HOW DO BRITISH TEENAGERS AGED 16-18 RECEIVE AND INTERPRET ALCOHOL MESSAGES PORTRAYED IN THE BRITISH SOAP OPERA EASTENDERS? ADILAID BHEBHE A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Nottingham Trent University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy FEBRUARY 2021 "This work is the intellectual property of the author, Adilaid Bhebhe. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed in the owner of the Intellectual Property Rights" ABSTRACT Reception of media texts by audiences continues to occupy a fundamental position in the field of media studies, particularly in the face of the technological advances characterising the contemporary television viewing environment. Through a qualitative approach, this study investigates the reception of health communication messages, in the form of harmful drinking storylines portrayed in the British soap opera EastEnders, by sixteen to eighteen-year olds, in a multi-media reception environment. This is in the context of the socio-economic and health burden imposed on the British society by harmful drinking particularly by this age-group. The study takes a broad approach to reception and as such investigates the main moments of the circuit of culture for a holistic understanding of meaning-making processes by young people. To this end focus group interviews and long interviews were used to obtain views of young people and health experts while EastEnders producer and health organisations involved in the creation of alcohol storylines were also interviewed. Findings revealed that popular television in general, and the soap opera genre in particular, are predominantly viewed by both young people and health experts as effective channels to convey health communication for this age-group, while realism and the accuracy of portrayals were seen as paramount in aiding dominant readings. Contrary to some public discourses and early media theories, findings showed that young people are active and analytical readers of media messages in general and alcohol messages in particular and not passive recipients. Furthermore, second screens (laptops, smart phones and tablets) used during EastEnders viewing enhanced their reception, understanding and interpretation of alcohol messages and viewing experience altogether. Notwithstanding the pedagogical value of EastEnders, the study unearthed a potential contradiction between soap opera generic conventions and narrative demands, which could possibly impact on its ability to effectively convey health communication messages in general and those concerning harmful drinking in particular. i DEDICATION Glory to God for His grace in enabling the successful completion of this thesis. I am grateful! This thesis is dedicated to my beautiful daughter and best friend, Nicole Thabisile. You mean the world to me. I would never have done it without you. You cheered me on even when life happened and threatened our dreams. You gave me reason to soldier on during the most difficult of times. You patiently and cheerfully walked the journey with me and made it worthwhile. Your love, faith, prayers, loyalty and encouragement saw me through this journey. Thank you, daughter dearest! To my amazing parents, mum and dad! I could not have asked for better parents because you are the best! I am truly blessed and honoured to have such a prayerful, loving and supportive team behind me all the time. Thank you for always seeing the best in every situation, your optimism kept me going. I am very grateful. To my loving, caring and kind sister Noe, brothers, Mthoe, Mthae and Makhoe (the three MBs), sisters in law, nieces and nephews, you were my pillars, source of strength and cheer leaders. I am very grateful to you all for your love, prayers, kindness and unwavering support. Thank you very much and may the good Lord bless you all abundantly. To all my dear sisters and very special friends (you know yourselves), you stood by me from start to finish and you were always there to encourage and offer support in many different ways. You always listened patiently when I shared my countless PhD experiences and cheered me on even when I was at my lowest. I am blessed and privileged to have you as friends! From the bottom of my heart, I thank you all and I will always remember! ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my amazing supervisory team, Director of Studies, Professor Martin O’Shaughnessy and supervisors, Drs, Ben Taylor and Mark Weinstein, thank you for your invaluable wisdom, guidance, support and patience throughout this journey. It was indeed a great honour to work with you. You made the journey bearable, enjoyable and worth it. Thank you very much! To my employers, Experian, I cannot thank you enough for your understanding, flexibility and support during my studies. You made it possible for me to successfully juggle work and my PhD from start to finish. For this, I am very grateful to you. To Phil, thank you very much for all your help with my field work logistics. To Dr Winston Mano and Dr Lynette Steenveld, thank you for your unwavering support and encouragement. To all the institutions that kindly allowed me access to their students, thank you very much, this project would not have succeeded without your help. To everybody who played any role or part in making this project a success, thank you very much, I appreciate it all a lot! iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………......i Dedication……………………………………………………………………………………..ii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………...iii Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………….….iv Figures………………………………………………………………………………………...xi CHAPTER ONE……………………………………………………………………………...1 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..…1 Study Context………………………………………………………………………………….2 Alcohol and society……………………………………………………………………………2 Alcohol use in Europe…………………………………………………………………………4 Alcohol and British society…………………………………………………………………....4 Alcohol and Nottingham city…………………………………………………………….……5 Alcohol representation (advertising/marketing) and young people…………………………...6 Definitions of intoxication, excessive, harmful, binge, unacceptable and irresponsible drinking………………………………………………………………………………………..7 Definitions of Alcoholism……………………………………………………………………..7 Definitions of normal, acceptable, moderate, reasonable and responsible drinking…………..8 Young people and alcohol in the United Kingdom……………………………………………9 Why young people binge drink……………………………………………………………....11 Moral panics and concerns about the impact of alcohol on young people…….......................12 Government’s response to binge drinking…………………………………………………....12 Health Promotion and Neo-liberalism………………………………………………………..14 Proposed solutions to curb harmful drinking………………………………………………...14 Health communication and funding cuts……………………………………………………..15 Significance of the study……………………………………………………………………..16 iv Why EastEnders?.....................................................................................................................18 Rationale for the study……………………………………………………………………….19 This study: objective, research questions and outline………………………………………..21 Thesis outline………………………………………………………………………………...21 CHAPTER TWO……………………………………………………………………………24 THEORISING THE AUDIENCE………………………………………………………....24 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………....24 Effects Tradition……………………………………………………………………………...25 The Uses and Gratifications (U&G) tradition………………………………………………..26 Cultural Studies………………………………………………………………………………27 Reception analysis……………………………………………………………………………31 Discourse and audience research……………………………………………………………..33 Media audiences as ‘users’…………………………………………………………………...34 Participatory audiences……………………………………………………………………….35 Second screen theory…………………………………………………………………………37 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………40 CHAPTER THREE………………………………………………………………………...42 THEORISING SOAP OPERA…………………………………………………………….42 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………42 Origins of soap opera………………………………………………………………………...43 British soap opera…………………………………………………………………………….43 Soap opera criticism………………………………………………………………………….44 Genre and soap opera form…………………………………………………………………..45 Realism……………………………………………………………………………………….47 Empirical realism…………………………………………………………………………….47 Classical realism……………………………………………………………………………...48 Social realism………………………………………………………………………………...48 Emotional realism and melodrama…………………………………………………………...49 v Reviewing realism in previous soap opera studies ………………………………………….50 Soap opera and stereotypes…………………………………………………………………..53 Previous studies on EastEnders……………………………………………………………...54 Representation of alcohol on popular television……………………………………………..56 Soap opera as entertainment/pleasure………………………………………………………..60 Escapism……………………………………………………………………………………...60 Soap opera and education, information and problem-solving………………………………..60 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………....62 CHAPTER FOUR…………………………………………………………………………..63 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………………..63 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………63 Ontology and Epistemology………………………………………………………………….64 Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………64 Defining qualitative research………………………………………………………………...64 Ethical considerations………………………………………………………………………..65 Informed