Archive » Choi describes research, findings on framing of steroid use

Ryan Dorgan | March 26, 2011

Photo by Ryan Dorgan

Doctoral candidate ChangHee Choi discussed his research on ESPN's framing of steroid use. His talk was part of the school's series of Research Colloquia.

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Steroid use among professional athletes is no stranger to media coverage, but the focus and framing of this coverage may not be the most socially beneficial way of covering illegal drug use.

Doctoral candidate ChangHee Choi explored this idea in his talk, "Is The Steroids Era Over? ESPN Coverage and Adolescent Steroid Use,” Wednesday as part of the school’s Research Colloquium series.

“In contemporary American society, sports exist as a powerful cultural influence on the attitudes and behaviors of the general population,” Choi said. “Famous athletes transcend their roles in athletics and function as role models who influence millions of people, particularly adolescents and children.”

Choi’s method consisted of examining nearly 2,300 articles published on ESPN.com between 2004 and 2010. The stories ranged from columns to features to investigative and enterprise stories.

Within the text of the stories, Choi examined how the authors framed what he called “benefits and barriers” of steroid usage. Benefits included the athlete’s opportunity to have a competitive edge, and barriers included issues of illegality, athletic penalties and health costs.

His findings showed that while 93 percent of the stories did in fact address barriers and negative effects of steroid use, the majority of these stories – 45 percent of them – focused on moral condemnation of athletes, while only 6 percent of the stories focused on negative health effects of steroid use.

Choi emphasized that even though the articles “commonly referred to users as ‘cheaters,’ it may not be enough to deter adolescent users.”

“Adolescents engage in immoral or illegal behaviors all the time,” Choi said. “Although the general public views steroid use as immoral or incorrect, adolescents experimenting with steroids could perceive these supplements as beneficial or even necessary to their personal goals.”

Research shows that about 1 million adolescents – as much as 6 percent of all U.S. high school students – have admitted to using anabolic steroids, and it’s not just a problem among male athletes.

“The fastest growing user group is young high school girls,” Choi said. “And half of the users of anabolic steroids are not athletes at all.”

Photo by Ryan Dorgan

Choi advised media emphasizing health risk to deter steroid use.

Some guests of Choi’s presentation were shocked to hear this statistic. Choi explained that besides acting as a stimulant of muscle growth and athletic ability, steroids are often taken by people so that they will “simply look better.”

“The general consensus among academic researchers is that adolescent steroid usage is more prevalent than what research shows,” Choi said. This can be attributed to the difficulty in gathering generalized samples and also obtaining honest responses from adolescents.

A change in the media’s focus from moral condemnation to emphasizing the serious health risks of steroid use could serve as a cue to action for many parents and adolescents across the country.

“From a health standpoint, the media might play a positive role in the shaping of public perception, and even influencing policy,” he said.