落實水上安全教育是減少民眾及青少年發生溺水的根本辦法。目前國內各級學校課程中並沒有列入此重要議題，消防及衛生單位也沒有編列足夠的宣導經費，而每天的報紙就成為水上安全教育資訊的重要來源，所以報紙對水上安全新聞如何報導、內容如何呈現及其本質上採取甚麼相對的策略，將會影響到民眾及青少年對於水上安全的正確認識，而探討這三項內涵就成為本研究之目的。本研究係針對民國89年5月至9月三份台北縣地方版之報紙中有關於水上安全教育、溺水事件報導、水上活動場所、水上活動競賽等新聞報導進行內容分析及其比較。經分析結果後發現:不論標題或內容，報紙皆以水案件及其搶救類為報導的主軸。在報導的標題及內容性質上，報紙主要是著重在介紹水上安全相關訊息，以及對於溺水案件表達遺憾上;對於建設性的防溺措施則反而較少。報紙對於溺水案件內容的報導正確性高、涵蓋性廣。報紙在報導中傳遞之信念、知識、態度與行動的正確比例未超過一半。報紙對於水上安全新聞報導所採取的策略，係以威脅評量與恐懼訴求為主要的宣傳策略。至於這三份報紙之差異比較，主要是在標題與內容，以及內容性質上。

Water safety education is the best prevention strategy for the drowning among the public and the adolescent. Under the current elementary school, and the middle school curricula, there were not any topics about water safety education, and there not enough financial supports to convey water safety information via mass media for the fire and health departments; however, daily newspapers were the important sources of water safety information. Therefore, how, what, and why to report water safety in daily newspapers. Which are the major purpose of this study, will influence the public and the adolescent knowledge of water safety. The samples were newspaper clippings reporting water safety, drowning events, waters and aquatic activities between May and September, 2000, from three copies of daily local newspapers in Taipei County, Taiwan. Each clipping was reviewed to determine the presence/absence or one of choices of 32 content variables. There were the following important findings. The drowning events were quite often found in the titles and contents of newspaper. The water safety reporting in newspapers contained many details about the introduction of the water concerns and drowning events, but few details about prevention measures or strategies. The drowning events were reported very exactly and widely in newspaper. The belief, knowledge, attitude, and practices reported in newspaper were mostly wrong, and less than fifty percentage. There were significant differences in the above these categories among three copies of newspapers. Threat appraisal and fear appeal were still the major communication strategies for prevention of drowning.