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Tobacco Marketing Promotes Youth Cigarette Use  

Mass media has the power to both encourage tobacco use, especially among young people, and to discourage it, according to a landmark study released Thursday by the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

"This is the first report to conclude that tobacco advertising and promotion increases tobacco use," said Melanie Wakefield, senior scientific editor of the report, The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use.

"It's the first report to make the conclusion that there is a causal relationship between exposure to depiction of smoking in the movies and youth beginning to smoke," she said.

The findings in the hefty, nearly 700-page report aren't all bad about media and its effects on tobacco use, however.

"Mass media can change youth attitudes about tobacco use,"

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