Distorted? a quantitative exploration of drug fatality reports in the popular press

It has long been accepted that newspaper reporting of drug issues may be prone to amplification. However, to date there has been little empirical confirmation of this view. This paper aims to examine the representativeness of newspaper reports of deaths attributed to illegal drug use. This was achieved by the comparing ‘official’ toxicological statistics for a single country (Scotland) with the reporting of drug deaths in that country's most popular newspapers over a given time period (the 1990s). The amount of press coverage given to different (types of) drug deaths was also compared. It was found that some drugs were more likely to be mentioned in newspaper stories concerning drug deaths than others. Moreover, atypical drug fatalities, such as those involving teenage females or ‘recreational’ drugs, especially ‘ecstasy’ received a disproportionate amount of press attention. It is concluded from these findings that the news media can present an unrepresentative and somewhat distorted view of illegal drug deaths. These biases may have serious implications for public opinion, social policy and drug education.