Aims: To examine Finnish commentary on changes in alcohol policy between 1993 and 2000. Data. A corpus of newspaper editorials on alcohol issues from six daily newspapers published between 1993 and 2000.
Method: The editorials were analysed as 'pending narratives' by examining how they used 'morally loaded binary discourse', 'utopian discourse' and 'truth discourse'.
Findings: Almost half the editorials discussed alcohol policy in terms of freedom from the restrictive alcohol policy of the state. Encouraging liberalization of alcohol policy peaked in 1996 and 1997. However, as problems of public order became more prominent in the media at the end of the 1990s, claims for the liberalization of alcohol policy died away and between 1998 and 2000 issues of public order dominated those of freedom. In addition, concern about the intoxication-orientated drinking habits of the young and of children became prominent.
Conclusions: The results suggest that, after advocating more liberalized alcohol policy and then seeing that there were some groups who responded irresponsibly to this, the middle-class concern about freedom turned into concern about the security of public places and this was reflected in the media. This analysis highlights the dynamic nature of public opinion and media advocacy in response to changes in policy.