The survey was conducted between October 2002 and March 2003 prior to an audiovisual, interactive CD-ROM cigarette-smoking prevention and cessation program. The students surveyed were in the 10th grade. The questionnaire obtained information on respondents' demographic characteristics, depressive symptoms, current and past tobacco use, familial and close-friend tobacco use, media exposure to tobacco, addiction to tobacco, and susceptibility to tobacco use. Respondents were asked to choose the types of messages about smoking that they had seen or heard in the past months, including TV advertisements or shows, radio advertisements or programs, billboards, posters, newspaper or magazine advertisements, movies, the Internet, live sporting events, teachers at school, and school programs. Questions about ethnic and racial background were also included. Logistic regression found that African-Americans perceived significantly less exposure to antismoking advertisements through television and posters compared to Whites; however, they had nearly twice as much reported exposure to antismoking advertisements at movies and sporting events than White students. Hispanic youth reported significantly less exposure to antismoking posters and significantly higher exposure to antismoking messages at sporting evens and school programs compared to White students. This exploratory study provides initial evidence of an important link between race and degree of exposure to antismoking messages in various types of media. 3 tables and 20 references