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The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of how portrayals of older employees in mass media messages can help combating stereotypical beliefs on their employability.

The authors conducted a systematic review of empirical studies on mass media portrayals of older employees in order to show what these reveal about the ways in which their employment status, occupation, job type, or work setting is portrayed. The approach builds upon theory on media portrayals, media effects, and stereotypes of older workers’ employability.

This study shows that older employees in media portrayals, when present at all, are relatively often shown in higher-level professional roles, herewith overall, depicting an image that is positive, yet differs from stereotypical beliefs on their employability that are prevalent in working organizations.

Further empirical work is needed to more safely conclude on the prevalence of age-related portrayals of work and employment in mass media. In addition, longitudinal research is called for in order to better understand the possible causes for the way in which older employees are portrayed, as well as effects of age-related stereotyping in mass media and corporate communication outlets over time.

This research sparks ideas about how new portrayals of older employees in mass media and corporate communication outlets can contribute to novel approaches to managing an aging and multi-generational workforce.

This study shows how working organizations can make use of the positive and powerful media portrayals of older employees, in order to activate normal and non-ageist behaviors toward them, and herewith, to increase their life-long employability.

This study highlights the role of media portrayals of older employees in combating stereotypes about their employability.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate masculinity in Chinese social media marketing for global luxury fashion brands through two studies.

Study 1 compares physical characteristics of males in visually oriented US (Instagram) and Chinese (Weibo) social media posts promoting global luxury fashion magazine brands (e.g. Vogue, Cosmopolitan, GQ and Esquire). Study 2 examines the prevalence of and Chinese consumers’ responses (reposts, comments and likes) to different masculinities depicted in luxury fashion brand-sponsored Weibo posts.

Male portrayals for Chinese audiences feature more characteristics associated with emerging East Asian hybrid masculinities – “Little Fresh Meat” (LFM) and “Old Grilled Meat” (OGM) – than associated with global or regional hegemonic masculinity (i.e. the scholarly Wén and action-oriented Wu). Wén remains common in social media posts for luxury fashion goods, but LFM and OGM engender more consumer responses.

Chinese luxury fashion marketing depicts masculinity more similarly to other East Asian marketing than to Western marketing. Some luxury fashion brands are struggling for acceptance among Chinese youth. Luxury fashion marketers should incorporate hybrid rather than hegemonic masculinities to prompt more favorable responses among Chinese consumers, especially younger female target markets.

Growing female occupational and consumer power and shifting male employment from blue-collar to white-collar jobs have influenced media portrayals of masculinity. Social media marketing for luxury fashion brands demonstrates the prevalence and appeal of hybrid masculinities in China.

This paper aims to examine the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) portrayal of the May 2022 Monkeypox outbreak in the West. The Monkeypox outbreak and the outcry from African journalists on some Western media outlets’ use of black people to portray the Monkeypox outbreak informed the present study to investigate, through empirical evidence, whether Western media portrays Africa negatively.

The paper opted for the content analysis method. The news recordings from BBC News analysed for this study were archived videos on Monkeypox retrieved from Blob of Broadcast, an on-demand audio and video streaming service in the UK.

Findings indicated that videos were the most used visuals by the BBC to depict the Monkeypox outbreak in the observed period. Findings also revealed that Black was the prevalent skin tone used in depicting those affected by the outbreak, while White was the prevalent skin tone used in depicting the scientists interviewed for their expert knowledge and at the forefront of the Monkeypox outbreak.

The paper includes implications for Western media outlets on how to portray Africa and its people.

This paper fulfils an identified need to investigate how Africa is portrayed in Western media through empirical evidence.

The purpose of this paper is to look at recent trends in scientific literature on the portrayal of autism in published and broadcast media and social awareness of the subject.

A bibliometric analysis of content of such publications was performed.

Results show that portrayals of autism from books, newspapers, news broadcasts, films and TV series are being scrutinized. Research focuses on the social categories of resulting stereotypes, the quality of such depictions, the benefits and downsides, stigmatization of individuals (with autism) and how society responds to these portrayals.

It is important to understand if media portrayals of autism are creating a realistic and constructive awareness of autism in society.

Mental illness has become an important public health issue in society, and media are the most common sources of information about mental illnesses. Thus, it is important to review research on mental illnesses and media. The purpose of this paper is to provide a narrative review of studies on mental illnesses in the media and identifies important research gaps.

A combination of searching key databases and examining reference lists of selected articles was used to identify relevant articles. In total, 41 empirical studies published in the last 12 years were reviewed.

The review found that substantial research had been done to investigate media portrayals of mental illnesses and the effects of such portrayals might have on the public. Media still portray mental illnesses negatively in general, which contributes to the ongoing mental illness stigmatization. Nonetheless, discussions of mental illnesses in direct-to-consumer advertisements and social media tend to be more objective and informative. These objective portrayals could help improve mental health literacy and reduce stigma. More importantly, media can also reduce the stigma if used strategically. Research has found that entertainment-education programs and web-based media have strong potential in reducing mental illness stigma. Recommendations for future research are also discussed.

Findings can guide future efforts to use media to educate the public about mental illnesses and reduce mental illness stigma.

This study reviews the most recent research on mental illnesses in the media and provides important references on the media representation of mental illnesses, media effects of such representation, and using media to reduce stigma.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the media on residents's support of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games within the two respective communities of Weymouth and Portland in England and in doing so better understand what influences residents' support for mega events.

A quantitative methodology was employed using a systematic random sampling method. A drop and collect technique with self‐completion surveys was used. A total of 404 completed surveys were returned. Logistical regression was used to examine the influence of the media on overall event support.

Although residents were supportive of hosting the event in the local area their overall support was influenced by their perceptions of the media portrayal. Those respondents who perceive the event portrayal as fair were much more in favour of hosting the event than other groups of respondents. The type of portrayal in the local media was not significant.

The nature of media exposure and attitudes toward the media were not examined. Future research is needed on how the media present and frame issues related to mega sport event hosting, and whether involvement or commitment influences residents' media perceptions and overall event support.

Fairness in reporting appears to be a greater influencing factor than the type of media coverage (positive, negative, and neutral). This suggests the need for open communication of the costs as well as the benefits from event organisers and unbiased reporting from media sources.

This is one of the first studies to examine the influence of the media on residents' support for mega sporting events. It proposes future research directions to explore this neglected area.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of media representation on the mental health of Australians of African descent during the COVID-19 pandemic. By analysing the media coverage of COVID-19 restriction breaches, particularly focusing on individuals from African backgrounds, the study aims to shed light on how racially charged narratives can contribute to emotional distress and exacerbate feelings of alienation within these communities. The findings highlight the detrimental effects of such portrayals, emphasising the need for more responsible and inclusive media reporting to safeguard the mental well-being of culturally and linguistically diverse populations.

The study employed media content analysis to explore representations of Australians of African origin versus the broader Anglo–Australian population during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on racial identity’s impact on news coverage of COVID-19 restriction breaches. Researchers classified and distilled extensive textual content, using a diverse sample from various ethnic-racial backgrounds, with an emphasis on African Australians within the CALD community. Data analysis was conducted using NVivo (version 12) software, following an inductive approach.

The findings underscore the consistent portrayal of people from African communities as outsiders and the racial profiling they experience in media coverage of significant issues like COVID-19.

There is very limited research that examines the impact of media coverage on African migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose – To discuss the history and relevance of audience research as it pertains to sport and physical culture and to demonstrate an approach to doing audience research.

Design/methodology/approach – A step-by-step overview of a study conducted by the authors is provided. The study examined ways that groups of young males in a Vancouver, Canada, high school interpreted images of masculinity in popular media, and ways these same youth performed masculinity in physical education classes. We reflect on how studying interpretations (using focus groups) and lived experiences (using participant observation and in-depth interviews) in an integrated fashion was helpful for understanding the role of media in the everyday lives of these youth. We also describe how the hegemony concept guided our data interpretation.

Findings – We highlight how, on the one hand, the young males were critical of media portrayals of hegemonic forms of masculinity and, on the other hand, how these same males attempted to conform to norms associated with hegemonic masculinity in physical education classes. We emphasise that our multi-method approach was essential in allowing us to detect the incongruity between youth ‘interpretations’ and ‘performances’.

Research limitations/implications – Limitations of audience research are discussed, and the epistemological underpinnings of our study are highlighted.

Originality/value – The need for audience research in physical cultural studies is emphasised. We suggest that researchers too often make claims about media impacts without actually talking to audiences, or looking at what audiences ‘do’ with information they glean from media.

To explore the digital landscape, narrowing to Instagram, as a cultural space to advance sociological understanding of elite athlete mother identity meanings and lives.

Relativist narrative inquiry is outlined as a theoretical and methodological approach to expand sociological research on motherhood and sport, by exploring big and small stories on social media sites. Elite athlete mother's mediated self-portrayals on Instagram are theorized as identity stories (re)created and made possible, by cultural narrative resources.

An example of big and small story research is outlined from a larger case study of elite athlete figure skating mothers' self-portrayals on Instagram as they negotiated motherhood, and a professional sport career. Thematic narrative analysis findings include a big story plot in the post-partum period: negotiating intensive mothering and career. Two small stories that fed into fluid meanings of this big story plot are also presented: holding the baby close and working mum/new mumtrepeneur. These findings show nuanced contradictions of contemporary motherhood meanings, within sportswomen's personal and public digital stories.

A big and small story approach grounded in narrative inquiry holds value to learn more about the contemporary digital landscape's shaping of the meanings of sportswomen's identities and lives. Future research is recommended using this approach on additional social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) to expand intertextual understanding of elite athlete mother identities in socio-cultural context, tapping into these underexplored naturalistic data resources.