How Can Smoke-Free Legislation Succeed in the Pan-Media Era?

An Empirical Study of Tobacco Control by Government Affairs New Media Using Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Smoke-free legislations are effective measures to combat the epidemic of tobacco use and protect citizens from the harm of secondhand smoke. Although nationalwide tobacco control legislation has yet to be established, local tobacco control initiatives have already demonstrated positive outcomes. Current research has identified numerous univariate factors influencing tobacco control legislation, however, there is a notable lack of studies that comprehensively examine the combined effects of various influencing factors, including media advocacy. In the era of pan-media,  the roles of media actors, networks, and users have evolved. Government affairs new media, which serves the dual roles of “information dissemination and public service”, has not only become a representative of the official intent but also an integral part of the media environment. The government affairs new media demonstrate unique “locality” within the dynamics of the political, technological, and market-oriented dimensions. This study adopts the “four-image diagram” of the Geographies of Media & Communication as the theoretical framework, and employs the fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) method. It takes the tobacco control legislation status of 32 cities as the outcome variable and the tobacco control practices of local government affairs new media and other local characteristic variables as the condition variables, to explore the impact of different combinations of factors on local tobacco control legislation. The findings indicate that a “ low proportion of tobacco tax contribution”  plays a pivotal role in the success of local tobacco control legislation, while combinations of  “high economic level, high proportion of tobacco tax contribution, and large number of comprehensive media campaign on tobacco control” significantly hinders legislative efforts. Furthermore, although the impact of local government affairs new media's tobacco control practices on tobacco control legislation remains unsubstantiated, proactive communication and comprehensive dissemination of tobacco control information may still positively facilitate local tobacco control legislation and enforcement.