Newspaper coverage of drug policy: an analysis of pre‐election reporting of the Greens' drug policy in Australia

Abstract

With the headline 'Ecstasy Over The Counter' in a popular daily newspaper, the debate on drug policy officially entered the arena of the 2003 New South Wales (Australia) State Election. The debate resurfaced in the lead-up to the 2004 Australian Federal Election. This paper analyses the pre-election coverage of drug policy issues in four Australian newspapers. Four high-circulation daily newspapers were monitored for a one-month period prior to both elections and analysed for their coverage of drug policy, particularly with respect to the policy of the Greens. The newspapers took different perspectives on drug policy issues, with two framing it in emotive terms as a moral debate and two framing it as political manoeuvring. The newspapers focused upon emotive and sensationalist factors. They did not provide their readers with information or a rationale for the formulation of drug policy, be this from a harm minimisation or zero tolerance perspective.