Targeting the trades,press associations,and J-schools: Tobacco industry mapping and shaping of metajournalistic discourses

Abstract

Drawing on archival sources, this study explores how tobacco companies and their representatives targeted journalism trade publications, professional and press associations, and journalism schools in a decades-long effort to map and shape metajournalistic discourses to their advantage. By contributing to media-to-media publications, funding and participating in conferences, and engaging in journalism “education” initiatives the industry sought to influence journalistic practices. These journalism-adjacent actors and sites are particularly vulnerable to infiltration from corporate actors and deserve more scrutiny.

Keywords

Metajournalistic discourse tobacco industry journalism schools trade publications press associations journalism history

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson

(2009) Media, politics and climate change: towards a new research agenda. Sociology Compass 3(2): 166–182.

Attack on tobacco ads (1987, February 21) Subcommittee Transportation Tourism and Hazardous Materials. Industry Documents Library. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/#id=mffc0042

Brandt

(2009) The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America. New York: Basic Books.

Brauer

(2011, January 28) Minnesota News Council to Fold. MinnPost. https://www.minnpost.com/braublog/2011/01/after-41-years-minnesota-news-council-fold/

Boykoff

(2011) Who speaks for the climate? Making Sense of Media Reporting on Climate Change. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Boykoff

(2004) Balance as bias: global warming and the US prestige press. Global Environmental Change 14(2): 125–136.

Carlsen

(1980, December 2) Tobacco Institute Records; RPCI Tobacco Institute and Council for Tobacco Research Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/zgbx0047

Carlson

(2009) Media criticism as competitive discourse: defining reportage of the Abu Ghraib scandal. Journal of Communication Inquiry 33(3): 258–277.

Carlson

(2014) Gone, but not forgotten: memories of journalistic deviance as metajournalistic discourse. Journalism Studies 15(1): 33–47.

10.

Carlson

(2016) Metajournalistic discourse and the meanings of journalism: definitional control, boundary work, and legitimation. Communication Theory 26(4): 349–368.

11.

Carpenter

Freidheim

(1987, February 3) Tobacco Institute Records; RPCI Tobacco Institute and Council for Tobacco Research Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/qjxn0049

12.

Cecil

(2002) Bad apples: paradigm overhaul and the CNN/Time “Tailwind” story. Journal of Communication Inquiry 26(1): 46–58.

13.

Christenson

(1965) Columbia Journalism Review. Tobacco Institute Records; RPCI Tobacco Institute and Council for Tobacco Research Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/lfxl0044

14.

Cohen

(2001) Universities and tobacco money: some universities are accomplices in the tobacco epidemic. BMJ 323: 1–2.

15.

Confessore

(2003) Meet the press: how james Glassman reinvented journalism-as lobbying. Washington Monthly 35(12): 32–39.

16.

Cory

Ricke

(1985, September 10) Improving science journalism. Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/lgvy0141

17.

Crowley

Pokrywczynski

(1991) Advertising practitioners look at a ban on tobacco advertising. Journalism Quarterly 68(3): 329–337. DOI: 10.1177/107769909106800302

18.

Deuze

(2011) What is journalism? Professional identity and ideology of journalists reconsidered. In: Berkowitz

(ed.) Cultural Meanings of News. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, pp. 17–31.

19.

Dunsby

Bero

(2003, November 18) Tobacco Industry Influence on Health and Science Journalism; The 131st Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, San Francisco, CA, USA. https://apha.confex.com/apha/131am/techprogram/paper_61007.htm

20.

Evans

(1985, September 25) Letter to samuel chilcote. Tobacco Institute Records; RPCI Tobacco Institute and Council for Tobacco Research Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/ygpg0035

21.

Friedheim

(1987) A Matter of Freedom. The Quill. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/#id=mffc0042

22.

Fuller

(1992, February 4) January monthly report. Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/xlpx0111

23.

Gibson

Craig

Harper

, et al. (2016) Covering global warming in dubious times: environmental reporters in the new media ecosystem. Journalism 17(4): 417–434.

24.

Gorney

(1994) Litigation journalism on trial. Media Critic, 48–57. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/#id=ftbc0127

25.

Haas

Steiner

(2002) Fears of corporate colonization in journalism reviews’ critiques of public journalism. Journalism Studies 3(3): 325–341.

26.

Hall

(1975) Introduction. In: Smith

ACH

(ed.) Paper Voices: The Popular Press and Social Change, 1935-1965. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., pp. 11–24.

27.

Hanitzsch

Vos

(2017) Journalistic roles and the struggle over institutional identity: the discursive constitution of journalism. Communication Theory 27(2): 115–135.

28.

Hesse-Biber

Leavy

(2006) The Practice of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

29.

Hermanson

(1993) The Minnesota news council: the story behind the creation. The Oral History Review 21(1): 23–48.

30.

Hypolite

Stewart

(2021) A critical discourse analysis of institutional responses to the 2016 US presidential election. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education 14(1): 1–11.

31.

Houlberg

(1995, December 23) Untitled document. Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/fmkj0108

32.

Information hotline . (1992) The new England press association bulletin: 14-15. Tobacco Institute Records; RPCI Tobacco Institute and Council for Tobacco Research Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/hzfw0034

33.

Landman

Glantz

(2009) Tobacco industry efforts to undermine policy-relevant research. American Journal of Public Health 99(1): 45–58.

34.

McCandless

Yerger

Malone

(2012) Quid pro quo: tobacco companies and the black press. American Journal of Public Health 102(4): 739–750.

35.

McDaniel

Lown

Malone

(2018) US media coverage of tobacco industry corporate social responsibility initiatives. Journal of Community Health 43(1): 117–127.

36.

Media to media (1995) Philip Morris Records. Media to media publications. Available at: https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/trbj0085.

37.

Muggli

Hurt

Becker

(2004) Turning free speech into corporate speech: Philip Morris’ efforts to influence US and European journalists regarding the US EPA report on secondhand smoke. Preventive Medicine 39(3): 568–580.

38.

Neuberger

(1963) Smoke Screen: Tobacco and the Public Welfare. Hoboken, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

39.

Nixon

Mejia

Cheyne

, et al. (2015) Big Soda’s long shadow: news coverage of local proposals to tax sugar-sweetened beverages in Richmond, El Monte and Telluride. Critical Public Health 25(3): 333–347.

40.

Olasky

(2013) Corporate Public Relations: A New Historical Perspective. New York: Routledge.

41.

Oreskes

Conway

(2011) Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. New York: Bloomsbury.

42.

Penney

(1994, May 20) Tobacco: litigation journalism. Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/zmxh0107

43.

Phillips

(2003) Discourse or institution? institutional theory and the challenge of critical discourse analysis. Debating Organization: Point-Counterpoint in Organization Studies, 220–231.

44.

Plante

(1991, October 17) Skepticism & traditional journalism practices urged by RTNDA environmental panels. RJ Reynolds Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/thjv0082

45.

Proactive media relations , Proactive media relations findings, recommendations & proposed next steps. (1998) Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/mjxk0057

46.

Public smoking programs , Public smoking programs of the tobacco institute. (1989, October 25) Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/gjvn0127

47.

Radio TV reports . Ubell’s questioning of Cullman held up as example of good journalism. (1971, January 10) Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/zsdc0107

48.

Reiss

(1997, June 30) Proactive media relations programs. Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/jtbj0085

49.

Research . (1995, March 21) Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/jpnp0149

50.

REM monthly report (1994) Philip Morris Records. REM Monthly Report 940700. Available at: https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/hphm0071.

51.

Rubin, Barney, & Birger, Inc . (1996, September 17) Communications recommendations. Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/ssgp0177

52.

Saunders

(1977, June 13) Columbia Journalism Review [correspondence]. Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/mplj0119

53.

Schmertz

(1986) Ten Steps toward Credibility. The Quill. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/#id=pqmn0049

54.

Smith

Thompson

Lee

(2017) The atlas network: a “strategic ally” of the tobacco industry. The International Journal of Health Planning and Management 32(4): 433–448.

55.

Stocking

Holstein

(1993) Constructing and reconstructing scientific ignorance: ignorance claims in science and journalism. Knowledge 15(2): 186–210.

56.

Strategy recommendation summary . (1998) Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/xyvx0218

57.

Swisher

Reese

(1992) The smoking and health issue in newspapers: influence of regional economies, the Tobacco Institute and news objectivity. Journalism Quarterly 69(4): 987–1000.

58.

Teen smoking . (1999, April 26) Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/kmyv0061

59.

The Tobacco Institute (1981) The cigarette consumer controversy. Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/lzhj0111

60.

The Tobacco Institute (1983) The tax burden on tobacco. Tobacco Institute Records. RPCI Tobacco Institute and Council for Tobacco Research Records. Available at: https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/pgvd0002.

61.

Tobacco strategy . (1994) Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/qkfw0114

62.

Tuchman

(1972) Objectivity as strategic ritual: an examination of newsmen’s notions of objectivity. American Journal of Sociology 77(4): 660–679.

63.

Vos

Russell

(2019) Theorizing journalism’s institutional relationships: an elaboration of gatekeeping theory. Journalism Studies 20(16): 2331–2348.

64.

Warner

(1985) Cigarette advertising and media coverage of smoking and health. The New England journal of medicine 312(6): 384–388. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/#id=hxcm0146

65.

Wilkie

(1995, May 25) Is there such a thing as science journalism? [Speech]. Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/ksdn0073

66.

Wolf

(1995) Untitled document [report]. Philip Morris Records. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/#id=lzkp0073