Pidgin and Creole in Advertising and Marketing

The title of this paper is ‘Pidgin and Creole in advertising and marketing’ in Nigeria. The data for analyses was elicited through recording, transcribing, and translating. The focus of this study is the inconsistencies in spellings and choice of words, which leads to frustration and ambiguities as observed by the target audience in the adverts. Considering the serious nature of the messages they intend to pass across and the cost incurred in designing and airing the adverts, one is worried why a little bit of imagination, creativity and seriousness is not applied in the crafting of the advertisements. We are aware that standard pidgin orthography exists which conforms to the principle of good orthography; organizations and individuals seeking to develop adverts or broadcast in pidgin should consult this document for consistency. Nigerian Pidgin English is already an unauthorized lingua franca; therefore, all efforts should be on the deck to standardize it. We have presented some adverts done in pidgin, analysed them to evince their inadequacies, ambiguities, conflicting messages, poor effects, and argue that although many people are often easily carried along with adverts in pidgin, the message is essentially lost ab initio. Pidgin and creole can only be used nationally, meaning they cannot communicate internationally, or even with neighbouring countries. For this reason, adverts cannot be done in pidgin and creole with the intention of getting international patronage. They are often viewed as low class, grammatically incorrect, and with no well-structured syntax or phonology, so adverts done in pidgin and creole are often selective. Hence, if the customers are those from the upper class, an advert in pidgin or creole is a wrong move.

Understanding Coronavirus

Since the identification of the first cases of the coronavirus in December 2019, there has been a significant amount of confusion regarding the origin and spread of the so-called 'coronavirus', SARS-CoV-2, and the cause of the disease COVID-19. Conflicting messages from the media and officials across different countries and organizations, the abundance of disparate sources of information, unfounded conspiracy theories on the origins of the virus, unproven therapies, and inconsistent public health measures, have all served to increase anxiety in the population. Where did the virus come from? How is it transmitted? How does it cause disease? Is it like flu? What is a pandemic? In this concise and accessible introduction, a leading expert provides answers to these commonly asked questions. This revised and updated edition now also covers how the virus mutates, how important these mutations are, how vaccines work, and what we can expect in the near and long-term future.

Literature in Layers: An Early Theory of Retelling the Sanskrit Epics

This essay reconstructs an early chapter in the history of theorizing the diverse Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata literature of South Asia. Drawing upon the tenth-century literary theorist Kuntaka’s discussions of the Udāttarāghava, Uttararāmacarita, Veṇīsaṃhāra, Kirātārjunīya, and Abhijñānaśākuntala—all Sanskrit poetic (kāvya) compositions that depict stories from the Rāmāyaṇa or the Mahābhārata—I show how, in Kuntaka’s understanding, these works repair certain narrative inconsistencies and ethical ambiguities in the epics themselves. Building on the foundation laid by his predecessor, Ānandavardhana, Kuntaka illuminates the various layers of meaning that a work of literature can encompass. He shows that the epics’ different narrative layers send conflicting messages about proper conduct. He suggests, moreover, that an audience experiences a kāvya retelling of an epic story as a layered entity—a layer of epic narrative beneath a layer of kāvya—and argues that an awareness of these layers can contribute to the audience’s ethical self-cultivation. Kuntaka’s theory of retelling (truly re-telling: telling again, purposefully, and differently from a previous accepted telling) represents an important theoretical account of the relationships between South Asia’s many Rāmāyaṇas and many Mahābhāratas.

“We’re Silent Heroes”: Inmate Firefighters’ Experiences with Dignity and Shame in a Prison Labor Program

Adults in custody (AICs) in a prison labor program experience conflicting messages and feelings of shame and dignity. Despite the program’s mission to help ease reentry, experiences of shame and shaming from correctional officers (COs) and the community may be setting AICs up for an increased likelihood of reoffending upon release. Using the concepts of shame and dignity, 21 program interviewee narratives were explored for their insights. Program improvements and recommendations for interventions with correctional officers, AICs, and the community are offered.

What a Girl Wants, What a Girl Needs: Analyzing Postfeminist Themes in Girls’ Magazines

Girls’ magazines play an important role in the maintenance of gender perceptions and the creation of gender by young girls. Due to a recent resurgence within public discussion and mediated content of feminist, postfeminist, and antifeminist repertoires, centered on what femininity entails, young girls are growing up in an environment in which conflicting messages are communicated about their gender. To assess, which shared norms and values related to gender are articulated in girl culture and to what extent these post/anti/feminist repertoires are prevalent in the conceptualization of girlhood, it is important to analyze magazines as vehicles of this culture. The current study analyzes if and how contemporary postfeminist thought is articulated in popular girl’s magazines. To reach this goal, we conducted a thematic analysis of three popular Dutch teenage girls’ magazines (N = 27, from 2018), <em>Fashionchick</em>, <em>Cosmogirl</em>, and <em>Girlz</em>. The results revealed that the magazines incorporate feminist, antifeminist, and as a result, postfeminist discourse in their content. The themes in which these repertoires are articulated are centered around: the body, sex, male–female relationships, female empowerment, and self-reflexivity. The magazines function as a source of gender socialization for teenage girls, where among other gendered messages a large palette of postfeminist themes are part of the magazines’ articulation of what it means to be a girl in contemporary society.

Constructions of success in academia: an early career perspective

© 2015 Society for Research into Higher Education. Expectations around success in academia vary, and early career academics often receive conflicting messages about what they should concentrate on to achieve promotion or tenure. Taking a social constructionist approach, this paper considers the constructs of objective and subjective career success in academia and shares the perspectives of early career academics in three countries in relation to these narratives. Key findings are that objective career success in academia dominates the literature but remains ill-defined in the minds of the early career academics to whom the measures are applied, and that subjective career success in academia needs both more research attention and more consideration in promotion, tenure, and workload deliberations and policies.

Constructions of success in academia: an early career perspective

© 2015 Society for Research into Higher Education. Expectations around success in academia vary, and early career academics often receive conflicting messages about what they should concentrate on to achieve promotion or tenure. Taking a social constructionist approach, this paper considers the constructs of objective and subjective career success in academia and shares the perspectives of early career academics in three countries in relation to these narratives. Key findings are that objective career success in academia dominates the literature but remains ill-defined in the minds of the early career academics to whom the measures are applied, and that subjective career success in academia needs both more research attention and more consideration in promotion, tenure, and workload deliberations and policies.

Conflicting messages of electoral protest: The role of systemic and elite discontent in the Italian 2016 constitutional referendum

The vote NO (a defeat for the proponents) of the 2016 Italian referendum has been broadly attributed to a wave of protest politics sweeping Western democracies. Given that the government of Matteo Renzi proposed and supported the referendum, the resulting vote against government interests raises a crucial theoretical question: to what extent does the referendum vote reflect the characteristics of a protest vote? To disentangle the meaning and impact of protest, we distinguish two dimensions: the ‘system discontent’ and the ‘elite discontent’, referring to both general and focalized images: general sentiments towards the representational aspects of political institutions as compared to focused sentiments towards government performances. The circumstances surrounding the referendum provide a crucial test for whether these two forms of protest can be at odds with one another. We expect and find that elite discontented voters tend to reject this referendum. Vice versa, system discontent increased support for the referendum, as it would reform political institutions to which voters had negative sentiments. Findings suggest that analyses of political psychology and behaviour identify the conceptual foundations for protest and ask whether forms of protest work in parallel or at odds. Protest attitudes and their effects should be thought of as multidimensional.

Mental Effect of Covid-19 Pandemic on Affected, Non Affected and Families of the Affected

The pandemic of covid 19, which has taken the entire world by storm has not only tested our physical health but also impacted our mental health in ways no one had envisaged! It has lead to a situation of socioeconomic crisis and mental anguish among the general population. The outbreak of a novel virus unknown to the medical fraternity and its explosive spread every day, conflicting messages from the government, lack of infrastructure for treatment, the spread of misinformation on media platforms and an incessant quarantine has to lead to a sense of fear, apprehension, stress, desolation, weariness, frustration and depression among the masses. The imposition of lockdown in the nation not only undermined personal freedom, but it also leads to huge financial losses, unemployment, work and school closure, uncertainty, boredom, stigma which have been major stressors leading to widespread emotional affliction and an increased risk of developing psychiatric illness during the time of the pandemic. People who were already suffering from some form of the psychiatric disorder have been prone to exacerbations due to the pandemic. Individuals living with confirmed or suspected covid 19 cases, frontline workers, unemployed people and people in quarantine are at a higher risk of developing some form of mental illness such as anxiety, insomnia and depression. Resilience and good social support are protective factors against this mental health epidemic that is about to begin. In this article, we reflect upon the impact of covid 19 pandemic and lockdown on the mental health of people in India.