The target audiences include public health professionals, researchers, and youth committed to tobacco control advocacy and individuals of ethnically diverse populations interested in understanding the role of media and tobacco messages that may impact child and adolescent decision-making.

Key Points:

- There is a significant amount of tobacco use depicted in network and non-network television evident from coding conducted on nine network and non-network television shows.

- Coding showed that television series with the most tobacco use had the highest percentage of pro-tobacco messages expressed, and those characters depicted smokings were predominantly male (76.4%) and Caucasian (87.8%).

Learning Objectives:

1.) To delineate tobacco use and messages conveyed in 9 popular network and non-network television shows

2.) To discuss the negative influences of tobacco exposure through television on youth

Benefits:

The nine shows that were reviewed had a wide spectrum of tobacco use, and the messages implied ranged from conveying power, wealth, rebellion, sexiness, and being cool. It is evident that tobacco use is still very prevalent among television shows targeted to youth; and further research should be conducted to document the impact of tobacco exposure through media on social and behavioral choices among youth.