Readiness to Change: Newspaper Coverage of Tobacco Farming and Diversification

Abstract

Diversification, like tobacco use prevention and cessation, is an important public health concern. The multilevel patterns of tobacco dependency suggest the need for public health approaches to the "tobacco problem." To understand how newspaper and wire service journalists cover issues involving diversification among tobacco farmers, the authors performed a content analysis of a subset of 100 articles on diversification and tobacco farming. Prochaska and DiClemente's stages of change model was applied to the "problem behavior" of tobacco farming. Among news accounts relating to tobacco farmers or tobacco farming, print media accounts gave relatively little attention to the issue of diversification. Farmers in the sample of news accounts were generally cognizant of pressures to diversify away from reliance on tobacco cultivation but were frustrated due to obstacles to diversification such as limited diversification options and relative absence of infrastructure supports. Community leaders and policy-relevant sources generally supported diversification.

The Community Readiness Model: Evaluating Local Smoke-Free Policy Development

“…Another community climate-promotion strategy is to anticipate and prepare for the tactics used by tobacco growers and manufacturers, as well as business owners who rely on tobacco and alcohol sales (Smith, Altman, & Strunk, 2000). These groups will likely claim an economic hardship if smoke-free laws are enacted.…”

Readiness for Smoke-Free Policy and Overall Strength of Tobacco Control in Rural Tobacco-Growing Communities

“…Department of Agriculture, 2010), there was a strong association between tobacco production and readiness for smoke-free policy development in rural, tobacco-growing communities regardless of the strength of Resources, Capacity, and Efforts in overall tobacco control. The impact of strong historical and sociocultural ties to tobacco cannot be underestimated in rural, tobacco-growing communities where dependence on tobacco is a way of life (Chaloupka, et al, 2002; Denham & Rathbun, 2005) and farmers are struggling with diversification of crops (Smith, Altman, & Strunk, 2000). Goldstein and colleagues (2003) reported that school districts that adopted comprehensive tobacco-free school policies were not located in heavy tobacco-growing areas of North Carolina, consistent with our finding that tobacco production is an important factor when considering community readiness for smoke-free policy.…”

Integrating Tobacco Control and Obesity Prevention Initiatives at Retail Outlets

“…Sallis and Glanz (20) identified a need for multilevel intervention studies that simultaneously address physical activity and food environments as risk factors for obesity. Tobacco farmers transitioned successfully from growing tobacco to growing other crops (21); tobacco retailers are contemporary candidates for similar transitions.…”