title: Local-Community Interests and South Carolinian Newspapers' Coverage of Smoke-Free Policies.
abstract: In this quantitative content analysis, we assess how smoke-free policies are presented in South Carolinian newspapers. In particular, this study examines the extent to which newspapers' coverage of smoke free-policies has represented the interests of their local communities. We compare newspapers in the communities whose economy relies heavily on the tourism and hospitality industry (The Post & Courier in Charleston and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach) and newspapers elsewhere (The State in Columbia and The Greenville News in Greenville), and see whether there are meaningful differences between the newspapers in the way they portray smoke-free policies, particularly in terms of their selective uses of news sources and key arguments. Our findings indicate that South Carolinian newspapers portrayed smoke-free policies largely as a political issue. Many political reasons to either support or oppose the policies were found in almost two out of three articles. We also found that The Post & Courier and The Sun News were more likely than The State and The Greenville News to make arguments against smoke-free policies, and this was particularly so when they were talking about economic impacts of the policies. Public health and media advocacy implications are discussed in detail.
authors.affiliation: a School of Journalism and Mass Communications , University of South Carolina.
authors.forename: Sei-Hill
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: b Department of Health Promotion, Education and Behavior , University of South Carolina.
authors.forename: James F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Thrasher
authors.affiliation: c Public Health and Survey Research Division ICF International.
authors.forename: India D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.affiliation: d Office of Communications , South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.
authors.forename: Mary-Kathryn
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Craft
mesh_terms: D004467:Economics; D006801:Humans; D009524:Newspapers as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011057:Politics; D011634:Public Health; D011639:Public Opinion; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D061845:Smoke-Free Policy; D013022:South Carolina