TY - JOUR
T1 - Australian letters to the editor on tobacco
T2 - Triggers, rhetoric, and claims of legitimate voice
AU - Smith, Katherine Clegg
AU - McLeod, Kim
AU - Wakefield, Melanie
PY - 2005/11
Y1 - 2005/11
N2 - News coverage of tobacco issues influences both individual behavior change and policy progression. Thus, media advocacy is increasingly recognized as important for promoting public health. Letters to the editor (LTE) are a basic form of media advocacy, serving to demonstrate community sentiment on a given issue. Such letters are yet to receive systematic analytic consideration. The authors conducted an ethnographic content analysis of LTE on tobacco issues from a sample of 11 Australian daily newspapers over a 3-year period (2001 to 2003, N = 361). They argue that letters are artifacts of active engagement in a public debate and note that various stakeholders adopt similar strategies to pursue their objectives. They illustrate how identifying personal and collective identities is crucial in the assertion of legitimacy of voice in LTEs. Better understanding is needed of both the particular issues that spark public engagement, and the salient rhetoric employed by advocates of disparate positions.
AB - News coverage of tobacco issues influences both individual behavior change and policy progression. Thus, media advocacy is increasingly recognized as important for promoting public health. Letters to the editor (LTE) are a basic form of media advocacy, serving to demonstrate community sentiment on a given issue. Such letters are yet to receive systematic analytic consideration. The authors conducted an ethnographic content analysis of LTE on tobacco issues from a sample of 11 Australian daily newspapers over a 3-year period (2001 to 2003, N = 361). They argue that letters are artifacts of active engagement in a public debate and note that various stakeholders adopt similar strategies to pursue their objectives. They illustrate how identifying personal and collective identities is crucial in the assertion of legitimacy of voice in LTEs. Better understanding is needed of both the particular issues that spark public engagement, and the salient rhetoric employed by advocates of disparate positions.
KW - Letters to the editor
KW - Textual analysis
KW - Tobacco
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=27844505160&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=27844505160&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1049732305279145
DO - 10.1177/1049732305279145
M3 - Article
C2 - 16204400
AN - SCOPUS:27844505160
SN - 1049-7323
VL - 15
SP - 1180
EP - 1198
JO - Qualitative Health Research
JF - Qualitative Health Research
IS - 9
ER -