The soda tax debate in Telluride, Colorado: How was it framed?
Taxes on sugary drinks have been identified as a policy tool that could reduce consumption of these beverages or raise funds to address associated health expenses. To date, tax proposals have met stiff opposition from the beverage industry and others. An unsuccessful ballot measure in November 2013 to place a penny-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks within the city of Telluride, Colo., provided an opportunity to study the public debate over this issue.
Analyzing news coverage is important because news sets the agenda for policy debates, and frames how voters and policy-makers consider whether to support an issue. BMSG conducted a study to help Healthy Eating Research (HER), a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, understand how news coverage portrayed the proposal to tax soda in Telluride, so that future ballot initiatives might better anticipate what to expect when SSB taxes are presented to local voters.
BMSG gathered and analyzed local and national news media content, as well as online comments on articles and blogs surrounding the public debate about Telluride’s ballot initiative to raise taxes on sugary drinks. This included content related to the health impact of sugary drinks and their role in the childhood obesity epidemic. BMSG analyzed who was quoted in the news and how often; which arguments for and against the tax were the most prominent; and how various arguments were expressed. A final report provides a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative analysis of the news coverage of this tax measure.
Related publications
Soda tax debates: An analysis of news coverage of the 2013 soda tax proposal in Telluride, Colorado
Tweet chats
#SodaTaxNews: October 9, 2014
This tweet chat, co-hosted with the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, includes a discussion of BMSG research on news portrayals of Telluride’s failed soda tax, how it compared to previous soda tax debates, and lessons for advocates.
#SodaTaxNews: March 6, 2014
This transcript captures a conversation with the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity on BMSG research into media coverage of soda tax proposals in the California cities of Richmond and El Monte.