NCJ Number
144588
Journal
Social Problems Volume: 40 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1993) Pages: 190-206
Date Published
1993
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This paper examines how journalists and graphic artists in the national print media used statistical results from annual surveys of student drug use to quantify claims about cocaine and other drug problems in 1986 and later.
Abstract
Media coverage of drug problems generally and cocaine use specifically reached epidemic proportions in 1986. Starting from less than 1 percent of total coverage in the first quarter of 1986, coverage of all drug issues eventually consumed nearly 5 percent of the space and time in the national media during July, August, and September. Surveys of drug use by high school seniors from 1975 through 1985 were incorporated in media coverage to characterize the cocaine problem. Time-series data from the surveys were used to transform yearly changes into a dramatic graphic image of cocaine use. During the last 3 months of 1986, however, media coverage of drug issues declined dramatically. The authors discuss how competitive conditions in the journalistic field affect the production and distortion of quantified images of drug problems. 44 references and 6 figures