Suchergebnisse

This article traces some administrative and media constructions of Australian surfing subculture in the early 1970s. Foucault's concept of `governmentality', which is concerned with techniques and technologies of discipline, is deployed to interpret the administrative categorization process that was used to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate unemployment benefit claims. Particular attention is paid to how some of the discourses surrounding unemployment benefit compared the unemployed surfing subject unfavorably with the idealized working citizen. Not only was `the surfie element' an object of discipline but, more importantly, `youths' as a social category were made to know themselves as potentially irresponsible at a time of growing unemployment.

Programmes to destigmatise 'mental illness' have traditionally been based on the 'mental illness is an illness like any other' metaphor and have been largely unsuccessful. By measuring attitudes towards, and etiology beliefs about, 'mental illness' before and after a series of four undergraduate lectures presenting the psychosocial causes of, and solutions to, severe mental health problems, this study (a) replicated previous studies demonstrating a relationship between biogenetic causal beliefs and negative attitudes towards 'mental patients'; (b) found that following the lectures attitudes improved, particularly around the key variables of dangerousness and unpredictability; and (c) demonstrated that amount of contact with people who had received psychiatric treatment was an even stronger predictor of positive attitudes than acceptance of a psychosocial perspective.

The current frenzy of megamergers and acquisitions creating giant media/entertainment conglomerates has been described in the sociology of sport literature as one of the key aspects of sport globalization processes now unfolding. In this literature three usual suspects are mostly pointed out: Disney, News Corp and AOL–Time Warner. This article argues that one must look beyond these in order to get a clearer picture of the emerging media/sport complex. By examining the corporate structure of six major media/entertainment conglomerates, this article reveals some of the intricacies of these holdings which unpack the 'circuits of promotion' being formed through media platforms and content convergence. Moreover, the analysis of these corporate holdings show how these competitors are also involved in several joint ventures that connect them together, thus forming a dense web despite their rivalries. The article concludes that unless democratic interventions are enabled at the national and global levels sport media consumers will remain easy targets of the global media/ entertainment oligopoly.