Smoking, Alcohol and Drugs on Television: A Content Analysis

Ofcom is the regulator for the UK communications industries, with responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services. The Communications Act of 2003 requires Ofcom to set a Code which contains standards for the content of television and radio services. The Ofcom Broadcasting Code, published on May 25 2005, took effect on July 25 2005.

This document is the result of independent research commissioned by Ofcom to assist in the consideration of points raised by the public consultation on the Ofcom Broadcasting Code which began in July 2004. According to the document, the Act requires that those under eighteen should be protected and Section One of the Broadcasting Code concerns the protection of the under-eighteens. It contains a rule regarding drugs, smoking, solvent abuse and alcohol abuse.

This content analysis was conducted to address the lack of information and the clear public policy steer on smoking in the Government white paper on health, to see if smoking featured in programmes popular with 10-15 year olds and if so, how it was treated. Researchers were tasked with undertaking a content analysis on the depiction of alcohol and drug abuse. The research conclusions were part of the information taken into account by Ofcom in reaching a decision about the final wording of rule regarding drugs, smoking, solvent abuse and alcohol abuse.

The focus of this content analysis was the top ten programmes most watched by 10-15 year olds. The sample covered a three month period in August, September and October 2004 and comprised 256 programmes, over two thirds (70%) of which were soaps and were broadcast pre-watershed. All scenes were logged where alcohol or smoking or drug-related (both illegal and legal drugs were coded) material was featured (including references to and discussions about these). In total 2099 such scenes were noted.

Alcohol-related scenes were the most frequent occurring at a rate equivalent to 12.0 incidences per hour. Smoking-related scenes were far less frequent occurring at a rate of 3.4 incidences per hour while drug-related incidences occurred at half this rate, at 1.7 scenes per hour. 4% of programmes did not contain any of the target material. Drinkers and smokers both had relatively prominent roles. Thus, among major characters a larger proportion were drinkers (37%) or smokers (4%) than at other levels of appearance. Overall messages about alcohol were predominantly neutral (84% of scenes). Only 4% were positive compared with 6% negative and 6% mixed.