A content analysis of alcohol portrayal and drinking in British television soap operas

Introduction This study examined the portrayal of alcoholconsumption in a sample of six soap operas onBritish television. In all, 86% contained visualor verbal references to alcoholic beverages withan average of one reference in every 3.5 min ofprogramming. Over all of the 25 programmesmonitored, more alcohol was consumed thansoft drinks, at a ratio of 2.1:1, and there werehardly any references to the hazards of alcoholconsumption. In contrast to previous similarstudies, alcohol was found to be most promin-ently featured in Emmerdale Farm and hardlyever appeared in Home and Away. Also, four ofthe major soaps regularly showed specificbrands of alcohol, in particular Eastenders.Finally, despite the observations in previousstudies by others that the presentation of alcoholon television is decreasing, in comparison tothree studies done in the last 10 years, alcoholportrayal appeared to be, if anything, on theincrease, although problems associated withthese comparisons render the results in need ofreplication. The quality of data yielded in manyof these analyses, along with poor base-ratedata, make it difficult to establish the evidenceof reliable trends, though preliminary analyseswere done comparing two earlier studies withdata obtained in this one. However, recom-mendations for further studies have been made.