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Research on the Transmission of Drinking Cultures: Media Influence

Deadline:	2pm on Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Timescale:	18 months maximum
Budget:	£100,000
Key contacts:	Charlie Lloyd (Principal Research Manager), charlie.lloyd@jrf.org.uk

Supporting documents

• What makes a good proposal?
• Application guidelines

We have now funded six research studies under the transmission of drinking cultures theme on peer, family and multiple influences. We now wish to fund one further study under this theme on media influence.

Background and aims

The JRF Programme Advisory Group on Alcohol (formerly the Alcohol Research Committee) has been set up to fund research and development in the alcohol field over a three-year period (2007-2009). The PAGA’s overall aim is to:

Collect and use evidence to contribute to halting or reversing negative drinking cultures and patterns among young people in the UK in order to reduce problems or harm.

In order to find ways to influence drinking culture among young people, we need to have a clearer idea of how drinking cultures and practices develop. To this end we have funded a number of research projects in this area.

We wish to emphasise that there is a practical purpose to this work: ultimately, we want this research to help us to identify what actions or interventions are most likely to have an impact on drinking cultures and patterns in the UK.

Reflecting the Foundation’s central concern with poverty and disadvantage, the PAGA programme is expected to include a strong focus on socio-economic group, gender and ethnicity. We therefore expect the research funded under this call to address some of these factors.

Domains of transmission

There appear to be a number of key domains through which young people’s drinking cultures and habits are influenced. The key domains that we have identified are the family, teenage peer groups, geographical locality and the media. Under this call for proposals, we wish to fund one primary research project on the influence of the media on young people’s drinking cultures.

The indirect impact of the media

We want to explore the indirect impact of the media on young people’s drinking cultures. By indirect, we mean media influences other than direct advertising, which has been quite extensively studied. By impact on drinking cultures, we mean those media representations that might be expected to have an impact on manners or ways of drinking, rather than product placement, for example, which might be expected to impact brand selection. While we are generally interested in how drinking is portrayed in the media, we want this study to have a strong focus on depictions of drunkenness and drinking to excess. A central issue for this research will be stories, pictures and videos of drunken celebrities. An important aim will be to analyse the ‘messages’ that such items appear to transmit about having fun, sexuality, violence, losing control etc.

We wish this study to focus on those media most popular with young people. We would expect these to include television, magazines, radio and (importantly) the internet. We expect proposals to include some brief analysis of those media channels that are most frequently ‘tuned into’ by the targeted age group.

Given our focus on the formation of drinking cultures, we wish to focus on an age range where drinking is becoming more of a regular event. To this end, we would like this study to focus on the 14-18 year age group (although there is flexibility here and if applicants wish to argue for a slightly different age group, this will be acceptable).

While we have used the phrase ‘impact on drinking cultures’, we would expect this study to recognise the fact that young people of this age group are by no mean passive recipients of media messages – they actively interpret and judge such messages. We also wish to avoid the assumption that all such indirect influences are negative. We would rather that this study examined the key sources of influence in the media and objectively assessed their impact.

Methods

We expect this study to include a detailed review of relevant, published, English language research. Proposals should also demonstrate an awareness of any previous relevant work.

We recognise the inherent difficulty in making causal inferences about the impact of media representations on young people’s drinking cultures and behaviour. However, we want this research to go as far as possible in exploring the possible relationship between the two. While we leave the details of the methodology to the applicant, we expect proposals to include a content analysis of selected media which have been shown to be popular among young people. We also expect some exploration of young people’s views on particular images or text that has been extracted from the content analysis.

Given the focus on celebrities, we would also expect some exploration of the famous individuals that this age group aspire to or respect, young people’s knowledge of these celebrities’ drinking behaviour and the possible impact on their own drinking behaviour. The definition of ‘celebrity’ needs to be informed by young people’s responses. We also expect this research to explore how publicised drinking incidents involving well-known people are discussed within friendship groups.

This methodology needs to be sensitive to the fact that young people are often very reluctant to report any external influences on their own behaviour and may also wish to conform to adult judgments on the reported behaviour of celebrities.

Policy and practice implications

The ultimate aim of this programme is to identify ways of impacting on negative drinking cultures among young people. We therefore want this research to consider the implications of the findings for self-censorship and regulation of the media. Is it possible to identify some media reporting of celebrity drinking incidents or other depictions of drunkenness as ‘irresponsible’? Or is evidence on the relationship between media representations of drunkenness and young people’s drinking cultures too tenuous to warrant such judgments?

Resources and number of projects

A maximum of £100,000 is available under this call for proposals and we expect to fund a single project with this sum.

Timescale

We want this project to start early next year (2009) and be conducted over a period no longer than 18 months.

How to Apply

It is essential that you read the how to apply for funding section of our website before submitting your proposal.

Criteria used in considering proposals

In considering proposals, the following key criteria are taken account of:

• the importance and relevance of the topic to the Foundation’s priorities;
• the relevance of the proposal to the research brief in the call for proposals;
• whether the work will offer new insights or developments;
• the appropriateness of the methods proposed to the aims of the project (for research projects, this includes research design, data collection and analysis);
• demonstration of good knowledge of the area, including both research literature and the policy and practice context;
• the ability of the staff and organisation to carry out the work and complete on time;
• the policy and practice implications of the project;
• an appropriate approach to dissemination;
• race equality and appropriate supported involvement of people with direct experience, where appropriate; and
• priority within available funds and value for money.

Judgements about proposals are made on the basis of what is written down. Some proposals are turned down because the Foundation cannot give the topic sufficient priority even though the proposal is well thought out and presented. In other cases, strong proposals may be rejected simply because, on balance, another is found to be even stronger. But proposals are most often rejected because insufficient information has been provided about key aspects or there is a lack of clarity about what is planned.

The Application Guidelines contain all the information and documents you will need to complete your application.

Submitting your Proposal

THREE sets of the following documents are required:

• Proposal registration form
• Summary
• Proposal
• Budget form
• Staff Costs forms
• Full CVs for all Proposers

These should be sent to:

Charlie Lloyd
Principal Research Manager
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
The Homestead
40 Water End
York YO30 6WP

Please also email the Summary and Proposal to Christine Appleton - christine.appleton@jrf.org.uk.

The deadline for receipt of hard copy and email documentation is 2pm on Wednesday 24 September 2008

Please note that this is a strict deadline. Amendments or additions to the proposal sent after this date will not be accepted.

If you wish to discuss any of the details of the proposed work,
Charlie Lloyd, Principal Research Manager responsible for the Alcohol Research Programme, can be contacted on 01904 615911 or by email charlie.lloyd@jrf.org.uk.

Administrative queries: please contact Charlie Lloyd’s Administrator, Christine Appleton on 01904 615911 or email christine.appleton@jrf.org.uk.

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