Premium
Harms to ‘others’ from alcohol consumption in the minimum unit pricing policy debate: a qualitative content analysis of UK newspapers (2005–12)
Author(s) -
Wood Karen,
Patterson Chris,
Katikireddi Srinivasa Vittal,
Hilton Shona
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0965-2140
DOI - 10.1111/add.12427
Subject(s) - newspaper , binge drinking , harm , population , overconsumption , qualitative research , advertising , content analysis , public health , consumption (sociology) , focus group , alcohol advertising , population health , poison control , unit of alcohol , legislation , medicine , public relations , suicide prevention , environmental health , political science , psychology , social psychology , business , alcohol consumption , sociology , economics , marketing , law , nursing , social science , alcohol , macroeconomics , chemistry , biochemistry , production (economics)
Background and aims Minimum unit pricing is a fiscal intervention intended to tackle the social and health harms from alcohol to individual drinkers and wider society. This paper presents the first large‐scale qualitative examination of how newsprint media framed the debate around the harms of alcohol consumption to ‘others’ during the development and passing of minimum unit pricing legislation in S cotland. Methods Qualitative content analysis was conducted on seven UK and three S cottish national newspapers between 1 J anuary 2005 and 30 J une 2012. Relevant articles were identified using the electronic databases N exis UK and N ewsbank . A total of 403 articles focused on the harms of alcohol consumption to ‘others’ and were eligible for detailed coding and analysis. Results Alcohol harms to wider society and communities were identified as being a worsening issue increasingly affecting everyone through shared economic costs, social disorder, crime and violence. The availability of cheap alcohol was blamed, alongside a minority of ‘problem’ youth binge drinkers. The harm caused to families was less widely reported. Conclusions If news reporting encourages the public to perceive the harms caused by alcohol to wider society as having reached crisis point, a population‐based intervention may be deemed necessary and acceptable. However, the current focus in news reports on youth binge drinkers may be masking the wider issue of overconsumption across the broader population.