A Toxic Blend: Assessing the Effects of Cross-Source Media Coverage of Flavored E-Cigarettes on Youth and Young Adult Perceptions

J Health Commun. 2020 Aug 2;25(8):640-649. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2020.1834032. Epub 2020 Oct 26.

Abstract

Flavored e-cigarettes have received high attention across social and news media. How does exposure to e-cigarette flavors across multiple sources in the media environment influence youth e-cigarette perceptions? To address this question, we identified e-cigarette flavor mentions on 24.3 million Twitter posts and 11,691 longform texts (newspapers, broadcast news, and websites) disseminated over 3 years (2014-2017). During the same period, we measured e-cigarette beliefs through a nationally representative randomly sampled rolling survey of 13-26-year-olds (N = 4,470, 1013 days). We estimated the association between flavor-specific content on Twitter and longform sources in the 28 days prior to each survey date and perceptions that e-cigarettes taste good. The interaction of coverage on Twitter and longform sources was significantly associated with more favorable perceptions of e-cigarette taste (OR = 1.21; 95% CI, 1.04-1.41); the main effects of each source type were not significant. This study presents a novel approach to evaluating the effects of cross-source coverage in today's complex media landscape and may strengthen claims for media influence on e-cigarette use.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems / statistics & numerical data*
  • Female
  • Flavoring Agents*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mass Media / statistics & numerical data*
  • Perception*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Taste
  • Vaping / psychology
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Flavoring Agents