title: Framing responsibility: coverage of lung cancer among smokers and non-smokers in Australian television news.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyse news portrayals of lung cancer and associated inferences about responsibility in Australian television news.
  
  
  METHODS
  Analysis of television news reports, broadcast on Sydney's five free-to-air television channels between 2 May 2005 and 31 August 2009, for all statements pertaining to lung cancer.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 2,042 reports mentioning any cancer, 45 made reference to lung cancer, and 28 (62%) referred to diagnoses of lung cancer in non-smokers. Of 157 statements in these reports, 107 (68%) noted that the person featured was a non-smoker. Non-smokers were portrayed sympathetically and as tragic victims, implying they were not responsible for their condition, the sub-text being that smokers are responsible for theirs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Television news portrays non-smokers with lung cancer with considerable sympathy. Conversely, smokers are implicitly and occasionally explicitly depicted as responsible for their disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The marginalisation of tobacco caused lung cancer in news, together with sympathetic reporting of lung cancer in non-smokers may contribute to stigma surrounding smoking caused disease that may promote delay in seeking treatment, and de-emphasise the role of the tobacco industry's decades-long smoker reassurance program in promoting smoking.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Ross
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: MacKenzie
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chapman
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Holding
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms; D008297:Male; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D012941:Social Responsibility; D013240:Stereotyping; D013690:Television / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*