Debate. Public discourse on alcohol

Abstract

SUMMARY There are many and varied voices in the public discourse on alcohol: those of the public health interests; those of the vested interest groups; and those of the media themselves. The concerns of those in the field of public health are to prevent any increase and, where possible, reduce the harms which are experienced from alcohol use. Occupying a somewhat different position in the public discourse are the voices of the distributors and producers of alcohol. While there is some shared concern about the adverse consequences of alcohol use, the primary interest of these groups is to protect the return on the investment of their shareholders. Among those with a stake in alcohol industry profits, there is a reluctance to accept the use of public policies which have a direct impact on overall consumption and drinking behaviour. The preference of the vested interest groups is that the public discourse be aimed at informing and persuading the individual drinker (and future drinker) to behave in a certain way. These groups want to limit the role of the public health interests to the use of educational programmes, while at the same time utilising the mass media to inform and persuade in the form of direct and indirect advertising campaigns which promote the use of alcohol. Other aspects of the public discourse on alcohol are disseminated in the entertainment, news and editorial pages of newspapers and content of television programmes. Here too there are conflicting messages about alcohol, with coverage of the public health issues being juxtaposed alongside the perspectives of the alcohol producers and distributors and other vested interest groups such as the advertising industry. The media are key players in the public discourse on alcohol. Alcohol policy issues have long been hotly contested and in the 1990s much of the debate is shaped by the portrayal of alcohol and alcohol policy in the mass media. There has always been a considerable imbalance between the resources available for the promotion of alcohol use and those to moderate it, and it is concluded that access to the mass media by public health voices is essential if public health goals are to be achieved.