“Do You Even Understand What Off The Rack Means?” - Americanization and Jewish Identities in the Television Series Friends

This paper analyzes American Jewish identities in mega popular television series Friends. The story of the show is centered on six friends: three American Christians, and three American Jews. While the series present American Jews as a normal social reality, there are still problems in terms of their representation. This paper analyzes representation of American Jewish identities in terms of Jewish values and worldviews, and representation of Jewish faith and tradition. A qualitative content analysis of all 10 seasons of the popular show has been conducted. The conclusion of the paper is that the media are enforcing Americanization by creating a cast of Jewish Americans in the American popular culture where Jews are portrayed as Americanized in a sense they embrace Christianity as part of their tradition

Hillary Clinton in the Media, and the Changing Discourse: From Expected Roles to the Critique of Feminism

This paper analysed Hillary Clinton’s historical problems with the media starting from her first appointment at a US First Lady to her being the Democratic nominee for the US presidential elections in 2016. The paper analysed academic literature demonstrating Clinton’s problems with the media bias, and then added own discourse analysis of articles on Clinton and feminism in two main national newspapers that have consistently demonstrated the power of setting the agenda and forming public opinion in the U.S., The Washington Post and The New York Times. Discourse analysis has been used to analyse 20 selected articles that discussed Clinton’s feminist views in a period from September 2015 until September 2016, which was also a campaign period for 2016 U.S. elections. The findings add to the current research on the topic and show that the media undermined liberal feminism and its goals to undermine Hillary Clinton, whereas in the past Hillary was a subject of media criticism because of her refusal to fit into expected roles and be a supportive wife only. In other words, the discourse of criticism of Hillary Clinton has changed over time but every time with the same results, i.e. undermining the image and career advancement

Exploring corporate social responsibility's global and Glocal practices in Qatar: A practitioner and stakeholder perspective

This study analysed corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the state of Qatar, aiming to determine the discipline’ global and glocal dimensions. The study investigated the notion that CSR remains western-driven in contrast to the scholarly trend that increasingly values national variables. Given the importance of CSR, the relationship between theory and contextual influences becomes a central element to evaluate the opportunity for specific corollaries to mainstream CSR. The methodology deployed for the study included a literature review, and interviews with practitioners and stakeholders. The results showed that although CSR as a concept is valid per se, an appropriate approach would value the operating environment as a key determinant, appreciating that specific cultural contexts necessitate variations to the mainstream theory

The Impact of Public Relations on the Pharmaceutical Industry: A Case Study of Living Like You Campaign

This study investigated the impact of public relations on the pharmaceutical industry by analysing Living Like You campaign by Novartis. In addition, interviews with public relations professionals working in healthcare have been conducted to investigate how they understand public relations and how public relations can be utilised for further improvement of the healthcare practice. The results show that Living Like You was a successful public relations campaign and that there is a need for more use of public relations in healthcare, and pharmaceutical industry in general

Product and Packaging Innovation: Attitudes, Behaviours, and Strategies for Sustainable Packaging

The report presents findings of a large consumer survey on packaging, environmental issues and the media, conducted by Dr Martina Topic, Ben Mitchell and Olga Munroe. The survey was conducted on a representative sample of 1000 respondents, and forms a backbone of the future research and research outputs currently being prepared. This report has been distributed to the clients of the Retail Institute and will be presented at the Annual Retail Institute conference in September 2018