418 research outputs found
Pleasure, profit and pain: Alcohol in New Zealand and the contemporary culture of intoxication
This book details the rich, complex and often contested role of alcohol in New Zealand society. It explores the three fundamental alcohol rights that continue to fight for dominance of the national drinking culture: the rights of individual drinkers to enjoy the pleasures of alcohol, the rights of society to protect itself from the harms of alcohol, and the rights of the alcohol industry to profit from the sale of a legal commodity. Historically, most of our intoxicated drinkers were adult males and drinking was typically separated from family, food and entertainment. With the sweeping social changes of the 1960s and 1970s, women and later young people, increasingly engaged with alcohol. A growing proportion of these groups have since joined men in a culture of intoxication, or binge drinking culture as it is often termed. New Zealand is not alone however, in having a culture of intoxication, with similar alcohol consumption patterns evident in many other developed nations. This book identifies the local and the global influences that have affected New Zealand society (and much of the rest of the world) since the late 1900s and details how these influences have sustained the contemporary culture of intoxication. Finally, this book will propose that to implement effective change to our national drinking culture, the rights of the alcohol industry and of individual drinkers will need to be pulled back from the liberal excesses that the 1980s and 1990s provided. A re-balancing is required in order to strengthen and sustain societyâs right to protect itself from alcohol-related harm
The effect of victimsâ social support on attributions of blame in female and male rape
The effects of perceived social support of the victim, victim gender and participant gender on attributions of blame in rape were examined. The impact of Attitudes Toward Gender Roles were also investigated for their mediational role between participant gender and blame. One hundred and twenty-one participants read a report of an incident of rape and evaluated the victim and the perpetrator. Two ANOVAs showed that social support and participant gender influenced blame attributed to the victim, while victim gender influenced blame attributed to the perpetrator. Socially supported victims were blamed less than unsupported victims. Men were more blaming of rape victims than women, but further analyses showed this was mediated by attitudes towards gender roles. Men held significantly more traditional attitudes toward gender roles than women, and this accounted for the effect of participant gender on victim perceptions. The perpetrator of male rape was blamed less than the perpetrator of female rape. Findings are discussed in terms of the differential attributional mechanisms that may underpin men's and women's reasoning about different types of rape
Social media platforms as complex and contradictory spaces for feminisms: Visibility, opportunity, power, resistance and activism
YesThis special issue on feminisms and social media is published at a unique point in
time, namely when social media platforms are routinely utilised for communication
from the mundane to the extraordinary, to offer support and solidarity, and to
blame and victimise. Collectively, social media are online technologies that provide
the ability for community building and interaction (Boyd & Ellison, 2007), allowing
people to interact, share, create and consume online content (Lyons,
McCreanor, Goodwin, & Moewaka Barnes, 2017). They include such platforms
as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tinder, and Snapchat among others
Alcohol marketing on social media:young adults engage with alcohol marketing on facebook
Background: Young adults are highly-active users of social network sites such as Facebook for their everyday friendship socializing. Alcohol companies have strategically used Facebook to embed their alcohol marketing into young adultsâ social networking friendship activities, blurring the lines between user and alcohol brand generated content. This study explored mechanisms through which commercial alcohol interests interact with young adultsâ online friendship practices and how young adults engage with this online alcohol marketing. Method: Researcher-participant online Facebook interviews were conducted with seven (4 females, 3 males) New Zealand young adults (18â25 years). The interviews were recorded using data screen-capture software to track participantsâ online navigation and audiovisual recording of the conversation and non-verbal behaviors. Results: Our social constructionist thematic analysis identified that online alcohol marketing is obscured within friendship endorsing and invitations to drink; taken up as content for Facebook friendship fun; and objected to as intrusions into online friendship activities. Conclusions: Social media alcohol marketing encourages alcohol consumption through new forms of promotion and the exploitation of networked peer group friendship practices. The interaction between young adultsâ online friendship practices and alcohol marketers as âfriendsâ inside these practices needs urgent attention by policymakers seeking to reduce alcohol consumption.</p
IPR Policy Brief - Would you 'like' a drink? Youth drinking cultures, social media and alcohol marketing online
The high level of alcohol consumption amongst young people in countries with more liberal alcohol policies has been a focus of public health concern for some time. Many young adults regularly engage in heavy drinking episodes with groups of friends to âhave funâ and âbe sociableâ. More recently, this population has increased their use of new mobile and digital technologies (such as smartphones), and social networking Internet sites (such as Facebook and YouTube). Major alcohol companies are now investing heavily in online alcohol marketing. Up until now the impact of this strategy has been unclear.This policy brief reports on recent and on-going research about how new technologies are used by young people and alcohol marketers, and their role in shaping young adultsâ drinking cultures. A current three-year study has involved interviews with 18 to 25 year olds from different ethnic groups in New Zealand (Aotearoa), and analysis of online representations of drinking, including alcohol marketing. However, the findings are likely to be applicable to other countries with a pervasive culture of heavy drinking amongst young people, including the UK.The research concludes that online alcohol marketing aimed at young adults is widespread, highly dynamic and takes an ever-expanding range of forms as new digital and mobile technologies develop. Young people tend to view targeted alcohol marketing via social media as useful and informative, seldom recognising it as advertising. However, online alcohol marketing is pervasive across a range of social media platforms, and encourages a âculture of intoxicationâ or âextreme drinkingâ amongst young adults
The role of alcohol in constructing gender & class identities among young women in the age of social media
Research suggests young women view drinking as a pleasurable aspect of their social lives but that they face challenges in engaging in a traditionally âmasculineâ behaviour whilst maintaining a desirable âfemininityâ. Social network sites such as Facebook make socialising visible to a wide audience. This paper explores how young people discuss young womenâs drinking practices, and how young women construct their identities through alcohol consumption and its display on social media. We conducted 21 friendship-based focus groups (both mixed and single sex) with young adults aged 18â29 years and 13 individual interviews with a subset of focus group respondents centred on their Facebook practices. We recruited a purposive sample in Glasgow, Scotland (UK) which included âmiddle classâ (defined as students and those in professional jobs) and âworking classâ respondents (employed in manual/service sector jobs), who participated in a range of venues in the night time economy. Young womenâs discussions revealed a difficult âbalancing actâ between demonstrating an âup for itâ sexy (but not too sexy) femininity through their drinking and appearance, while still retaining control and respectability. This âbalancing actâ was particularly precarious for working class women, who appeared to be judged more harshly than middle class women both online and offline. While a gendered double standard around appearance and alcohol consumption is not new, a wider online audience can now observe and comment on how women look and behave. Social structures such as gender and social class remain central to the construction of identity both online and offline
Flaunting it on Facebook: Young adults, drinking cultures and the cult of celebrity
Copyright © Antonia Lyons; Tim McCreanor; Fiona Hutton; Ian
Goodwin; Helen Moewaka Barnes; Christine Griffin; Kerryellen
Vroman; Acushla Dee OâCarroll; Patricia Niland; Lina Samu
Print publication available from: http://www.drinkingcultures.info/Young adults in Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ) regularly engage
in heavy drinking episodes with groups of friends within
a collective culture of intoxication to âhave funâ and âbe
sociableâ. This population has also rapidly increased their use
of new social networking technologies (e.g. mobile camera/
video phones; Facebook and YouTube) and are said to be
obsessed with identity, image and celebrity. This research
project explored the ways in which new technologies are
being used by a range of young people (and others, including
marketers) in drinking practices and drinking cultures in
Aotearoa/NZ. It also explored how these technologies
impact on young adultsâ behaviours and identities, and how
this varies across young adults of diverse ethnicities (Maori
[indigenous people of NZ], Pasifika [people descended
from the Pacific Islands] and Pakeha [people of European
descent]), social classes and genders.
We collected data from a large and diverse sample of young
adults aged 18-25 years employing novel and innovative
methodologies across three data collection stages. In total
141 participants took part in 34 friendship focus group
discussions (12 Pakeha, 12 Maori and 10 Pasifika groups)
while 23 young adults showed and discussed their Facebook
pages during an individual interview that involved screencapture
software and video recordings. Popular online
material regarding drinking alcohol was also collected (via
groups, interviews, and web searches), providing a database
of 487 links to relevant material (including websites, apps,
and games). Critical and in-depth qualitative analyses across
these multimodal datasets were undertaken.
Key findings demonstrated that social technologies play a
crucial role in young adultsâ drinking cultures and processes
of identity construction. Consuming alcohol to a point of
intoxication was a commonplace leisure-time activity for
most of the young adult participants, and social network
technologies were fully integrated into their drinking cultures.
Facebook was employed by all participants and was used
before, during and following drinking episodes. Uploading
and sharing photos on Facebook was particularly central to
young peopleâs drinking cultures and the ongoing creation of
their identities. This involved a great deal of Facebook âworkâ
to ensure appropriate identity displays such as tagging (the
addition of explanatory or identifying labels) and untagging
photos.
Being visible online was crucial for many young adults,
and they put significant amounts of time and energy into
updating and maintaining Facebook pages, particularly with
material regarding drinking practices and events. However
this was not consistent across the sample, and our findings
revealed nuanced and complex ways in which people from
different ethnicities, genders and social classes engaged
with drinking cultures and new technologies in different
ways, reflecting their positioning within the social structure.
Pakeha shared their drinking practices online with relatively
little reflection, while Pasifika and Maori participants were
more likely to discuss avoiding online displays of drinking
and demonstrated greater reflexive self-surveillance. Females
spoke of being more aware of normative expectations around
gender than males, and described particular forms of online
identity displays (e.g. moderated intake, controlled selfdetermination).
Participants from upper socio-economic
groups expressed less concern than others about both
drinking and posting material online. Celebrity culture
was actively engaged with, in part at least, as a means of
expressing what it is to be a young adult in contemporary
society, and reinforcing the need for young people to engage
in their own everyday practices of âcelebritisingâ themselves
through drinking cultures online.
Alcohol companies employed social media to market
their products to young people in sophisticated ways that
meant the campaigns and actions were rarely perceived as
marketing. Online alcohol marketing initiatives were actively
appropriated by young people and reproduced within their
Facebook pages to present tastes and preferences, facilitate
social interaction, construct identities, and more generally
develop cultural capital. These commercial activities
within the commercial platforms that constitute social
networking systems contribute heavily to a general âculture
of intoxicationâ while simultaneously allowing young people
to âcreateâ and âproduceâ themselves online via the sharing of
consumption âchoicesâ, online interactions and activities
Transformation and time-out: the role of alcohol in identity construction among Scottish women in early midlife
Despite the increase in drinking by women in early midlife, little alcohol research has focused on this group. We explore how alcohol is associated with the construction of gender identities among women aged 30 to 50 years in the west of Scotland, United Kingdom. We draw on qualitative data from 11 focus groups (five all-female, six mixed-sex) with pre-existing groups of friends and work colleagues in which women and men discuss their drinking behaviours. Analysis demonstrated how alcohol represented a time and space away from paid and unpaid work for women in a range of domestic circumstances, allowing them to relax and unwind. While women used alcohol to construct a range of identities, traditional notions of femininity remained salient (e.g. attention to appearance, drinking âgirlyâ drinks). Drinking enabled women to assert their identity beyond the roles and responsibilities often associated with being a woman in early midlife. For example, some respondents with young children described the transformative effects of excessive drinking which allowed them to return temporarily to a younger, carefree version of themselves. Thus, our data suggest that women's drinking in early midlife revolves around notions of âidealisedâ femininity but simultaneously represents a way of achieving âtime outâ from traditional female responsibilities such as caring for others. We consider these findings within a broader social and cultural context including alcohol marketing, domestic roles and motherhood and their implications for health promotion
Staying 'in the zone' but not passing the 'point of no return': Embodiment, gender and drinking in mid-life
Public health approaches have frequently conceptualised alcohol consumption as an individual behaviour resulting from rational choice. We argue that drinking alcohol needs to be understood as an embodied social practice embedded in gendered social relationships and environments. We draw on data from 14 focus groups with pre-existing groups of friends and work colleagues in which men and women in mid-life discussed their drinking behaviour. Analysis demonstrated that drinking alcohol marked a transitory time and space that altered both women's and men's subjective embodied experience of everyday gendered roles and responsibilities. The participants positioned themselves as experienced drinkers who, through accumulated knowledge of their own physical bodies, could achieve enjoyable bodily sensations by reaching a desired level of intoxication (being in the zone). These mid-life adults, particularly women, discussed knowing when they were approaching their limit and needed to stop drinking. Experiential and gendered embodied knowledge was more important in regulating consumption than health promotion advice. These findings foreground the relational and gendered nature of drinking and reinforce the need to critically interrogate the concept of alcohol consumption as a simple health behaviour. Broader theorising around notions of gendered embodiment may be helpful for more sophisticated conceptualisations of health practices
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