Assessing Alcohol and Tobacco Messages on Social Networking Sites – The Development of a Comprehensive Content Analysis Manual: An Abstract

Alcohol and Tobacco Products (ATP) are among the leading cause of the development of non-communicable disease worldwide (Gneiting and Schmitz 2016). Developed during childhood and teenage years, normative beliefs associated to the use of ATP, have been documented as playing a significant part into such use, especially during the years of 13 and 14 when first experimentations of ATP occur (Buelga & Musitu, 2006). Popular media are known to facilitate the dissemination and the transmission of information and values associated with ATP, impacting these normative beliefs. Indeed, many researches based on classical popular media content (e.g. TV, Music Videos) have documented the presence of such messages associated with ATP within such contents (Russel et al. 2017; Cranwell et al. 2015). These messages are now transposed online through different types of publications shared on Social Networking Sites (SNS) by individuals or companies that are willingly followed by teenagers expecting to be informed and/or entertained. Documenting the presence of ATP products on classical media may have supported the development of public policy to restrict such presence and thus its influence on the population, however, documenting the presence of ATP products online seems to be harder because of the different forms these publications may take (video, audio, text, ...). The content analysis methodology has been recognised as a particularly interesting methodology to analyse the media and the messages that are carried to the population/ the consumer (Kassarjian 1977). However, no unanimous content analysis support has been developed yet in order to document the presence of ATP online, making it difficult to get an accurate vision of the way ATP messages are shared on SNS and the influence it may have on teenagers. This research program documents the literature review that has been undergone in order to create a comprehensive and replicable content analysis methodology.