Research Report: Exposure to Tobacco and Alcohol Content in YouTube Music Videos in Britain
Charlotte Goddard
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Previous research has established young people exposed to depictions of tobacco and alcohol content in films are more likely to start smoking or to consume alcohol. A group of researchers from the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies at the University of Nottingham wanted to examine the effect of such imagery in online media, in this case music videos on YouTube.
Authors: Jo Cranwell, Magdalena Opazo-Breton, John Britton, University of Nottingham
Published by: Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, January 2016
SUMMARY
The researchers analysed the 32 most popular music videos of chart songs in the UK between 3 November 2013 and 19 January 2014 for their paper - Adult and Adolescent Exposure to Tobacco and Alcohol Content in Contemporary YouTube Music Videos in Great Britain: A Population Estimate.
They divided the videos into 10-second intervals and noted the presence of different types of alcohol and tobacco content in each. These included actual use, implied use, paraphernalia and brand appearances. The videos contained a total of 821 10-second intervals, of which 47 contained tobacco content and 233 included alcohol content.
The academics then used a YouGov survey of 2,068 young people aged between 11 and 18, and 2,232 adults to find out what proportion of each group had watched the videos. On average, 22 per cent of the teenagers had seen at least one of the videos and six per cent of the adults. The researchers calculated the videos had been seen more often by adults, especially those between the ages of 25 and 34, but that a higher proportion of adolescents had seen the videos than any other age group.
Extrapolating these figures across the whole population, the results showed that in total the 32 videos had delivered one billion images of and references to alcohol to the British public and 203 million images of and references to tobacco. The researchers refer to these images and references as "impressions". On average, teenagers received four times as many "impressions" than adults.
Young people aged 13 to 15 received an average of 11.48 tobacco impressions, while those aged 16 to 18 received an average of 10.5. Among adolescents, exposure was around 65 per cent higher among girls compared with boys. The highest number of tobacco impressions per person was delivered to girls aged between 13 and 15.
The pattern of exposure for alcohol was similar to tobacco, but the overall number of impressions was five times higher.
Young people aged between 13 and 15 received 56.93 impressions each on average, and those between 16 and 18 were exposed to 52.07 impressions. The highest exposure of 70.68 impressions per person occurred in girls aged between 13 and 15.
IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
The researchers concluded adolescents are more heavily exposed to tobacco and alcohol content in online music videos than adults. They say music videos are currently almost unregulated for their content, unlike film and television content, and suggest one means of reducing impact would be to require anti-smoking or anti-alcohol messages to be broadcast immediately before any video containing smoking or alcohol. Another suggestion is to publish health warnings in subtitles over the video - common practice in Indian cinema. However, a more effective alternative may be to cut out this content at source, through negotiation with the video makers and publishers, the researchers conclude.
FURTHER READING
Tobacco and Alcohol Use Behaviours Portrayed in Music Videos: A Content Analysis, Robert DuRant and others, American Journal of Public Health, July 1997. Music videos from five genres of music were analysed for portrayals of tobacco and alcohol use and for portrayals of such behaviours in conjunction with sexuality.
Impact of Advertisements Promoting Candy-like Flavoured E-cigarettes on Appeal of Tobacco Smoking Amongst Children: An Experimental Study, Milica Vasiljevic, Dragos Petrescu, Theresa Marteau, University of Cambridge, BMJ Tobacco Control, January 2016. A Department of Health-funded study into the effect of ads for flavoured e-cigarettes on children.
Youth Exposure to Alcohol Use and Brand Appearances in Popular Contemporary Movies, Sonya Dal Cin and others, Addiction, August 2008. A survey of 6,522 US adolescents.