ArticleBMJ open2016
Content analysis of UK newspaper and online news representations of women's and men's 'binge' drinking: a challenge for communicating evidence-based messages about single-episodic drinking?
Article in BMJ open, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Bioethics at the intersection of politics, society, and healthcare: the significance of media debate analyses.BMC medical ethics · 2025Pooled it
- Newspaper coverage of advance care planning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Content analysis.Death studies · 2024Article
- Print and online textual news media coverage of UK low-risk drinking guidelines from 2014 to 2017: A review and thematic analysis.Drug and alcohol review · 2022Review
- Media intervention program for reducing unrealistic optimism bias: The link between unrealistic optimism, well-being, and health.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2022Article
- Mining news media for understanding public health concerns.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2019Article
- UK news media representations of smoking, smoking policies and tobacco bans in prisons.Tobacco control · 2018Article
- The role of alcohol in constructing gender & class identities among young women in the age of social media.The International journal on drug policy · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issuedCorrection.2017
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesIn the UK, men's alcohol-related morbidity and mortality still greatly exceeds women's, despite an increase in women's alcohol consumption in recent decades. New UK alcohol guidelines introduce gender-neutral low-risk alcohol consumption guidance. This study explores how UK newspaper and online news represent women's and men's 'binge' drinking to identify opportunities to better align reporting of harmful drinking with evidence.
designQuantitative and qualitative content analysis of 308 articles published in 7 UK national newspapers and the BBC News website between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2013.
resultsArticles associated women with 'binge' drinking more frequently than men, and presented women's drinking as more problematic. Men were more frequently characterised as violent or disorderly, while women were characterised as out of control, putting themselves in danger, harming their physical appearance and burdening men. Descriptions of female 'binge' drinkers' clothing and appearance were typically moralistic.
conclusionsThe UK news media's disproportionate focus on women's 'binge' drinking is at odds with epidemiological evidence, may reproduce harmful gender stereotypes and may obstruct public understandings of the gender-neutral weekly consumption limits in newly proposed alcohol guidelines. In order to better align reporting of harmful drinking with current evidence, public health advocates may engage with the media with a view to shifting media framing of 'binge' drinking away from specific groups (young people; women) and contexts (public drinking) and towards the health risks of specific drinking behaviours, which affect all groups regardless of context.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.