Breaking New Grounds in Tobacco Control - Voluntary Health ...

Introduction
There are only two forces that can carry
light to all the corners of the globe... the
sun in the heavens and the media.
The news media is recognized as among
the world’s most influential and powerful
elements. They are irreplaceable as a
mechanism for turning a problem into
a solution. There is a saying that a tenthousand-watt
light turned on a situation
focuses the minds of policymakers very
fast.” That is why media in a country like
India is an important source of health
information. The news media plays an
important role in advancing independent
discussion around policy debates. In a
democratic set-up, public policy issues are
highlighted in newspapers, magazines and
the electronic media to catch the attention
of people, policymakers and government
officials. It is unfortunate, but true, that
in India, most decision makers come to the
conclusion that problems exist after the
media highlights it. In fact media is the
vehicle that shapes public opinion as such it
is important to carry frequent and repeated
coverages to the public using all mediums,
contributing with qualitative messages to
help people realize their follies.
India has been the focus of the world’s
attention this past decade for its economic
potential and the huge opportunities the
developed world sees in the Asian giant. But
health is a key area where India has a long
way to go. And the one time bomb that is
ticking away is the menace of tobacco, whose
use is assuming alarming proportions. In
the twentieth century, the tobacco industry
constantly worked at creating new customers
For the Millions
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The Game Changers:
Media in Tobacco Control
Binoy Mathew and Jaspreet Kaur Pal
for its products. Around the world, billions of
rupees were spent on advertising, sponsorship
and promotion activities. Mass media had a
dubious role in creating new generations of
tobacco users, even as evidence mounted
about tobacco’s deadly toll on public health.
Tobacco advertisements, featuring initially
doctors and later, film stars and celebrities
were instrumental in making smoking and
smokeless tobacco use fashionable, macho,
glamourous and alluring. There were also
innovative advertisements featuring a range
of feminized brands like light, slim cigarettes
marketed at women, associating smoking
with emancipation, slimness, modernity, and
sophistication.
In present times, when the scope and
potential of communication exchange has
expanded and evolved, harnessing the
media’s power to discourage tobacco use is
one of the major public health challenges
of the new century. Given the potential of
the media as a channel of influence, media
advocacy can give rise to significant policy
changes that prioritize strategic efforts
towards tobacco control. Realizing this,
public health and tobacco control advocates,
are beginning to successfully befriend and
use the media to influence how the public
and policymakers attend to and prioritize
tobacco-related issues. The relationship
between news coverage on tobacco and
coverage of other public health issues is
an important subject that largely has been
ignored, particularly as it pertains to the
potential impact on behavioral and policy
change. The competition for space within
the “news hole” is likely to be most fierce
across topics that public health advocates
would ideally treat as complementary.