Coverage of beverage alcohol issues in the print media in the United States, 1985-1991

Abstract

Objectives: This study assessed the portrayal of alcohol-related issues in the print media in the United States during the 7-year period bracketing implementation of the US alcohol warning label act in November 1988.

Methods: All articles that appeared from 1985 to 1991 in 5 national newspapers and that were indexed as dealing with beverage alcohol were identified. Content analysis of a 15% sample of these articles allowed an in-depth assessment of the conceptualization of alcohol in the US print media.

Results: A slight decrease in articles related to alcoholism was offset by an increase in articles about the more general health-related effects of alcohol. The warning label act received little attention. Most articles portrayed alcohol neutrally or negatively, using information from government sources.

Conclusions: Portrayal of alcohol in the US print media has changed in recent decades. A general shift noted as early as the 1960s has increasingly emphasized public health issues and deemphasized clinical aspects of alcoholism. This has been accompanied by a continuing shift away from a biopsychological definition of alcohol-related behavior to a definition stressing external environmental factors.