What the papers say: how does the United Kingdom press treat water fluoridation and does it matter?

This is a case study to investigate in an objective way how fluoridation is reported in the press. All press cuttings collected by a reputable national agency covering a 9-month period were studied; were rated as being profluoridation, antifluoridation or neutral. The rating system was calibrated before the study by comparing the scores given by the author and a selected group of experts. Overall, press article coverage was antifluoridation, though it is not clear how intentional this is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]