INTRODUCTION The Food and Drug Administration mandated that food products list the amount of trans fat per serving on nutrition facts labels by January 1, 2006. There have been no coordinated efforts to raise awareness about trans fat since the policy went into effect, but news coverage may promote informed decisions about food purchases. This paper assesses whether news coverage influenced sal...

This essay explores the media frame-changing process in the news coverage of the 1999 Columbine shootings, clarifying the news discourse focus on Columbine’s national importance. The study applies the van Dijk/Bell scheme of media analysis to 683 news articles from print and broadcast media published within 30 days following the incident. Insight is offered into the thematic content of the Colu...

OBJECTIVE To assess whether media advocacy activities implemented by the Florida Tobacco Control Program contributed to increased news coverage, policy changes and reductions in youth smoking. METHODS A content analysis of news coverage appearing in Florida newspapers between 22 April 1998 and 31 December 2001 was conducted, and patterns of coverage before and after the implementation of medi...

BACKGROUND Publication of clinical research findings in prominent journals influences health beliefs and medical practice, in part by engendering news coverage. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) should be most influential in guiding clinical practice. We determined whether study design of clinical research published in high-impact journals influences media coverage. METHODS AND FINDINGS We ...