White or tan? A cross-cultural analysis of skin beauty advertisements between China and the United States

Femininity and beauty ideals are historically and culturally constructed. The current study examines the role of advertising in cultivating and accentuating cultural ideals of skin beauty. A content analysis was conducted on skin beauty advertisements (SBAs) in women's magazines (local editions Cosmopolitan and Vogue) from China and the USA. The findings provide evidence for the ‘white or tan’ dichotomy in skin beauty ideals between contemporary Eastern and Western cultures as how they are reflected and reproduced in SBAs, although the ‘tan ideal’ in the US was not as apparent as the ‘white ideal’ in China. The study also sheds light on the divergence and similarity in global advertising strategies (level of localization and standardization in execution elements) within the two markets. Implications for the globalization of beauty ideals and marketing practices are discussed.     

Behind the Smile: Reading Cultural Values in Thai Advertising

This study investigates how Thai cultural values are expressed in advertising messages. Manifest cultural values in Thai TV commercials were compared with value clusters identified by S. Komin in Psychology of the Thai people: Values and behavioral patterns (1991). Findings suggest that values expressed in the advertisements differ somewhat from those important to Thai people. While commercials were most likely to emphasize ego, a value rated as important to Thai people, the ads also focused on fun and pleasure and achievement/task orientation which are of lesser importance to Thais. Similarly, advertisements focused on maintaining smooth and gratifying interpersonal relationships were downplayed, despite the fact that these values are important in Thai society.     

论社区图书馆的文化定位

在新城市文化的冲击下,我国社区文化呈现出多元共生的文化范式,作为社区文化环境建设的重要机构,社区图书馆的文化定位必须与所在社区的文化相符,必须要体现出所在社区特有的文化特性,文章指出,面对不同的社区文化,图书馆无论是在服务方式上还是资源建设上都要体现出这一特性,这是社区图书馆得以发展的关键所在,文章还论述了各类型社区图书馆的文化定位及构建原则.     

Modes of Engagement Among Diasporic Audiences of Asian New Zealand Film

The formation of a diasporic community within a host society may be signalled through community members’ creative contributions in the realm of cultural production. The ways in which diasporic audiences engage with diasporic cultural texts potentially offers social and cultural trajectories of their understandings of themselves as they negotiate their new environment. This article examines these trajectories, focusing on the ways New Zealand audiences of Asian descent engage with Asian diasporic films. It addresses three key questions: How do audiences’ referential reflections on diasporic films intersect with and contribute to their diasporic journeys and perceptions of themselves in New Zealand society? What kinds of values and beliefs do diasporic audiences feel are important to affirm and negotiate, both within representations of diasporic communities and in their New Zealand-based lives? And what roles do diasporic films play in this ongoing negotiation process?     

Encoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising Production

In this article I argue for the expansion of cultural studies to include sustained research into the subjective aspects of commercial cultural production. In particular, I focus on an analysis of creative workers in advertising and design, presenting historical notes, theoretical elaboration, and empirical evidence to explore the social stratum Bourdieu (1984) identified as the "new cultural intermediaries" (p. 366). It is argued that the first-and often the only-audience ad creatives and designers have in mind is themselves; furthermore, this work is in itself a form of cultural sustenance. An underlying commitment here is that cultural studies should expand beyond its investigations of consumption, the text, and reception. A schematic model is proposed that takes an existing conception of the project of cultural studies and adapts it to the findings presented herein.     

Teaching Castells [Review of the book Castells and the Media,by Philip N. Howard]

This study examines gender role and sexual content in television advertising messages, and the cognitive elaborations of adolescents processing these messages. Adolescents viewed and commented on television advertisements of beer and non-beer products in the contexts of sports and entertainment programming. Results found that a majority of the ads contained traditional gender role content. Fewer ads combined sexual with traditional gender role content. The adolescents' comments criticized female imagery, while their comments on male portrayals were relatively neutral. More than half the respondents challenged ad content, including product claims, realism, and production techniques, with females counterarguing more than males.     

Effects of Negative Political Advertising and Message Repetition on Candidate Evaluation

A great deal of televised political advertising is seen every electoral year. Expenditures on this type of political communication have reached the all-time high in the past elections. Clearly, political candidates believe that televised political advertising is an effective way to communicate with voters. This study investigates the effects of repetition of negative political ads on candidate evaluations. A pilot study shows situations in which repetition can both benefit and harm the evaluation of the sponsor of a negative political ad. The main study explores a factor that makes a negative political ad more effective, increasing positive reactions toward the sponsor and negative reactions toward the target of the ad. Implications of these results for society, attitudes, and learning are discussed.     

Incoming Editors' Note

The authors considered a model of commercial television market with advertising with probabilistic viewer choice of channel, where private broadcasters may coexist with a public television broadcaster. The broadcasters influence the probability of getting viewer attention through the amount that they spend on programming, so that their advertising capacity depends on their own program outlays as well as on those of their competitors. A larger number of broadcasters will reduce overall capacity even when total program outlays are kept fixed, because the attention of viewers is split among a larger number of channels. The authors derive properties of equilibrium in an oligopolistic market with private broadcasters and show that the number of firms has a negative effect on overall advertising and viewer satisfaction. If there is a public channel that also sells advertisements but does not maximize profits, this will have a positive effect on advertiser and viewer satisfaction.     

Narratives in Political Advertising: An Analysis of the Political Advertisements in the 2014 Midterm Elections

This study examined the use of narrative political advertisements during the 2014 midterm elections. A content analysis of 243 ads identified three narratives types: autobiographical, voter stories, and testimonials. Narrative ads were mostly positive and focused almost equally on issues and candidates’ characters. Negative attack ads and anonymous announcers were primarily used by candidates who lost the election, whereas winners employed more often autobiographical spots and included family members in the ads. The growing use of narratives in political advertising as found in the present study suggests that future research should further examine the effects of narrative political ads on individuals.     

Cultural influences on consumers' processing of advertising: A structural equation approach

This study reports a structural equation approach to the cultural differences in consumers' processing of advertising. The study hypothesized a path model for advertising processing and tested it for three different groups: Koreans, Korean‐Americans, and Caucasian‐Americans. The findings revealed that the final path patterns were different according to consumers' cultural background. Even though the influences of ad content were significant across the three different groups, prior attitudes to the brand played a more important role in Koreans' advertising processing than in Caucasian‐Americans' processing. The impact of each demographic variable also varied according to culture. The results were discussed through Hofstede's four cultural dimensions and Hall's dichotomy of high‐context versus low‐context culture.     

Spreading Global Consumerism: Effects of Mass Media and Advertising on Consumerist Values in China

This study aims to demonstrate that advertisements and the types of media content related to consumption and/or originated from the West play a significant role in shaping consumerist orientations among China's urban residents. More specifically, it examines how the acceptance of 2 newly emerged consumerist values-quality consumption and innovative consumption-is related to exposure to advertisements and media. By analyzing data from large-scale consumer surveys conducted in the 3 most economically advanced cities in China, this study finds that exposure to consumption-related and West-originated media contents and advertisements contributes to a more ready acceptance of the 2 consumerist values. Such exposure also contributes to the development of more positive attitudes toward advertising that are found to potentially mediate and moderate the effects of exposure to consumption- and market-related media content on consumerist values. Implications of the findings and directions for future studies are discussed.     

What Influences Advertising Price in Television Channels?: An Empirical Analysis on the Spanish Market

Advertising has an important role in the media industry. In a context where advertising generates a negative externality for viewers, this article analyzes the factors explaining ad prices in free TV empirically. This article also considers the participation of government-owned broadcasters in the Spanish market. This study finds that private ownership is associated with higher advertising prices. The results show a positive relation between audience size and ad price and a negative relation between ad price and advertising time. In addition, this study finds that higher prices are associated with the percentage of the population between 14 and 29 years old and the regional gross domestic product per capita in the broadcast area.     

Alcohol's Getting a Bit More Social: When Alcohol Marketing Messages on Facebook Increase Young Adults’ Intentions to Imbibe

This study investigates the effects of social media marketing of alcoholic beverages using a 2 (likes: low vs. high) × 2 (shares: low vs. high) × 3 (display ad type: alcohol ad vs. antibinge drinking PSA vs. local bank) × 6 (status update repetitions) experimental design. The study examines how evaluations of alcohol marketing status updates and display advertisements predict social media users’ intentions to consume alcohol, as a function of message virality and display ad type. Participants’ viral behavioral intentions (intentions to like, share, and comment on) for status updates were strongest in predicting intentions to consume alcohol, and this relationship was strongest when the Facebook status update had high likes and shares. The article argues that alcohol marketing on social media reflects a social norm of alcohol consumption, which leads users to consume more alcoholic drinks. Findings are discussed within the framework of persuasion theories and policy changes regarding regulation of alcohol marketing on social media.     

Product global reach,advertising standardization,and cultural values: an analysis of 2008 Beijing Olympic TV commercials

This study examined the influence of the global reach of the product, multinational vs. domestic, on the degree of standardization of and the use of advertising values in 2008 Beijing Olympic commercials telecasted in China. This study is the first to examine systematically advertising standardization and values within one country in a mega-sporting event context. Overall, the study revealed that multinational product advertisements are more likely to be standardized, and more likely to portray Western-oriented values in their advertisements compared to domestic product advertisements. These findings indicate the importance of considering the global reach of the product in advertising to meet the expectations of the customers, especially during international sporting events such as Olympic Games.     

Age and Third-Person Perception in Response to Positive Product Advertisements

The research presented here examined the occurrence of the third-person perception (TPP) among children compared with older people. Unlike in previous research, the TPP was examined in response to positive product advertisements. These advertisements are considered negative only when people understand their persuasive intent and manipulative nature. In that context, there was no indication of the TPP in children, whereas adolescents and adults showed the usual effect. The research further documented the existence of an intuitive understanding of media influence on various age groups. For example, adults perceived themselves as less influenced by an adult-targeted ad than other adults but not less influenced than children and adolescents. The results are discussed in terms of self-serving bias, understanding of persuasion intent, and the intuitive understanding of media influence.     

Combating greenwashing through public critique

Courses: Environmental Communication, Environmental Media, or Critical Media Studies courses

Objectives: This unit activity is designed to guide students in a critical examination of advertising that utilizes green appeals to sell products or brands. The assignment asks students to use concepts from media analysis, communication ethics, and social justice to critique advertising claims and potential influences of advertising on society's environmental discourse. Students should be able to identify greenwashing in advertisements, research whether the statements of the advertisements are accurate, and discuss the significance of the advertisements’ messages in shaping environmental and social thought. A secondary purpose of the assignment is to give students experience writing for a popular audience in a public forum.     

The Impact of Market Segmentation on African American Frequency,Centrality, and Status in Television Advertising

Market segmentation made communication with the advertising audience dependent upon the audience segment. African Americans were the first racial minority group identified as having economic viability as a target market that could be reached through advertising content and placement. A content analysis of 358 prime-time television advertisements for African American and general audiences revealed that African Americans are still playing a subordinate role, even in advertising targeted to them. Market segmentation has increased the breadth, but not necessarily the depth of African American advertising depictions.     

The relationship between college student feedback orientation and classroom engagement

ABSTRACT

This study explored the relationship between the four dimensions of students’ feedback orientation (i.e., utility, retention, confidentiality, and sensitivity) and the four dimensions of students’ classroom engagement (i.e., silent in-class, oral in-class, thinking about course content, and out-of-class) using the tenets of Feedback Intervention Theory (FIT) as a guide. Participants were 208 undergraduate students enrolled in a variety of introductory communication courses at a large mid-Atlantic university. It was found that varying combinations of students’ feedback orientation influence students’ engagement, providing further support for FIT. Specifically, feedback utility was positively related to all four dimensions of student engagement. Furthermore, feedback confidentiality was negatively related to oral in-class behaviors. Future research should continue to examine the influence of instructional feedback on students’ classroom engagement.     

论中国古代图书凡例中的植入广告

中国明清时期图书出版者充分利用凡例位于一书卷首这一位置优势,在其中植入各种广告。坊刻小说之外,与科举考试关系较为密切的经义、类书、史书、总集以及子部中偏实用的如术数、医学类图书的凡例中也多植广告。这些广告包括夸耀性广告语辞、征稿广告、刻书预告以及版权警示语等,表达方式分直陈式与比较式,而后者尤见宣传技巧。图书出版史上的凡例广告对于当下图书出版业者仍有一定启示作用。