Use of Alcohol, Illicit Drugs, and Tobacco among Characters on Prime–Time Television

Abstract

Previous research of addictive substances suggests that use of alcohol, illicit drugs, and tobacco is overrepresented on prime-time television (TV). These studies, however, have relied on frequency counts of the substance, rather than the prevalence of use among characters. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to compare the prevalence of alcohol, illicit drug, and tobacco users among characters on prime-time TV during 1995 and 1996 with rates of use in the United States. In addition, we determined if the ratio of male to female, young to old, and white to minority addictive substance users on prime-time TV were similar to the equivalent U.S. ratios. Comparing results for prime-time TV characters versus the U.S. population (respectively), 11.0% (99% CI, 9.8-12.1) drank alcohol versus 51.0%; 0.8% (99% CI, 0.5-1.1) used illicit drugs versus 6.1%; and 2.5% (99% CI, 2.0-3.1) smoked tobacco versus 28.9%. In addition, no consistent pattern was evident in our analyses that assessed whether addictive substance users on prime-time TV were more frequently represented as men, young, or minority compared to the similar U.S. ratio. These results indicate that contrary to prevailing beliefs, alcohol, illicit drug, and tobacco users are uncommon on prime-time TV and are less prevalent than in the U.S. population.

Association of Cigarette Smoking and Media Literacy about Smoking among Adolescents

“…Youth aged 8-18 years are exposed to 8 hours and 33 minutes of media content daily [7], including content offering a substantial number of positive impressions of cigarette smoking [8][9][10]. Studies have demonstrated an association between exposure to certain media messages and smoking in adolescents.…”

Smoking in contemporary German television programming

“…One detailed content analysis of MTV's reality show The Osbournes indicated that TV could deliver numerous messages related to the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, with more depictions implying endorsement than rejection of use (Blair et al 2005). There has been some systematic analysis of tobacco imagery on television including the US suggesting about one "smoking act" per hour of programming (Christenson, Henriksen & Roberts 2000) and about 2.5 % of TV prime time characters smoking (Long et al 2002), while Japanese research indicates four smoking acts per hour and virtually no negative portrayals of smoking (Kanda et al 2006;Sone 1999), and about two scenes in New Zealand's TV containing such imagery for every hour of programming (McGee & Ketchel 2006). To our knowledge there has been no published study of tobacco imagery on German TV.…”

Sweet sixteen and never been drunk?

“…Our content analysis underlines the importance of more in-depth investigations of the way alcohol is portrayed on television. Many earlier studies have focused primarily on the intensity of alcohol portrayal in television programmes (Furnham et al, 1997;Long et al, 2002;Mathios et al, 1998;Wallack et al, 1990), implicitly assuming a positive relationship between exposure and attitudes or behaviours. In addition to the amount of alcohol consumption portrayed, it seems important to investigate the "lessons" adolescents may learn from the specific ways in which alcohol is portrayed.…”

“…Most of the available studies into alcohol portrayal in the media focused only on the prevalence of alcohol consumption (Everett et al, 1998;Furnham et al, 1997;Gruber et al, 2005;Long et al, 2002;Mathios et al, 1998;Thompson & Yokota, 2001;Wallack et al, 1990) without systematically addressing the hedonic and social contexts in which it occurs. Like two earlier studies (Christenson, Henriksen, & Roberts, 2000;Hansen, 2003), we tried to extend the existing research by examining the specific contexts of alcohol use.…”

“…Research shows that alcohol advertisements may positively affect adolescents' drinking intentions and behaviours (Atkin, Hocking, & Block, 1984;Wyllie, Zhang, & Casswell, 1998b). Besides 'regular' alcohol advertisements, however, adolescents may also be exposed to more implicit alcohol-related cues, in music videos (Gruber, Thau, Hill, Fisher, & Grube, 2005), movies (Everett, Schnuth, & Tribble, 1998;Thompson & Yokota, 2001), and television programmes like soaps (Furnham, Ingle, Gunter, & McClelland, 1997;Long, O'Connor, Gerbner, & Concato, 2002;Mathios, Avery, Bisogni, & Shanahan, 1998;Wallack, Grube, Madden, & Breed, 1990). There is reason to assume that these indirect cues may have stronger effects on audience perceptions and behaviour than commercial messages, whose persuasive intentions can be more easily inferred and resisted (Signorielli, 1990).…”