TABLE 2—

Prevalence of Arguments For and Against Fast-Food Land-Use Policies in News Coverage: 77 US Communities, 2001–2013

	Nutrition Focus, %	Non–Nutrition Focus, %	Total, %
Arguments in favor
Improve appearance	3	53*	33
Improve health	79	1*	32
Improve economy	2	28*	18
Reduce community nuisance (noise, traffic, trash, etc.)	14	14	14
Improve walkability	1	4*	3
Proportion of all arguments	41	58	50
Arguments against
Bad for business	11	60*	32
Ineffective/unnecessary	31	17*	25
Government intrusion	37	8*	24
Legitimate business	20	15	18
Proportion of all arguments	59	42	50

Note. Sample size was 1526 arguments in 320 news articles and blog posts. Of 765 favorable arguments, 301 focused on nutrition and 464 did not; of 761 negative arguments, 431 focused nutrition and 330 did not.

*P < .01.