News media coverage of trans fat: Health risks and policy responses

Introduction. The Food and Drug Administration first proposed requiring trans fat to be listed on nutrition labels in 1999, and more recently, local and state governments and food manufacturers also have taken actions to reduce trans fat in the food supply. The news media play an important role in disseminating health information to consumers and setting the agenda for public policy debates. The goal of this thesis was to assess how the media portrayed characteristics and health risks of trans fat and how private and public responses to these risks were framed to consumers.;Methods. A census of news stories focusing on trans fat was collected from the two largest-circulation newspapers and from three broadcast networks from 1998 to 2008 (N=156). Content of news stories was coded using a 27-item instrument, with 25 percent of stories coded independently by two coders to determine inter-rater reliability (range for kappa=.73 to kappa=.99).;Results. About half of news coverage mentioned characteristics of trans fat, and most news stories mentioned foods containing trans fat (83 percent) and health risks of trans fat (78 percent). Most news coverage (92 percent) mentioned at least one private or public sector response to the health risks of trans fat, with voluntary food industry action, the FDA labeling rule, and local or state bans on trans fat in restaurants the three most commonly mentioned responses. Less coverage (11 percent) mentioned litigation against food companies whose products contain trans fat. News stories mentioning cardiovascular disease risk or adverse affects on cholesterol were more likely to mention public policies rather than voluntary industry actions.;Conclusions. Substantial portions of news coverage included information defining trans fat and associated health risks. Industry action and regulation dominated the discussion of response options, with little coverage of litigation as an option to reduce trans fat in the food supply.