Individual versus corporate responsibility for smoking-related illness

Australian press coverage of the Rolah McCabe trial

Bibliographic Data

ID22945642
AuthorsMichael Wakefield (0000-0002-6183-5699, Cancer Council Victoria, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume18
Issue4
Pages297-305
Publication date2003-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHealth Promotion International (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0957-4824 • E-ISSN: 1460-2245
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/heapro/dag413
PMID14695361
OpenAlexW2123401604
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited4

This paper provides a thematic frame analysis of Australian newspaper reporting of the outcome and implications of the trial of Rolah McCabe versus British American Tobacco Australasia (BATA). In this trial, a Melbourne woman was awarded A$700,000 damages for smoking-attributable lung cancer when the defendant, BATA, had its case dismissed due to document destruction. In 60 commentaries from Australian national or capital city newspapers between 12 April and 9 May 2002, a total of 79 instances of eight tobacco-related frames were identified. Overall, 43% of the 79 instances were positive for tobacco control, 46% were negative for tobacco control and 11% were neutral. The most common frame that was negative for tobacco control (in 35% of articles) was the conception that smokers exert 'free will' in deciding to smoke and should therefore be personally responsible for their smoking and any disease that arises as a result of it. A related, but less commonly employed frame (in 18% of articles) was the expressed fear of a 'slippery slope' of litigation, which portrayed smoking as similar to eating fast food or other 'vices'. The most common frame that was positive for tobacco control (in 35% of articles) was the notion that the tobacco industry was 'evil' and, to a lesser extent, that the government should 'do more' to control smoking (15% of articles). These findings provide a sobering public health challenge to improve public communication efforts about the powerful forces that conspire to induce people to start smoking and keep them smoking for decades, despite a strong desire to quit. There is a need to fund public education programs and quit smoking services more adequately to address the complex education task of understanding the nature of addiction to tobacco and the enormity of the health risk.

Damages · Environmental health · Government (linguistics) · Newspaper · Pathology · Political science · Public health · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Thematic analysis · Tobacco control · Tobacco industry · Law · Media Influence and Health · Media Studies and Communication · Medicine · Nursing · Smoking Behavior and Cessation

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