138 research outputs found
Why universities and grant bodies shouldn’t try to over-manage research impact
No full textAcademics should be engaged with the wider world, but impact, if it is routinised, loses its potential to change the dynamic of a system. Chris Hackley writes that the research that influences policy should be celebrated but we must be wary of the risk that the impact measurement will begin to define what is to be measured
Rethinking advertising as paratextual communication
No full textBook synopsis: Providing new insights into the textual and paratextual character of brands and advertising, this innovative book showcases an extensive selection of vivid and topical case examples that assist the practical understanding of advertising paratexts.
Chris Hackley and Rungpaka Amy Hackley draw on many examples of creative advertisements to illustrate the key features of paratextual advertising and all types of brand communication, practice, strategy and research. The book examines the idea of an advertisement as something that is read and interpreted as a text by an audience, drawing on some of the pioneering research literature that introduced literary forms of analysis into business, management and related fields of scholarship. The authors utilise ideas from literary theory to examine how advertising can be understood, as well as consider semiotic and anthropological perspectives on advertising and digital media.
Aiming to change the way advertising is understood by students, scholars, and by media and management professionals, this book will be a valuable resource for those with an interest in advertising and promotion, marketing, communication, business management, and branding
In defence of authenticity. An analysis of consumers’ responses to a crisis of authenticity
No full textScholars have deeply discussed how authenticity can be socially constructed or threatened. However, the reaction of individuals to the processes through which authenticity can evolve or devolve over time is an under-researched topic. This paper focuses on popular music and uses netnography and direct interviews to investigate consumers’ responses to a band’s crisis of authenticity. Findings provide evidences that defending authenticity can be one potentially important individuals’ reaction, when authenticity is undermined. Particularly, the discourse between people and individuals’ fantasy seem to play important roles in the process of defence
The discursive constitution of the UK alcohol problem in Safe, Sensible, Social: a discussion of policy implications
No full textIn this article, we critically reflect on the constitution of the UK's alcohol problem in the government's ‘Safe, Social, Sensible’ policy document, referring to findings from a 3-year ESRC funded study on young people, alcohol and identity. We suggest that discursive themes running throughout ‘Safe, Sensible, Social’ include ‘shared responsibility’ for implementing a ‘cultural change’, ‘youth and binge drinking’ and the need to promote ‘sensible’ levels of alcohol consumption to individual drinkers. We argue that, in constituting the problem around these themes, the policy document risks diluting responsibility and obscuring the role of government, media and alcohol manufacturers. In addition, the way young drinkers are constituted carries a risk of isolating this group as both cause and effect of the alcohol problem, placing an unrealistic burden of responsibility on local communities and agencies and exacerbating the gap between policy assumptions and the lived reality of young drinkers within their cultural context. We conclude that alcohol policy requires a more substantive, clearly specified and evidence-based approach which acknowledges the complexities of drinking contexts and drinker motivations in the allocation of responsibility and formulation of policy. In particular, policy needs to address the role of legislation and licensing laws, and the branding and marketing activities of the drinks industry in the structure of UK alcohol consumption<br/
The allure of belonging: young people's drinking practices and collective identification
No full textSocial marketing, individual responsibility and the “culture of intoxication”
No full textPurpose: social marketing initiatives designed to address the UK's culture of unhealthy levels of drinking among young adults have achieved inconclusive results to date. The paper aims to investigate the gap between young people's perceptions of alcohol consumption and those of government agencies who seek to influence their behaviour set within a contextualist framework.Design/methodology/approach: the authors present empirical evidence from a major study that suggests that the emphasis of recent campaigns on individual responsibility may be unlikely to resonate with young drinkers. The research included a meaning-based and visual rhetoric analysis of 261 ads shown on TV, in magazines, on billboards and on the internet between 2005 and 2006. This was followed by 16 informal group discussions with 89 young adults in three locations.Findings: the research identified the importance of the social context of young people's drinking. The research reveals how a moral position has been culturally constructed around positioning heavy drinking as an individual issue with less regard to other stakeholders and how the marketing agents function in this environment. Calls to individual responsibility in drinking are unlikely to succeed in the current marketing environment.Research limitations/implications: the qualitative research was limited to three geographical locations with young adults between the ages of 18 and 25.Practical implications: the authors explore implications for social marketing theory and for UK alcohol policy. In particular, the authors suggest that the social norms surrounding young people's drinking need to be acknowledged and built into “sensible” social marketing campaigns. The authors suggest that shame, fear and guilt appeals should be replaced with more constructive methods of ensuring young people's safety when they drink.Originality/value: from the theoretical perspective of contextualism, the paper brings together empirical research with young adults and a critical analysis of recent social marketing campaigns within the commercial context of a “culture of intoxication”. It provides both a critique of social marketing in a neo-liberal context and recognition of issues involved in excessive alcohol consumptio
Calculated hedonism and young people's drinking practices
No full textMany young people enjoy alcohol consumption as part of their social lives, but recently there has been increased concern regarding the amount they drink and how they behave in public places when intoxicated. So called 'binge' drinking has become a particular concern in the UK. Such drinking behaviour is often positioned in opposition to 'normal' drinking yet the current consumption environment is one that encourages drinking through marketing and liberalisation of licensing laws. This exploratory study examines perceptions of drinking behaviour by young people actively engaged in social activities that involve alcohol consumption. It identifies a number of themes that inform different drinking contexts and drinking styles and suggests the concept of calculated hedonism as helpful in better understanding young people's drinking behaviou
Re-framing ‘binge drinking’ as calculated hedonism: empirical evidence from the UK
No full textBackground: recent debates on ‘binge drinking’ in the UK have represented the activities of young drinkers in urban areas as a particular source of concern, as constituting a threat to law and order, a drain on public health and welfare services and as a source of risk to their own future health and well being. The discourse of moral panic around young people’s ‘binge drinking’ has pervaded popular media, public policy and academic research, often differentiating the excesses of ‘binge drinking’ from ‘normal’ patterns of alcohol consumption, although in practice definitions of ‘binge drinking’ vary considerably. However, recent research in this area has drawn on the notion of ‘calculated hedonism’ to refer to a way of ‘managing’ alcohol consumption that might be viewed as excessive.Methods: the paper presents a critical analysis of contemporary discourses around ‘binge drinking’ in the British context, highlighting contradictory messages about responsibility and self control in relation to the recent liberalisation of licensing laws and the extensive marketing of alcohol to young people. The paper analyses marketing communications which present drinking as a crucial element in ‘having fun’, and as an important aspect of young people’s social lives. The empirical study involves analysis of focus group discussions and individual interviews with young people aged 18–25 in three areas of Britain: a major city in the West Midlands, a seaside town in the South-West of England and a small market town also in the South-West.Results: the initial findings present the varied forms and meanings that socialising and drinking took in these young people’s social lives. In particular the results illustrate the ways in which drinking is constituted and managed as a potential source of pleasure.Conclusion: the paper concludes that the term ‘calculated hedonism’ better describes the behaviour of the young people in this study and in particular the way they manage their pleasure around alcohol, than the emotive term ‘binge drinking’
Young peoples' binge drinking constituted as a deficit of individual self-control in UK government alcohol policy
No full text'Every time I do it I absolutely annihilate myself': loss of (self-)consciousness and loss of memory in young people's drinking narratives
No full textYoung people's alcohol consumption has been the focus of heightened concern over 'binge drinking' in social policy, academic research and popular culture. A normalized culture of intoxication is now central to many young people's social lives, playing an important role in the night-time economy of towns and cities across the UK. In this article we draw on the findings of a study on the significance of alcohol consumption in the everyday lives of 'ordinary' young adult drinkers to explore the significance of loss of consciousness and loss of memory in their drinking stories. Through an analysis of focus group discussions with 89 young women and men aged 18 to 25, we explore the role of 'passing out stories' in the classed and gendered domain of young people's alcohol consumption in the neo-liberal social order, focussing on the constitution of risk and pleasure in their account
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