Search results

A decade ago, the AIDS pandemic was driven by determinants such as poverty, deprivation, migrancy, patriarchy and gender-based violence. Today, however, the socio-economic and structural drivers of HIV infections have assumed or added other dimensions, including social and electronic media and reality television. These new dimensions saw further expression with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 onwards. To consign both HIV and the COVID-19 pandemics to history’s museum of pandemics, strategists must employ greater infiltration and mastery of social and electronic media and reality TV. In the case of HIV, these created social clouds or bubbles where unprotected sex, transactional sex and multiple concurrent sexual partnerships are manufactured and proliferated globally. The same was the case with the COVID-19 pandemic, in which case these social clouds or bubbles created an alternative narrative about the source of the pandemic, who and how people get infected, and both the requisite remedies and preventions in this regard. With reality television gaining popularity on low-cost paid channels and free-to-air television; with smartphone penetration widening and costs of access to data falling, a social cloud has been created, enabling the cultural majority (those who control the media and capital) to set trends for everyone, including those with less means. These trends in turn become a standard many aspire to live by. The ontological density of the poor and lower middle-class women is lost through the universalisation of social and cultural trends set by middle elites who control the production and reproduction of knowledge and shape international and national imagination. It is these discourses, and their shaping of imagination as a consequence, that this chapter deals with. It looks at both the implications and consequences which, in the case of pandemics such as these, can be dire.

This study is a radical interactionist analysis of family conflict. Drawing on both a negotiated order perspective and Athen's theory of complex dominative encounters, this study analyzes the role that domination plays in conflicts among intimates. As the family engages in repeated conflicts over roles, the family also engages in negotiations over the family order, what role each party should play, interpretations of past events, and plans for the future. These conflicts take place against a backdrop of patriarchy that asymmetrically distributes power in the family to determine the family order. The data from this study come from a content analysis of mothers with substance use problems as depicted in the reality television show Intervention. The conflicts in these families reveal that these families develop a grinding family order in which families engaged in repeated conflict but also continued to operate as and identify as a family. These conflicts are shaped by and reinforce patriarchal expectations that mothers are central to family operation. The intervention at the end of each episode offered an opportunity for the family to engage in a concerted campaign to try to force the mother into treatment and reestablish the family order.

Advertising clutter has fueled the rise of nontraditional advertising methods. The current study, conducted in India, adopted the consumer socialization framework to assess product placement attitudes and behaviors.

A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to gauge consumers' responses to product placements. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to analyze the relationship between different variables.

The results revealed that young Indian adults are positive about product placements as they believe that incorporating brands into the content adds realism. The authors found that socialization agents significantly impact viewers' attitudes toward product placements which in turn influence their purchase intentions. The authors also found that product acceptability impacts consumers' purchase intentions.

This paper provides important insights into consumers' perceptions of product placements. Based on the findings, marketers can formulate effective product placement strategies.

Most of the studies existing in this area have been conducted in the developed markets except a few which have been conducted in the emerging markets. Hence, the present study is an attempt to fill this research gap. This study is among the first to establish a relationship between product acceptability and consumers' purchase intentions.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the dark side of luxury yachting, with specific focus on the treatment and well-being of yacht crews.

The paper is based on a literature review of key terms: luxury yachting; yacht crews; well-being; maritime tourism and yacht guests.

The paper observes luxury yachting as having a hidden dark side that is impacting on the overall well-being of yacht crews who are responsible for producing luxury yachting experiences. It discusses scholarly research and industry reports into both luxury yachting tourism and yacht crew management and experiences.

The success of the Below Deck television franchise has had a direct influence on the growing phenomenon of luxury yachting tourism. Behind the happy smiles and grandeur of the luxury experience, there is a dark side to this booming industry that requires further investigation and resolutions to enhance yacht crew well-being without impacting the guest experience.

This paper presents luxury yachting as a growing tourism phenomenon. It explores the dark side of this industry from the experiences of yacht crews, who are generally seen, but not heard.