Page 120 - TAIWAN TOBACCO CONTROL ANNUAL REPORT 2019

Tobacco Depictions and Imagery Monitoring Despite the health hazards posed by smoking, tobacco depictions in audiovisual content and on the Internet currently still focus on the depiction of freedom. Tobacco control concept has been promoted over many years. Smoke-free environments such as smoke-free workplaces, campuses, and restaurants have been gradually expanded. Audiovisual and Internet contents, however, represent an area in which the promotion of tobacco control is difficult to implement. TV program and movie monitoring In 2018, the HPA commissioned a panel of experts and academicians to monitor tobacco depictions in television shows and films. A total of 100 movies (including Mandarin and foreign language movies in box-office, DVD, and movie channels), 647 television shows (including the top 5 shows from the 5 major categories of dramas, cartoons, variety, recreational / music and sports at the 1st week of every month as rated by the AGB Nielsen Audience Measurement) and 672 news shows for a total of 40,320 minutes of television news contents (including 7~8 p.m of evening news from 10 radio TV and cable TV channels). Monitoring results showed that average incidence of tobacco depictions in every movie of 2018 was 25.80, and slightly decline when compared to the averages observed in past years (2008 to 2017). In addition, during the years of 2011 to 2018, the number of incidence of tobacco depictions in Mandarin films over the past 8 years was maintained 40 times on average in each film. In contrast to Mandarin films, foreign movies have maintained an average of 23 incidences of tobacco product depictions per movie over the past 8 years. (Table 3-1,3-2) Table 3-1 Tobacco depictions in films: comparison of data from 2008 to 2018 Item 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Tobacco depictions 47 63 31 35 47 39 27 43 49 37 49 Appearance of tobacco depictions Number of films (%) 58.80% 60.50% 30.40% 34.00% 47.0% 39.00% 27.00% 43.00% 49.00% 37.00% 49.00% Films monitored 80 104 102 103 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Average incidence of tobacco depictions 21.3 26.8 27.8 14.1 12.28 11.95 16.96 18.44 11.88 15.08 25.8 Table3-2 ComparisonoftobaccodepictionbetweenMandarinfilmsandforeign language films from 2008 to 2018 Item 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Mandarin Number of movies with tobacco depictions / Total number sampled 15/17 13/14 7/17 11/20 15/31 18/31 13/32 16/26 11/20 6/16 8/9 Incidences of tobacco depictions 512 511 239 163 151 171 226 363 129 73 321 Average incidence of tobacco depictions per movie 34 39 34 14 10 10 17 23 12 12 40 Foreign language Number of movies with tobacco depictions / Total number sampled 32/63 50/90 24/85 24/83 32/69 21/69 14/68 27/74 38/80 31/84 41/91 118