Youth identity formation and contemporary alcohol marketing

This paper considers linkages between contemporary marketing theory and practice, and emerging conceptualizations of identity, to discuss implications for public health concerns over alcohol use among young people. Particular attention is paid to the theorizing of consumption as a component of youth identities and the ways in which developments of marketing praxis orients to such schemata. The authors’ analyses of exemplars of marketing materials in use in Aotearoa New Zealand, drawn from their research archive, emphasize the sophistication and power of such forms of marketing.They argue that public health policy and practice must respond to the interweaving of marketing and the self-making practices of young people to counter this complex threat to the health and well-being of young people

Public Relations Functions for Sugar-Salt-Fat Consumption Control Programs Planning

Non-Communicable Diseases such as stroke, diabetes mellitus, heart attack, and hypertension have increasingly lurked in Indonesia. The excessive consumption of sugar, salt, and fat (SSF) is the trigger for that case, and the government tries to take precautions for people from 13 to 18 years of age. Emphasizing on preventive health communication efforts, this study intended to assist the health promotion program of Puskesmas Purwokerto Utara 2 to apply Public Relations functions by providing IEC (Communication, Information, and Education) on controlling SSF in adolescents. This research used in-depth interviews and observations as data collection techniques, with qualitative descriptive methods to analyze the data. The result showed that this Puskesmas (district clinic) is identified as not implementing the SSF Control Program since its health promotion function is still more focused on routine programs. Meanwhile, 1.021 students in this work area need to prevent threatening diseases. Making collaboration with competent partners, Puskesmas may apply the functions of Public Relations in implementing the preventive programs by providing sufficient information about the danger of the excessive consumption of SSF, inviting people to change attitudes and actions, and representing the organization’s attitude towards society

Guide to Recruiting Black Men as Mentors for Black Boys

Black men are uniquely positioned to help guide black male youth to educational success and a productive future and through the barriers that stand in their way. But there are almost always more black boys to be mentored than black men to mentor them in formal mentoring programs. This guide helps mentoring programs engage in a productive and inclusive recruitment campaign by: 1) addressing program readiness; and 2) providing guidance on an effective social marketing campaign

Exemplar versus base rate information messages: Effect on African-Americans’ intentions toward signing a donor card

This study examines factors that may play a role in moderating the influence of a message on African-Americans to become organ donors. The message and sender were both manipulated to examine the impact of exemplars versus base rates within the message as well as the race of the sender. An anthropomorphic agent was used to present information about organ donation. Respondents completed a pre-test survey, viewed a short video, and then completed a post-test. There was no significant evidence found that either base rate or exemplar information influenced African-Americans to become organ donors. The expectation that participants would identify more with the African-American anthropomorphic agent was not supported by the current study\u27s results

Political Psychology in the Contemporary Political World

This edition of IBPP explores several recent political events from the vantage point of political psychological perspectives and constructs

The Affective Medium and Ideal Person in Pedagogies of 'Soft Skills' in Contemporary China

In this dissertation I explore the role of affect in practices of self-improvement in contemporary urban China. I conducted participant observation in workshops for young adults in the city of Jinan, focusing on interpersonal ‘soft’ skills, such as ‘communication,’ ‘emotional expression,’ and public speaking. These highly interactive workshops urged participants to express themselves as emotional, assertive, inspirational, and above all – autonomous – individuals. This ideal of personhood is inspired by state-promoted reforms in the education system and the rise of psychotherapy across China, highlighting new moral imperatives of self-reliance and emotional well-being in the expanding Chinese market economy. My analysis focuses on the discrepancy between participants’ ideals of self-improvement, as practiced in workshops, and their wider social engagements. While participants conceived of soft skills as capacities that could potentially be employed anywhere, they nevertheless experienced and emphasised impediments to extending their practices outside workshops. They saw their everyday social circles as prioritising hierarchical relations, social roles, and financial stability, all suppressing the ideals of individual autonomy prominent in workshops. Drawing on theories of affect, hope, and the concept of ‘heterotopia,’ I describe how workshops dislocated participants from their existing social realities to produce momentary experiences of self-overcoming. Through affectively intensive exercises, participants identified with their ideal person, imagined themselves mastering social relations, and envisioned a future society governed by the virtues of soft skills. I consider affect, in these practices, not as a means for subjects’ comprehensive self-transformations, but rather as an experience that charges individuals with ephemeral optimism amidst socioeconomic uncertainties. In contemporary market-driven China, I argue, such deployment of affect is increasingly evident in educational activities, entertainment media, and state campaigns. These practices respond to and reinforce an existing schism between the expansion of new ideals of personhood and individuals’ limited capacities to realise them

Vaunting the independent amateur: Scientific American and the representation of lay scientists

This paper traces how media representations encouraged enthusiasts, youth and skilled volunteers to participate actively in science and technology during the twentieth century. It assesses how distinctive discourses about scientific amateurs positioned them with respect to professionals in shifting political and cultural environments. In particular, the account assesses the seminal role of a periodical, Scientific American magazine, in shaping and championing an enduring vision of autonomous scientific enthusiasms. Between the 1920s and 1970s, editors Albert G. Ingalls and Clair L. Stong shepherded generations of adult ‘amateur scientists’. Their columns and books popularized a vision of independent nonprofessional research that celebrated the frugal ingenuity and skills of inveterate tinkerers. Some of these attributes have found more recent expression in present-day ‘maker culture’. The topic consequently is relevant to the historiography of scientific practice, science popularization and science education. Its focus on independent nonprofessionals highlights political dimensions of agency and autonomy that have often been implicit for such historical (and contemporary) actors. The paper argues that the Scientific American template of adult scientific amateurism contrasted with other representations: those promoted by earlier periodicals and by a science education organization, Science Service, and by the national demands for recruiting scientific labour during and after the Second World War. The evidence indicates that advocates of the alternative models had distinctive goals and adapted their narrative tactics to reach their intended audiences, which typically were conceived as young persons requiring instruction or mentoring. By contrast, the monthly Scientific American columns established a long-lived and stable image of the independent lay scientist