TV Praised as Depicting Drug Use Responsibly

Television generally does a far better job than movies and music when it comes to responsible depictions of drug, tobacco and alcohol use, according to a study commissioned by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Conducted in the fourth quarter of 1998, the survey--which will be released today as part of that office’s effort to employ media to affect attitudes among teenagers and children--concluded that illicit drugs were shown being used in only 3% of prime-time series episodes and were mentioned or seen in roughly a fifth of programs.

About 20% of episodes also exhibited tobacco use, and none of those showed teenage characters smoking. In addition, drug use was seldom made to look glamorous--a departure from films, which an earlier survey found often conveyed mixed messages to youths.

“The study showed there aren’t many depictions, and the depictions that occur are presented responsibly,” said Donald Vereen, deputy director of the drug-control policy office. “We were very pleasantly surprised by what we saw in television.”

“When illicit drugs are portrayed, they generally have negative consequences,” added Donald F. Roberts, a professor of communications at Stanford University, which participated in the study through Mediascope.

Despite the positive report card on illegal drugs, a relatively high percentage of programs--including those most popular among teens--did feature consumption of alcohol, though rarely by teenage characters. Seven in 10 programs contained some alcohol use, and nearly half of those did so in a humorous manner. Negative consequences were incorporated about a quarter of the time.

Roberts pointed out that sitcoms “establish gathering places, and a very convenient gathering place is a bar or tavern.” Still, he added that much of the drinking involved secondary or even background characters, meaning it would not be difficult to reduce those figures.

By way of comparison, alcohol and tobacco each appeared in more than 9 in 10 movies, and movies and music were less likely to represent potential negative aspects of using drugs.

Many TV programs have undertaken story lines regarding substance abuse, with recurring characters who are recovering alcoholics on “NYPD Blue” and “Law & Order.”

The Entertainment Industries Council and National Institute on Drug Abuse have also sought to educate TV producers about such matters, offering information and resources to help programs explore such subject matter.

Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Chairman Meryl Marshall said such awareness has been high since the mid-1980s, when Nancy Reagan made drugs a national issue.

“The leadership that started then has pretty much stayed intact in regard to the drug issue,” she said. “It’s become socially unacceptable among creative people to present drugs in a glamorous way.”

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Headed by drug czar Barry McCaffrey, the Office of National Drug Control Policy controls a five-year, $1-billion budget to implement its media campaign. Yet some researchers have expressed skepticism about the efficacy of its public-service advertising--which makes up about two-thirds of its expenditures--if those ads are undercut by content within the TV programs airing adjacent to them.

Toward that end, the office has sought to use financial incentives to convince networks to incorporate anti-drug themes. Each spot purchased by the office carries with it a matching component, meaning networks must donate free public-service time commensurate with the amount bought.

Broadcasters, however, can achieve “credit” for matching spots--and thus avoid giving up valuable ad inventory--if programs contain anti-drug messages. Though some question whether this amounts to the government exercising subtle influence over content, Vereen said it is merely part of his office’s effort to raise awareness and ultimately affect children’s attitudes and behavior regarding drugs.

“When the message is embedded in [programming] it has a much more valuable ‘oomph,’ ” he noted. “The message has to get deeper than a 30-second or a 60-second spot.”

For all the positive signs cited, the recent proliferation of teen-oriented programs such as “Dawson’s Creek” has heightened concerns about images youths encounter on television.

The current crop includes two nostalgic series, Fox’s “That ‘70s Show” and NBC’s “Freaks and Geeks,” which incorporate marijuana as part of the teen experience circa 1980. The producers have stressed they do not intend to endorse or glorify drugs but that it would be unrealistic to completely skirt the issue based on attitudes of that era.

The Mediascope study also examined programs along racial and ethnic lines, finding no substantive difference in drug or alcohol portrayals broken down by their popularity among white, black or Latino teenagers.

Though President Clinton has close associations with many in Hollywood, he has frequently chided the entertainment industry for presenting what he described in 1997 as “warped images of a dream world where drugs are cool.”