BACKGROUND: While tobacco industry’s charitable donations have been widely recognized as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) tactic globally, the narrative mechanisms through which media coverage legitimizes these activities remain understudied, particularly in China’s unique tobacco monopoly context. This study innovatively applies news narrative theory to examine how media coverage of tobacco industry donations potentially undermines tobacco control efforts.
METHODS: Using purposive sampling, we tracked and analyzed news coverage of tobacco industry donations documented in the 2021 China Tobacco Yearbook through comprehensive online searches. A total of 85 news reports were collected and analyzed using a novel coding framework based on news narrative theory. The framework examined ten dimensions including narrator type, character construction, narrative perspective, and framing strategies. Two trained coders independently coded all materials with high reliability (Cohen’s Kappa > 0.8). Python was used for descriptive statistical analysis and text visualization.
RESULTS: The analysis revealed sophisticated narrative strategies: 82.35% of headlines explicitly featured tobacco companies; reporting frames predominantly emphasized national policy response (37.65%) and public health benefits (34.12%). The narrative approach balanced between promotional (43.79%) and journalistic (42.60%) modes. Notably, 100% of reports maintained positive stances, utilizing multi-modal storytelling with text-video combinations (43.27%) to enhance persuasiveness.
CONCLUSIONS: As a Party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), China is obligated to implement comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship. This study demonstrates how news coverage of tobacco industry donations employs sophisticated narrative strategies that may constitute tobacco promotion. We recommend: 1) strengthening implementation of FCTC Article 13 by explicitly including media coverage of tobacco industry CSR activities within advertising restrictions; 2) developing guidelines for balanced news reporting of tobacco industry activities; and 3) enhancing media professionals’ awareness of tobacco industry marketing strategies. These measures would contribute to more effective tobacco control policy implementation in China.