Charles Okigbo, Drew Martin and Osabuohien P. Amienyi
To describe contemporary US society based on the dominant themes featured in magazine advertisements.
Abstract
Purpose
To describe contemporary US society based on the dominant themes featured in magazine advertisements.
Design/methodology/approach
From eight general circulation magazines, 2,158 full‐page advertisements are examined using content analysis. The analysis includes the examination of ad characteristics, creative strategies and a critical literary analysis.
Findings
The results show evidence that US cultural values are embedded in popular magazine advertisements. In particular, individualism, low context communication patterns and action/achievement values are most common.
Research limitations/implications
This study represents a snapshot in time. Neither culture nor media options are static. As a result, future work in this area should examine these changes.
Practical implications
Since only a few cultural dimensions are dominant in the sample, the results suggest that advertisers need not embed all social values in ads.
Originality/value
This paper provides evidence that an adaptive advertising strategy may be more effective than a global approach.
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This article offers some brief reflections on the relationship between culture and the potential development within the field of Corporate Social Responsibility in Mexico…
Abstract
This article offers some brief reflections on the relationship between culture and the potential development within the field of Corporate Social Responsibility in Mexico. Thoughts expressed are necessarily subjective and set within the wider context of organisational communication and community relations in Mexico City. The focus is on the significance of open communication, participation and closer relationships with the Other.
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Kristen McIntyre and Ryan Fuller
The chapter focuses on how engaging undergraduate and graduate students at a metropolitan university through community-based experiential learning can help them make a difference…
Abstract
Purpose
The chapter focuses on how engaging undergraduate and graduate students at a metropolitan university through community-based experiential learning can help them make a difference in their personal relationships, in their workplaces and in their communities.
Methodology/approach
The chapter explores the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Department of Speech Communication’s integrated approach to undergraduate and graduate curriculum that focuses on four types of casing complex problems and making positive, ethical recommendations to make a difference. Specifically, the chapter explores how problem-based learning; service-learning; narrative ethnography; and research projects can be used as meaningful ways to case complex communication issues and to make ethical, theory-informed recommendations to not only do no harm but also affect positive change and promote social justice in students’ personal relationships, organizations, and communities.
Practical implications
Lessons learned from the programmatic approach are shared that include building a theoretical base for students to draw from, integrating case approaches into the curriculum, and engaging resistance and failure. Chapter recommendations promote using theory as a lever for learning, building meaningful relationships with stakeholders, and adopting a process orientation that embraces failure.
Originality/value
The chapter offers a review of four undergraduate courses and four graduate courses, with explicit applications of the four case approaches. Additionally, learning objectives, major assignment descriptions, and assessment approaches are detailed for each course.
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Drawing from ethnographic work among Haitian street youth and domestic workers, this chapter explores potential new directions for the ethnographic study of youth in difficult…
Abstract
Drawing from ethnographic work among Haitian street youth and domestic workers, this chapter explores potential new directions for the ethnographic study of youth in difficult circumstances. In particular, it suggests that hope is a key theme in youth’s lives and that it ought to be explored ethnographically through a lens focusing on cultural practices: that is, on the ways youth actively construct their futures through engagement and agency across time and space. Focusing on the situated cultural practices of youth helps to move the discourse beyond constructs of risk and resilience toward understanding the ways in which youth use actively construct their futures through mobility, personhood, and collective identity.