Tobacco-related scenes in television dramas for young Japanese audiences

Exposure of 4-year to 24-year olds to tobacco imagery on prime-time Chilean television

INTRODUCTION

The extent of the population's exposure to tobacco imagery across all genres of regular TV programming and the contribution of each of these genres is unknown, except for UK broadcast channels. The objective of this study is to estimate the exposure of young people to tobacco imagery on Chilean prime-time television and the programme source contributing to such exposure.

METHODS

Programmes aired during 3 weeks in 2019 from the 15 highest audience channels in Chile were content-analysed for the occurrence of tobacco categorised as actual use, implied use, tobacco paraphernalia, tobacco brand appearances and whether they violated Chilean smoke-free law for each 1 min interval (92 639). The exposure of young people to tobacco content was estimated using media viewership figures.

RESULTS

Young people received 29, 11 and 4 million tobacco impressions of any type, explicit use and smoke-free violation, respectively, at a rate of 21.8, 8.0 and 2.1 thousand impressions per hour of TV viewing. The main sources of exposure to tobacco impressions were feature films and animated productions, which were almost entirely non-Chilean. Finally, young people were exposed to tobacco brand impressions primarily through films, effectively circumventing the advertising ban in Chile.

DISCUSSION

Television programming is a source of significant youth exposure to tobacco imagery, including branding impressions. To conform to the WHO FCTC, Chile should prohibit tobacco branding in any TV programme and require strong anti-tobacco advertisements prior to any TV programme portraying tobacco.

Smoking in a popular German television crime series 1985-2004

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to study the prevalence of smoking in a popular German television crime series ("A case for two"), which has been internationally distributed in 59 countries, over a 20 year period.

METHOD

A content analysis of five randomly selected episodes per year of one crime series for the period 1985 to 2004 (100 episodes in total) was conducted. Smoking status of all major and minor series characters was assessed. Each episode was coded regarding one or more smoking occurrences, defined as active smoking or handling with tobacco products by a character.

RESULTS

97% of the episodes portrayed tobacco use with a median of 5 occurrences per episode. The series contained 1013 major and minor characters; the overall smoking prevalence was 17.1%. A downward trend in smoking occurrences and prevalence of major and minor characters who smoke from 1985 was followed by an increase in the last decade.

CONCLUSION

Tobacco use is frequently portrayed in a popular prime-time German crime series, following a U curve over a 20 year period.

Tobacco imagery on New Zealand television 2002-2004

Considerable emphasis has been placed on the importance of tobacco imagery in the movies as one of the "drivers" of smoking among young people. Findings are presented from a content analysis of 98 hours of prime-time programming on New Zealand television 2004, identifying 152 scenes with tobacco imagery, and selected characteristics of those scenes. About one in four programmes contained tobacco imagery, most of which might be regarded as "neutral or positive". This amounted to about two scenes containing such imagery for every hour of programming. A comparison with our earlier content analysis of programming in 2002 indicated little change in the level of tobacco imagery. The effect of this imagery in contributing to young viewers taking up smoking, and sustaining the addiction among those already smoking, deserves more research attention.

Youth tobacco use: a global perspective for child health care clinicians

Tobacco dependence, responsible for approximately 4 million annual deaths worldwide, is considered to be a "pediatric disease." The smoking epidemic is spreading rapidly in developing countries. Factors contributing to youth smoking in developing countries include cultural traditions, tobacco's easy accessibility and moderate pricing, peer and family influences, and tobacco companies' advertisements and promotional activities. Secondhand tobacco smoke exposure is a substantial problem that causes increased rates of pneumonia, otitis media, asthma, and other short- and long-term pediatric conditions. Parental tobacco use results in children's deprivation of essential needs such as nutrition and education. In this article we review contemporary evidence with respect to the etiology of nicotine dependence among youth, the forms of youth tobacco products worldwide, global youth tobacco-control efforts to date, medical education efforts, and child health care clinicians' special role in youth tobacco-control strategies. In addition, we provide a review of currently available funding opportunities for development and implementation of youth tobacco-control programs.