The Role of Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco
Use
Tobacco use is still the single largest cause of
preventable death in the United States. About 20% of American adults still
smoke and more than 4,000 adolescents smoke their first cigarette each day.
National Cancer Institute's Tobacco Control Monograph
19, "The Role of Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use" explores how mass
media have affected our attitudes and behaviors toward tobacco use. Media
channels have been successfully used to promote tobacco use and to reduce it.
Now, when the use of mass media is expanding and the tobacco industry is
finding new ways to encourage tobacco use, a full understanding of this issue
is vital to public health.
The latest in the Tobacco Control Monograph series,
Monograph 19 provides a critical, scientific review and synthesis of current
evidence regarding the power of the media both to promote and reduce tobacco
use. In addition, the monograph explores and recommends strategies to leverage
the media to best serve the public health in this high-stakes arena.
To help us understand these issues, this monograph
gives important facts about media and tobacco use, including:
- Youth are influenced to start smoking by tobacco
advertising and promotions
- Depictions of tobacco in movies prompt adolescents
to start smoking
- Televised media campaigns can reduce tobacco use
- The tobacco industry and its supporters have used
various media strategies to counter tobacco control measures and messages
- Media, including new and nontraditional forms such
as the Internet and video games, will continue to influence tobacco use in the
future
Order a free monograph
copy by going to
http://www.cancercontrol.cancer.gov/tcrb/monographs/19/index.html
or calling the NCI Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER
(1-800-422-6237).
Ask for NIH Publication No. 07-6242.
The Tobacco Control Monograph Series, established in
1991 by the National Cancer Institute, provides ongoing and timely information
about emerging public health issues in smoking and tobacco use control. Recent
titles include: Greater Than the Sum: Systems Thinking in Tobacco Control;
Evaluating ASSIST A Blueprint for Understanding State-level Tobacco
Control; and ASSIST Shaping the Future of Tobacco Prevention
and Control. To view past monographs, visit
http://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/tcrb/monographs/.
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