Who do we blame for our ‘drinking culture’?
My colleague Gaspar de Bellefroid recently published an interesting article that covers some of the most common ways in which alcohol industry minimizes all the risks that alcohol consumption imposes which ultimately contributes to the creation of ‘drinking culture’. The article mainly focused on the ethical responsibility of communication professionals who spin such research findings in favor of alcohol industry which is undoubtably ethically debatable. Besides the ethical concerns for the public relations practitioners, my colleague also points out the trends in the scientific reporting about the alcohol consumption consequences which are often misleading for the public and shown as if there are no bad outcomes for consuming alcohol. All of this, according to Gaspar contributes to the ever rising ‘drinking culture’. Even though I strongly agree with the points made by my colleague I would like to address some additional issues and pass the responsibility torch to the social media channels and journalists as well.
Social media as a cocreator
As we all know social media has had a rising impact in portraying the trends in the ‘wanted’ everyday lifestyle. How to dress, where to go on a vacation and how to spend free time while being trendy is all showcased on social media which to many seems entirely benign. However, as the research recently proven, social media has, besides an everyday distraction, become an influential tool for companies to spread their messages in less formal tone (Olssen, & Eriksson, 2016). We are often no more talking about the mediatization but the social mediatization, in which reality is being constructed on social media and not in the tradition media any longer (Olssen, & Eriksson, 2016). Since the advertisement of alcohol is forbidden in its classical form through traditional media, the companies that sell alcohol found new ways in which they are present. Regular Instagram giveaways where those companies promote for instance, taking pictures with a beer while having fun, may ultimately have a stronger influence than previously thought. No wonder my colleague is mentioning the ‘drinking culture’ when on social media every other picture we see is one of our friends or celebrities having the time of their life while holding a full glass of alcohol in their hands.
Where are the journalists and the media?
Just like Gaspar, Volkskrant’s respected journalist Maarten Keulemans did not hesitate to point out the responsibility of communication professionals when delivering stories of societal interests. Mister Keulemans, however, focused more on the responsibility of the communication practitioners at Dutch Universities and their somewhat marketing approach to 'selling’ science (Kleumans, 2019). In Gaspar’s case, the alcohol industry is equally misrepresenting health facts and, in this case, selling alcohol and cocreating a ‘drinking culture’. Despite the difference in chosen industries, both of them neglected the important aspect of journalistic responsibility and the way they are framing the news. Despite the fact that companies try to become a part of journalists agenda with various persuasive content, their responsibility for informing and partially educating the public should not be neglected (Vercic, & Tkalac Vercic, 2015). Journalists have the power to shine a light on a certain societal issue and raise an awareness for it which transforms into responsibility and an ethical imperative (Vercic, & Tkalac Vercic, 2015). For a long time now, the media has been investing time and effort in order to raise the awareness about negative impacts of smoking, taking drugs or any other form of addiction but drinking seems to be put in shadow from an unknown reason.
Finally, the questions that we should all be asking our self are: Why is journalism not doing more in suppressing the rise of ‘drinking culture’? And, is that the reason why most of us are still seeing alcohol as a form of leisure and not as potentially problematic and a source of addiction?
Literature:
Keulemans, M. (2019). Can we do little less? De Volkskrant.
Olssen, E-K., & Eriksson, M. (2016), The logic of public organizations’ social media use: Toward a theory of ‘social mediatization’. Public relations inquiry 5(2) 187–204. Doi: 10.1177/2046147X16654454
Verčič, D., Tkalac Verčić, A. (2015) The new publicity: From reflexive to reflective mediatization. Public relations review 42 (2016) 493-498. Doi: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2015.07.008
Photo 2: @jerrikmusic
No comments:
Post a Comment