{"id":7249,"date":"2010-10-20T13:49:31","date_gmt":"2010-10-20T13:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=7249"},"modified":"2010-10-20T13:49:31","modified_gmt":"2010-10-20T13:49:31","slug":"news-media-turns-young-people-off-illicit-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2010\/10\/news-media-turns-young-people-off-illicit-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"News media turns young people off illicit drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Media reports on illicit drugs \u201creduce acceptability and increase perception of risk\u201d among young people, study finds.
\nMainstream media reporting is far more likely to deter young people from using illicit drugs than encourage their use, a new Australian study has found.
\nBut the study also found that types of reports most likely to have the strongest impact on young people – those on social and health consequences of drug taking – were underrepresented in the media.
\nThe study by the Drug Policy Modelling Program at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW, and funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, measured the impact of media reports on illicit drugs on the attitudes of over 2,000 young people aged 16 – 24.
\nThe study also analysed 4,000 newspaper reports referring to illicit drugs and found that just over half focussed on criminal justice and legal issues, while only 24 per cent highlighted the health or social problems associated with drug taking.
\nParticipants were shown eight different types of reports and their responses were measured.
\nChief Investigator of the study Dr Caitlin Hughes, a Research Fellow at NDARC\u2019s Drug Policy Modelling Program (DPMP), said that while drugs are one of the most common motifs in popular culture and one of the most frequently reported on there is very little research anywhere in the world on how media reporting on illicit drug issues influences attitudes or behaviour on illicit drug use..
\n\u201cWe know from related fields that media messages can influence people\u2019s knowledge, attitudes and behaviour.
\n\u201cIt is commonly assumed that news media can incite drug use,\u201d said Dr Hughes.
\n\u201cOur research has found that the opposite is the case. Most media portrayals appear to reduce interest in illicit drugs, at least in the short term.
\n\u201cThey increase perceptions of risk, reduce perceptions of acceptability and reduce the reported likelihood of future drug use,\u201d said Dr Hughes.
\n\u201dBut the irony is that the messages that are most effective at deterring youth interest in drugs are currently under-represented in Australian news media,\u201d said Dr Hughes.
\nNews items which focussed on the health and social issues – for example evidence about cannabis and psychosis or cannabis and poor educational outcomes \u2013 were more likely to have a deterrent effect than reports on drug busts and arrests. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur results show clearly there is an opportunity to better harness the media to shape young peoples\u2019 attitudes to illicit drugs.
\nWe are not saying news media is the silver bullet in drug prevention, but given news media is so pervasive we do think it ought to be recognised, both within Australian and internationally, as a potentially powerful tool for preventing illicit drug use.\u201d <\/p>\n

Key points:
\n\u2022 A total of 2,296 youth aged 16-24 years completed the survey
\n\u2022 All youth were shown 8 different media messages about drugs (on the two most commonly used drugs in Australia \u2013 cannabis and ecstasy)
\n\u2022 66.4% and 86.5% of participants had weekly or more frequent contact with television news, online news, radio news and\/or print newspapers
\n\u2022 Most news media messages elicited moderate to large impacts on youth attitudes. Negative health or social messages elicited large impacts on youth attitudes.
\n\u2022 Messages on ecstasy had greater impact on youth than messages on cannabis
\n\u2022 Females more likely to be deterred from use than males
\n\u2022 People who have never used drugs more likely to be deterred than current users
\n\u2022 Reports on criminal arrests significantly less persuasive than reports about negative health or social consequences
\n\u2022 Across all drugs, criminal justice\/law enforcement topics accounted for 55% of all topics
\n\u2022 60% of articles emphasised that illicit drugs lead to legal problems. 14% health problems, 10% social problems, 10% cost to society and 6% other (4% neutral and 2% benefits)
\n\u2022 Tabloids were more likely to emphasise legal problems: 71% compared to 61% for broadsheet
\n\u2022 11 newspapers, one national, seven major metropolitan, in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth and three local in Geelong, Newcastle and Sydney were reviewed <\/p>\n

What they said: (comments from the focus groups).
\nRe power of media to dissuade youth drug use:
\n\u201cMedia is probably one of the few ways that prevention message(s) can keep being pushed.\u201d (20 year old female)
\n\u201cWhen I was younger… the way that that was portrayed in the media totally shaped the way that I saw drugs.\u201d (22 year old female)
\nRe fatal overdose of a young person:
\n\u201cI think that would convince me not to take drugs. Just \u201ecause……I feel sorry for her.\u201d (17 year old male) <\/p>\n

Source: Media reporting on illicit drugs in Australia: trends and impacts on youth attitudes to illicit drug use. Drug Policy Modelling Program, September 2010. It can be accessed through: http:\/\/www.dpmp.unsw.edu.au
\n<\/em>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Media reports on illicit drugs \u201creduce acceptability and increase perception of risk\u201d among young people, study finds. Mainstream media reporting is far more likely to deter young people from using illicit drugs than encourage their use, a new Australian study has found. But the study also found that types of reports most likely to have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,40,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australia","category-prevention-research","category-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}