2019
Open Peer Review Period: Mar 25, 2019 - Apr 17, 2019
Date Accepted: May 7, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
‘Where there’s smoke, there’s fire’: A content analysis of print and online news media reporting of the Philip Morris funded Foundation for a Smoke-free World.
ABSTRACT
Background:
In September 2017, the Foundation for a Smoke-free World (FSFW), a not-for-profit Organization with a core purpose ‘to accelerate global efforts to reduce deaths and harm from smoking’, was launched. However, the legitimacy of the FSFW’s vision has been questioned by experts in tobacco control due to the Organization’s only funding partner, Philip Morris International (PMI).
Objective:
In this study we examined the response to the FSFW in online and print news media to understand how the FSFW and its funding partner, PMI, was framed.
Methods:
News articles published within a six-month period after the FSFW was announced were downloaded via Google News and Factiva and coded for topic, framing argument, slant, mention of tobacco control policies and direct quotes or position statements.
Results:
A total of 124 news articles were analysed. The news coverage of the FSFW was framed by six key arguments. Over half of the news articles presented a framing argument in opposition to the FSFW (51.6%, n=64). A further 20.2% (n=25) of articles framed the FSFW positively and 28.2% of articles (n=35) presented a neutral debate with no primary slant. The FSFW was presented as not credible due to the funding link to PMI in 29.0% (n=36) of articles and as a tactic to mislead and undermine effective tobacco control measures in 11.3% of articles (n=14). However, 12.9% of articles (n=16) argued that the FSFW and/or PMI is part of the solution to reducing the impact of tobacco use. Evidence-based tobacco control policies were mentioned positively in 66.9% of news articles and 9.6% of articles presented tobacco control policies negatively.
Conclusions:
The online and print news media reporting of the formation of the FSFW, and its mission and vision, has primarily been framed by doubt, scepticism and disapproval.
Citation
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