Study reveals just how much world press accentuates the negative

Media coverage of ENDS around the world is much more likely to be negative than positive, and to focus on health effects rather than e-cigs’ use in smoking cessation, a new study suggests.

But the large-scale analysis of more than 50,000 news items also uncovers some more surprising patterns – for example, that flavours are hardly written about at all despite being so frequently cited in discussions of youth vaping.

“Our findings highlight several disconnects between the scientific community’s priorities and the potential areas of concern among the public,” the Californian academics who conducted the study said.

“While researchers, particularly in the United States, often cite flavor restrictions as a pressing area of ENDS regulations given that flavors are banned in other tobacco products, news reporters are not spreading this same message.”