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New research on interactivity in advertising published by Dr. Chris Miles

Publishing

We are constantly told how enabling and empowering new interactive digital technologies are. How they free us to talk back to and build relationships with brands, allow us to organise ourselves as consumers, and stimulate marketers to find more relevant and less manipulative ways of communicating with us.  Yet, how true is this really?

A chapter written by Dr. Chris Miles and published in a new Routledge collection, Explorations in Critical Studies in Advertising, investigates the optimistic claims for interactive advertising as a liberating platform for dialogue and co-creation and concludes that they are largely rhetorical strategies designed to persuade decision-makers of the terrifying prospects of losing brand control to consumers. As Dr. Miles concludes, “powerful keywords such as ’empowerment’, ‘interactivity’, and ‘dialogue’ act as discursive grounds for a fearful rededication to the goal of control”. Carefully analysing the ways in which both academic researchers in advertising and practitioner pundits talk about interactive strategies, Dr. Miles found a curious mixture of ostensibly celebratory language alongside terms and comparisons designed to unnerve and threaten marketers and management. The result, argues Dr. Miles, is both an understanding and practice of interactivity which largely serve to consolidate advertising’s traditional control orientation.
Dr. Miles’ chapter is part of the collection Exploration in Critical Studies of Advertising, edited by James Hamilton, Robert Bodle and Ezequiel Korin, and published by Routledge. A full chapter list and outline can be found at the publishers’ site here (link: https://www.routledge.com/Explorations-in-Critical-Studies-of-Advertising/Hamilton-Bodle-Korin/p/book/9781138649521)​.
Dr. Chris Miles is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing & Communication in the Department of Corporate and Marketing Communication. He is a member of the PCCC Research Centre and Head of the BU Advertising Research Group. His research focuses on the discursive construction of marketing theory and practice, particularly as it relates to communication and control. His book, Interactive Marketing: Revolution or Rhetoric?, was published by Routledge in 2010. He is currently working on another monograph for Routledge exploring the relationship between marketing, rhetoric and magic.

Royal Geographical Society-BU joint event at the EBC -17th Nov

neptuneHave you thought about how much our landscapes have changed in the last 50 years?

The National Trust owns 775 miles of our coastline and you can hear about the changes they have mapped between 1965 and 2015 on a seminar organised by the Royal Geographical Society, this Thu 17th Nov, 7.00-8.30pm at the Executive Business Centre (room EB708).

50 years of the National Trust Neptune Project: coastal land use and maps

Karin Taylor (Head of Land Use Planning, National Trust) and Huw Davies (Head of Conservation Information, National Trust) present an overview of the coastal land use changes mapped during the 50 years of the Neptune Project. The lecture will discuss the fascinating impacts of town and country planning, the National Trust ownership, and the difference in survey techniques used between 1965 and 2015.

To mark the 50th anniversary of Enterprise Neptune (a major appeal to fund the acquisition of pristine coastal land) the National Trust commissioned a re-survey of a coastal land use survey that was completed of the English, Welsh and Northern Irish coastlines in 1965.  Comparative analysis of the two surveys provide insightful evidence of the changes in land use that have occurred between 1965 and 2015, and the impacts of both the advent of town and country planning and the consequences of national Trust ownership. The lecture will also show differences in the survey techniques between then (geography students armed with maps, pencils, walking boots and tents) and now (GIS and other desk-based techniques).

For more information and tickets, please click here (free for RGS-IBG members, students and university staff, others £5):

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/50-years-of-the-national-trust-neptune-project-coastal-land-use-and-maps-tickets-25784848175.

FMC Associate Professor delivers plenary at Style and Response Conference

conferences

It was my great pleasure to take part last week in a conference organised by the Stylistics Research Group at Sheffield Hallam Style and Response. My paper reported on the activities of our two BU based AHRC funded projects, and on the ethical and methodological challenges of researching readers and reading online.  The conference was an important opportunity to disseminate the work of the existing projects and to further extend our network of scholars researching reading in the digital age. It was also an opportunity to discuss what will hopefully be the next stage of this research, as our application for Follow on Funding to the AHRC is currently being finalised….

 

The first day included a fascinating panel on Digital Fiction, particularly focusing on immersion and showcasing different methodologies including the Think Aloud protocol and participant interviews. The case studies discussed in this session included Dreaming Methods’ Wallpaper (Alice Bell), videogame Zero Time Dilemma (Jess Norledge and Richard Finn) and The Princess Murderer (Isabelle Van der Bom). After lunch, I switched between panels to catch Sam Browse’s entertaining paper presenting an ethnographic study of a group of local Labour party activists, followed by Lyle Skains’ paper reporting on how her creative writing students responded to reading digital or ‘ergodic’ fiction, and how they felt this influenced their own creative practice.

 

It was great to see diversity throughout the programme both in terms of methods and case studies.  One of the takeaways from day one was a strong preference for mixed methods, and there was a very lively discussion following the closing plenary (presented in absentia by Ranjana Das) about the extent to which exploring new approaches and methods from different disciplines can be managed without diluting or compromising the skills and expertise that we have as researchers primarily trained in critical analysis and close reading.

 

I delivered the opening plenary on day 2, followed by a fascinating panel on Attention, with an insightful paper on cognitive approaches to re-reading from Chloe Harrison and Louise Nuttall, and a very informative and interesting paper on eyetracking and onomatopoeia in manga from Olivia Dohan.

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The afternoon sessions provided further innovative approaches to media and new media texts and cultures.  Isabelle van der Bom and Laura Paterson reported on a corpus linguistic study of live tweeting of Benefits Street, which provided depressing but fascinating evidence of the ways in which the ‘echo chamber’ of social media is nevertheless shaped in interaction with other media (tv, the tabloid press).  It also raised questions about the extent to which empirical and particularly quantitative approaches can tell the ‘whole story’ when it comes to a discourse where there may be just as many silent witnesses as participants.

sheff

Alison Gibbons’ paper on JJ Abrams’ S offered a fascinating account of the novel as part of a transmedia universe, and reported on her attempts to get ‘real readers’ to create and insert their own marginalia alongside that provided by the novel’s creators.  The closing plenary was an energetic and engaging discussion of persuasion and transportation by Melanie Green.  As well as transporting us to another world by reading us a story, Melanie’s paper left us with some important insights into the power of stories to change minds for good and ill.

Many congratulations to the organisers of this event for producing such a stimulating couple of days. It was wonderful to see that the study of readers and reading is attracting some innovative work from within the field of stylistics, drawing on a long tradition of focusing on the empirical, but also demonstrating breadth of engagement with terms and methods from multiple disciplines.

Latest Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

Tcoins moneyhe following is a snap-shot of funding opportunities that have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

Academy of Medical Sciences

COMING SOON: Starter grants for clinical lecturers

The Academy of Medical Science will shortly be inviting applications for its starter grants for clinical lecturers. The next call is expected to open in January 2017. The following information is from the previous round and is subject to change. These grants enable research-active clinical lecturers to gather data in order to develop and strengthen their research careers and bids for longer-term fellowships and funding. Grants are worth up to £30,000 each over one to two years.

Maximum award: £30,000

Closing date: 05 Mar 17 (forecast, recurring)

Arts and Humanities Research Council

Collaborative research grants – São Paulo Research Foundation

These enable transnational British and Brazilian teams to carry out collaborative research projects. The overall proposal budget should not exceed £2m. Projects may last for up to 60 months.

Maximum award: £2,000,000

Closing date: None open call

GCRF area-focused network plus call

This supports multidisciplinary, internationally collaborative programmes of activity rooted in the arts and humanities that take a place-based approach to addressing global development challenges. Projects will focus on a cluster of countries, region, or ‘area’ otherwise defined as the basis for addressing a number of interconnected development challenges within the specific context of the area in question. Funding is worth between £1.5m and £2m per project over a period of four years.

Maximum award: £2,000,000

Closing date: 18 Jan 17

 

Highlight notice for international development – research networking scheme

This aims to encourage research networking proposals which explore the contribution that arts and humanities research can make to challenges, policy or practice relating to international development. Grants are worth up to £30,000 each. An additional £30,000 paid in full economic cost may be provided to cover the costs of any international participants or activities in addition to the scheme limit.

Maximum award: £60,000

Closing date: 28 Feb 17

British Academy

APEX awards

This offers established independent researchers, with a strong track record in their respective area, an opportunity to pursue genuine interdisciplinary and curiosity-driven research to benefit wider society. Projects may last for up to 24 months.

Maximum award: £100,000

Closing date: 13 Jan 17

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Feasibility studies – industrial systems in the digital age

These enable cross-disciplinary, foresight, speculative and risky early stage research in industry systems in the digital age or the building of a demonstrative prototype. The total budget for the programme is £600,000.

Maximum award: Not known

Closing date: 09 Dec 16

Environmental Change Challenge Fellowships

This aims to establish a research group to answer the question of how our cities, their hinterlands, linking infrastructure, rural surround and the regions they are in, be transformed to be resilient, sustainable, more economically viable and generally better places to live. The total budget is approximately £5 million.

Maximum award: Not known

Closing date: 05 Jan 17

If you are interested in submitting to any of the above calls you must contact your  RKEO Funding Development Officer with adequate notice before the deadline.

For more funding opportunities that are most relevant to you, you can set up your own personalised alerts on Research Professional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s/Faculty’s Funding Development Officer in  RKEO or view the recent blog post here.

If thinking of applying, why not add notification of your interest on Research Professional’s record of the bid so that BU colleagues can see your intention to bid and contact you to collaborate.

Dementia Institute at Alzheimer Europe in Copenhagen, Denmark

Prof Jane Murphy, Joanne Holmes, Dr Michelle Heward, Ben Hicks and Sophie Bushell attended the 26th Annual Conference of Alzheimer Europe which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from 31 October to 2 November 2016.

This years conference theme was ‘excellence in dementia research and care’, and addressed numerous aspects of developing a dementia-friendly society, exploring the challenges concerning excellence in diagnosis, medical treatment and research as well as innovative person-centered care related to the progress of the disease and living well with dementia in society.jane-and-joanne

Jane and Joanne presented a poster on their work on ‘Nutrition and dementia care: Developing an evidence-based model for delivering person-centred care in nursing homes. Michelle discussed the findings from a recent project focusing on hospital care in her paper on ‘Promoting excellence in hospital care for people with dementia: a UK case study’. Ben presented a poster on his recent project ‘How does Cage Cricket enhance the perceived life experience of people with dementia and their care partners?’. Sophie presented a paper showcasing her PhD research ‘Improving wellbeing for people with dementia living in a purpose built care environment by introducing self-chosen activities’.

Call for expressions of interest: Thrivership UK 2017

Would you like to be a part of the largest collaborative event in 2017 to improve the quality of life for those who have been affected by cancer? Living Well Active and the Student Project Bank are inviting students and staff from across BU to register their interest in helping shape the Thrivership UK 2017 Four Nations Convention: From Survivor to Thriver.

On 13th July 2017 Bournemouth University will bring together leading organisations from the four nations representing cancer related charities and survivorship projects, sport and physical activity, NHS and local governments to share best practice, research and innovative ideas to improve the services, experience and outcomes for people living with a cancer diagnosis. This event will also host a health and wellbeing clinic for 200 people living with cancer.

In order to make this event a success, Living Well needs support with:

  • Event development, management, marketing and administration
  • Branding and marketing materials design
  • Website development
  • Social media development and promotion
  • Media capture of event (film/photography)
  • Interviewing participants in the event
  • Event impact evaluation
  • Literature review around improving cancer survivorship
  • Event day support/management

Interested in taking part?

There will be a presentation and Q&A session with the founder of Living Well Agency on 6th December at 11:00 in the Lawrence Lecture Theatre, Talbot Campus. Register your attendance here. Refreshments will be provided.

Taking part in this event is a great way for students to enhance their CV, gain real-world project experience and contribute to people’s potential to live active and happy lives with and beyond cancer.

Faculty of Management academics are keynote speakers at MEAconf

conferences, international

Two Faculty of Management academics, Dr Mohamed Haffar and Dr Elvira Bolat, are selected as keynote speakers for the 6th International Conference on Modern Research in Management, Economics and Accounting, which is held on 15th November at London South Bank University.

Dr Haffar from the Department of Leadership, Strategy and Organisational Behaviour is presenting on the following topic, ‘Guidelines for organisational sustainability in an era of radical change: The vital role of employees readiness and commitment to change’. Dr Bolat from the Department of Marketing is talking about ‘Digital transformation and its implications for academia and practice’.

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The MEAConference aims to pave an international way for leading academics, active researchers, experts, industry leaders and interested scholars to communicate and exchange their viewpoints on latest scientific findings and practical experiences in the fields of Management, Economics and Accounting. Besides, the Conference attempts to examine the scientific and practical challenges in their application process across all geographical regions as well as at diverse local, national, regional and international levels.

 

BU’s Clinical Academic Doctorates; an example of good practice in new official guidance

The Association of UK University Hospitals (AUKUH) has today released new guidance, Transforming healthcare through clinical academic roles in nursing, midwifery and allied health professions: A practical resource for healthcare provider organisations

The guide is aimed at NHS organisational leads with the responsibility for developing and embedding clinical academic roles for nursing, midwifery and allied health professions. Clinical academics serve as a crucial connection between the NHS and universities, working to train future generations of healthcare workers while engaging in research which can improve outcomes for patients and help increase efficiency.

The guide contains practical information, case studies and templates. One of the case studies highlighted is BU’s innovative clinical academic doctorates. The pragmatic four-year clinical doctorate model enables midwives and nurses to remain in practice while conducting a piece of research to meet clinical priorities. The four-year clinical doctorate is a joint development involving academics at Bournemouth University and clinical colleagues at NHS trusts. The doctorate is structured to enable students to spend two days a week in clinical practice and three days conducting research. All research projects are jointly developed to meet an identified clinical need.

The model originated for midwives in Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, where we have eight fellows, and has now been adopted by the Isle of Wight NHS Trust, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Poole Hospitals NHS Trust and Dorset County Hospitals NHS Trust (Way et al., 2016). The model is also being extended to other disciplines, with our first nurse fellow at Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Trust.

 

Professor Debbie Carrick-Sen, Co-Chair of the group which produced the guidance, says:

‘Creating this resource has required a significant amount of collaboration from colleagues across healthcare and we are truly grateful to them. The energy that has gone into it is a huge credit to the professions involved. Through this guidance they have the means to share their immense successes, learn from each other and ultimately work to the benefit of patient care.

‘The guidance will be the starting point. We have established a network of organisational leads with the responsibility for its development and for using it to implement clinical academic roles across the UK. This gives us a fantastic opportunity to begin a nationwide dialogue and to transform health and social care in the UK.’

 

Way S, van Teijlingen E, HundleyV, Westwood G, Walton G, Wiggins D, Colbourne D, Richardson C, Wixted D, Mylod D (2016) Dr Know. Midwives, 19, 66-67.

Knowledge exchange framework portal – new HEFCE webpages

Knowledge Exchange

portal-chpt-two-thumb

HEFCE have launched a new portal which aims to support higher education institutions to continuously improve their practice in the areas of knowledge exchange.

 

This includes sections on:

HEFCE will continue to populate these pages are further information becomes available.

If you have any queries about the portal and its contents, or wish to discuss any elements of knowledge exchange, please do not hesitate to contact Rebecca Edwards.

ESRC Festival of Social Sciences

BRIAN, Business Engagement, innovation, Knowledge Transfer

Dr John Oliver, from the Advances in Media Management research cluster, recently delivered a keynote lecture at the Open Innovation Design Jam competition at the University of Glasgow. The event formed part of the ESRC’s Festival of Social Science programme of activities that ran from 5th-12th November across the UK.

The Design Jam also involved a number of short, intensive brainstorming sessions in which teams developed innovative solutions to challenges. This event was an opportunity for innovators and businesses to explore open, collective and user-led innovation.
Dr Oliver’s talk on media innovation strategies presented empirical data on how the innovation practices of UK media firms had transformed firm capabilities and corporate financial performance.

New projects in the Student Project Bank

Student Engagement

There are new projects in the Student Project Bank for the following subject areas:

  • Business, management and marketing
  • Health and social care
  • Media and communications
  • Computing and information technology

Projects are available to all undergraduate and postgraduate students at BU and can be used for their dissertation, assignment, unit or group work. Members of staff may also choose a project to set to their students. A complete list of projects is available here.

SPB025: Marketing strategy for Pause Cat Cafe

Suitable for: Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Description: Create a marketing strategy for Pause Cat Café. Pause are particularly interested in reaching markets that are not generally aware of the concept of a cat café and markets that could benefit from the therapeutic effects of spending time with cats. They are open to new and innovative ideas. This project can be combined with SPB026 if required.

SPB026: Social media strategy for Pause Cat Cafe

Suitable for: Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Description: Create a social media strategy for Pause Cat Café. Identify new and unusual ways Pause could build upon the current ways cats are featured on social media. The strategy will need to identify ways to approach and resolve negative press that may be directed towards the café. This project can be combined with SPB 025 if required.

 SPB027: Develop a website for Pause Cat Cafe

Suitable for: Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Description: Develop a website for Pause Cat Café to promote their business and share news of their projects.

 SPB028: Research project into the benefits of interaction with cats on mental and physical health and well being

Suitable for: Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Description: Research the benefits of interaction with cats on mental and physical health and wellbeing using quantitative and qualitative methods. Produce a report on your findings.

SPB029: Create a documentary about Pause Cat Café

Suitable for: Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Description: Create a 20 minute documentary about Pause Cat Café that can be used for promotional purposes. The documentary will focus on the welfare and care of the cats that live at the café and the community work the café aims to do in the future.

 SPB030: Create a short documentary about the community living on Bourne estate

Suitable for: Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Description: Create a 6-10 minute video capturing the activities and the voices of the people living on Bourne estate from January-June 2017.  This will be used to demonstrate the success of a six year neighbourhood management project in the area. The film will be shown to the community and local agencies.

 SPB031: Create an app or online platform to increase engagement in the Count On Me community carbon-counting campaign

Suitable for: Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Description: Count On Me (a Transition Bournemouth project) is a community carbon-counting campaign designed to promote and encourage sustainable behaviour. It helps tackle climate change by celebrating the positive steps people are taking. Develop an app for iPhone/Android or an online platform that will capture data from Bournemouth residents about their activities that produce carbon savings such as cycling or eating less meat.

Apply now

If you would like to find out more and apply for one of the above projects, send us an email to request a project brief and an application form.

Midwifery Graduation: Honours & Awards

international, PG research, student research

alison-sheenaAlongside Bournemouth University’s midwifery and other health and social care students who graduated in last Friday’s ceremony, BU honoured prominent midwife Sheena Byrom OBE with an Honorary Doctorate for her services to the profession. Sheena Byrom gave an inspiring speech at Friday’s Graduation.  Sheena said, “If they can keep in their hearts the passion and the drive they had when they first came to the university, it will help them to be more resilient and keep them motivated towards what they want to do. Healthcare is a blend between love and science and both are equally important. In practice, it is key that they have the skills, but the things that makes the difference are love and compassion.”

rachelalisonedwinAlongside Sheena two students from the Centre of Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health(CMMPH) graduated with a PhD in Midwifery.  Dr. Alison Taylor received her PhD for her qualitative research on breastfeeding. Her thesis is entitled ‘It’s a relief to talk ….’: Mothers’ experiences of breastfeeding recorded on video diaries.  Dr. Rachel Arnold was awarded her PhD for her research Afghan women and the culture of care in a Kabul maternity hospital.

Congratulations to all BU undergraduates and Rachel, Alison and Sheena!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH