INTOXICATED IDENTITY:Young people’s online

alcohol behavioursProfessor Harry Sumnall, CPH, LJMU

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About me Professor of Substance Use, Centre for

Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University, UK

Funded research in prevention science, evidence based practice, and RCTs

President, European Society for Prevention Research (www.euspr.org)

Member, UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD)

About this talk Synthesis of an emerging body of research

conducted over the past 10 years examining alcohol and social media/social networking sites

Focus on young people < 25 years old, few studies in under 18s

Not a review of online marketing practices and its effects on alcohol use

Critical analysis, but neutral perspective Key references throughout, full list available

upon request

Acknowledgements ARUK for funding “Constructing alcohol

identities. How young people navigate and make sense of online intoxicogenic marketing and culture”

Amanda Atkinson, Kim Ross, Emma Begley (LJMU)

Dr James Nicholls (ARUK) for convening ARUK expert group in social media research methodology

Prof Chris Griffin (Bath University) for continued inspirational work in this area

A note of caution Research methodology in this area is a work in

progress Limited empirical work Mostly focussed on young people Difficulties in assessing exposure to online

advertising, ethical issues in researching social media

We tend to focus on a small number of platforms Social media platforms and technology changing

all the time – do you remember…?

Some basic observations about Young People’s drinking

Overall, period prevalence has been decreasing since early 2000s.

Those who do drink, appear to be drinking more Epidemiological evidence to suggest clustering of

‘risk behaviours’ – important for intervention responses

Heavy alcohol consumption in late adolescence persists into adulthood

Large number and wide range of alcohol related hospital admissions in under 25s (e.g. 113 cases of alcoholic liver disease in 2010, 3652 cases of ethanol poisoning)

Social Media and Young People Social media sites such as Facebook reflect

existing social processes in terms of how people relate to each other and share information.

Facebook now has 1.23 billion active monthly users (Facebook 2014)

Facebook users, their interest, relationships and interactions are the products that are being sold to business

A new marketing platform Social media is of increasing importance to

producers of consumer goods, including alcohol.

E.g. Diego and Facebook 21% of its marketing spend is now on social

media 1000 Diageo marketers trained in Facebook ‘boot

camps’ Five fold increase in sales attributed to Facebook Smirnoff number one alcohol brand on Facebook

worldwideDiageo, Sept 2011

Age restrictions

Apply restrictions relevant to national law – no evidence to suggest YP establish fake profiles to access adult/alcohol content

Broad range of restrictions on promotion (including negative portrayal of abstention and ‘moderation’)

No control over ‘fan pages’, and sharing content with under 18s

https://www.facebook.com/help/110094445754628

Age screening per brand interaction

Content must correspond with CAP and Portman Codes

Guidelines exclude news and information, sponsorship etc

https://support.twitter.com/articles/20170440-alcohol-content#

Old tactics, new media? Young people are purposely targeted by

some alcohol brands (Hastings 2009). Alcohol brands have various methods of

engaging with users via new social media. Social media provides more extensive ways for the alcohol industry to engage with young people (Brooks 2010).

Alcohol brands use social network sites to normalise alcohol consumption (Nicholls 2013).

Old tactics, new media? Examples of online activities:

Video adverts Page wall Alcohol sale links Additional content – comedy videos, sports and

music info, ‘fun’ apps, prize draws Links to YouTube – no apparent age restrictions

on many videos Daily comments – some facts and suggestions

about brands, but mostly about lifestyle issues Links to Drinkaware and Age control messages

Winpenny et al., 2013

Ways in which social media differs from traditional marketing

Allows for a direct and purposeful interaction with brands

Involvement ‘in the conversation’, not directly with the brand

Greater targeting, based upon demographics and browsing history – future developments?

Interaction amongst friendship groups Social – the distinction between user-

generated producers and brand promotion of material is blurred

Social Brands summit, London 6/2/14

Andy Porteous, former Unilever senior vice-president, digital: ‘Most marketers are nowhere near being confident of return of investment on social media’

Participants discussed: Social media given less credibility in the Boardroom

than often expected by ‘outsiders’ Indicators of engagement are not the same as

commercial outcomes Use of Facebook to guide people to brand

conversations, not the product itself (cf Nicholls, 2013)

Social media and young people’s drinking culture

Qualitative work: It has become socially acceptable and to some extent

expected for users, including young people, to display alcohol-related content such as images depicting drinking, comments, discussions and statuses, and visible interaction with third party devices such as online drinking games and alcohol advertising

Drinking is seen as fun, pleasurable and social within relatively safe ‘intoxogenic digital spaces’

(See: Griffin et al., 2013; McCreanor et al., 2012; Morgan et al., 2010, Tonk, 2012)

Social media and young people’s drinking culture

Online representations of alcohol are a continuation of the night out, essential in the construction of drinking stories, and integral to the intoxication ritual

Selective editing of social media representations (where possible) to avoid a ‘negative’ representation of intoxication (cybershame?) and to reinforce the group identity

Alcohol use important in the accumulation of ‘social capital’ – not necessarily negative

A range of potentially risky behaviours associated with positive representations and an increase in the acceptability of these behaviours amongst peers

Association with ‘real world’ drinking?

Limited investigation so far Significant association between the

number/type of Facebook alcohol representations with AUDIT score, and self-reported alcohol related injury (Moreno et al., 2012)

Significant association between visual and textual representations of alcohol identity and self- reported alcohol use (Ridout et al., 2011)

Social media and identity

• Online identity important for all users – although may not be explicitly aware of this

• It may differ between platforms

Capital, identity, alcohol, and social media Social media spaces are an extension of the field/space

in which YP act out identities, gain, and depict capital Social capital - Who you know, and the social networks

you participate in have social value; they provide resources based on group membership, relationships, and networks of influence – drinking in social groups and the status this conveys

Cultural capital – key to ‘distinction’, meaning is attached to particular cultural artefacts and behaviours - including alcohol

Symbolic capital – how all forms of capital are symbolised – objects hold symbolic capital – e.g. alcohol brands

after Bourdieu, 1984

Symbolic struggles in the alcohol game

Individuals may deliberately construct sociability for the purpose of creating social capital

Pursuit of capital can help determine how a young person’s interests relate to the interests of the friendship group (e.g. alcohol use), and the particular strategies that are used within the group in the accumulation of social position, status and identity

Symbolic struggles in the alcohol game

Young people often struggle to accumulate and express the ‘right’ and desired image/identity in relation to alcohol in order to be included, and to distinguish themselves from less desirable others (e.g. non-drinkers, drinkers of certain brands, certain drinking practices, certain consequences of drinking)

Can a well crafted brand help them to achieve this? Similarly, photographs, brand affiliation and comments

displaying the ‘wrong’ type of cultural (drinking) capital may have implications for an individual’s status within the social hierarchy of their peer group

= impression management in the pursuit of capital

Implications Alcohol can be seen as a socio-cultural product with

meaning and importance beyond its functional value

The social practice of purchase, consumption, and representation of alcohol products forms part of an individual’s self-presentation, whereby desired identities are performed in (semi) controllable social settings

May also be used as a means of judging others and distinguishing the self, whilst also signalling conformity with acceptable friendship and peer norms

Why might this be appealing to marketers?

Alcohol provides both a practical and symbolic function; alcohol brands can be seen as cultural resources that consumers actively use and re-appropriate in the representation of self and the construction of identity

Provides an opportunity to focus on lifestyles and identities which are typically depicted in the marketing of alcoholic products rather than the practical function of alcohol, which may be directly restricted by law or social media platforms

Response of young people to online alcohol marketing

Creation of an online intoxicogenic space – normalisation?

Provides a means of constructing, negotiating and signalling aspirational identities in relation to alcohol to peers

YP in NZ regarded online alcohol advertising as ‘useful’ and informative, but little recognition of marketing intent despite thinking of themselves as ‘savvy’ consumers Hebden, 2011

What is the social media health response?

Few in number (all ages) and under developed with respect to content and theoretical basis

Do not appear to consider why YP represent themselves online in the ways that they do

No big campaigns targeted at under 18s Mostly targeted towards parents and

teachers, encouraging them to monitor and educate young people about alcohol

Atkinson et al,. in prep

Further research questions… Does exposure to peer and fan generated alcohol

content mediate differences in individual alcohol use?

Does construction of, and affiliation to, an alcohol related identity lead to greater alcohol use or problematic alcohol use?

Does exposure to online advertising lead to an increase in alcohol use? How to we measure exposure?

Is normalisation of alcohol use reinforced through exposure to branding in social media ? How do we measure this?

Concluding remarks Participation in drinking culture, social media, and

global alcohol marketing provide new ways for young people to define, distinguish and belong through the creation of carefully constructed identities

The rapid development of social networking technologies and the display of alcohol content, raises new issues regarding potential influence upon young people’s drinking behaviour.

Traditional marketing restrictions and policies less relevant or applicable

Health is, yet again, slow to respond

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Professor Harry SumnallCentre for Public Health

Liverpool John Moores UniversityUK

h.sumnall@ljmu.ac.uk@profhrs@euspr

Contact

www.cph.org.uk