Post-Sensationalism: Catastrophism and Fight Paradigm in Romanian On-Line Media

In traditional journalism, sensationalism was a characteristic of tabloid press. The main instruments used in sensationalistic headlines were bombastic epithets (awesome, amazing, greatest etc), and exaggerations used to increase the impact by curiosity. In the last decade, transformation with society and online media consumption behaviour have triggered a change of paradigm: we believe that we are facing a post-sensationalism media narrative, defined by catastrophism and the fight paradigm. In the context of a huge news feed overloaded with information, in the purpose of increasing the number of views of online media, the journalistic discourse has transformed radically and switched from informative to a more aggressive approach. The study shows that in Romania, the pursuit for clicks has generated a new discursive paradigm, a sort of post-sensationalism era, which we referred to as catastrophism and fight paradigm. This conclusion is based on quantitative and qualitative research that analysed Romanian online press headlines and content in approximately the same period of time both in 2018 and 2019. The research followed the frequency and context of usage of a few hashtags and keywords connected with our main concepts of concern: sensationalism, catastrophism, fight paradigm. In other words, we selected a few words that are, in our opinion, the most representative for the aforementioned concepts, and, with the use of professional instruments of press monitoring, we analysed their frequency and dynamics.

Reframing Recycling Behaviour through Consumers’ Perceptions: An Exploratory Investigation

Despite the increasing awareness of the consequences of waste, there is no consensus on how and why consumers engage in recycling, making it challenging to design behavioural interventions that might promote recycling, especially in organisational settings. This study is designed to explain consumers’ recycling behaviour and how it differs across contexts, particularly between home and work settings. Using personal accounts of 367 employees from different organisations in the UK, this study explores recycling behaviour at home and work including its motivations and barriers. The findings show that recycling behaviour is different across contexts due to many disparate factors underlying people’s waste generation and recycling behaviours from one context to another. According to the findings, buying and consumption behaviour and waste generation patterns influence the way consumers engage in recycling. The study further demonstrates that contextual factors and individual circumstances are important contributors to consumption behaviour, waste production, and recycling behaviour. While recycling behaviour has been investigated extensively, the findings of this study indicate the need for consumption and waste production patterns to be taken into consideration when designing recycling interventions, enhancing the prospect of a circular economy. This study contributes to theory and practice by associating recycling behaviour with buying and consumption behaviour, including waste generation patterns.

User online consumption behaviour based on fractional differential equation

User consumption behaviour is a subject worthy of study. Because consumers’ consumption behaviours are dynamic and with individual differences, various factors need to be considered when establishing a fractional differential equation model of users’ online consumption behaviour. The two elements, namely advertising and price are more evident in influencing consumer behaviour. Therefore, the paper establishes a product diffusion fractional differential equation model of price and advertising presence or absence to study the impact of these two factors on consumer behaviour. It turns out that ignoring the advertisement and the cost of the product is related to the characteristics of the consumer network. When there are advertising and price factors, product awareness is related to price constraints.

Green Consumption Behaviour as a Social Process

<p>In recent years, environmental concern, sustainability and climate change have become widespread political and social issues. The prevalence of environmental issues in the social environment has encouraged the majority of consumers to develop concern for environmental issues, pro-environmental attitudes and an intention to purchase green products and practice green behaviour. However, future growth of green consumerism is threatened by an “attitude-behaviour gap”. Sustainable consumption behaviour is limited to a niche market of “green” consumers, and must expand into more mainstream consumer markets. This study is aimed at exploring how individual perceptions, personal relationships and social experiences shape green consumption behaviour. Its objectives were (1) to achieve a greater understanding of how the social environment influences the green consumption behaviour of individual consumers; and (2) to explore how pro-environmental behaviour change takes place. This study used qualitative methods and adopted an adapted case study methodology. The primary data was collected from semi-structured depth interviews with two participants from seven household cases. Four key insights of this research were: (1) “Green” and “mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) consumers positively influence the green consumption behaviour of other consumers via social observations, comparisons and “greening strategies”, resulting in pro-environmental behaviour change; (2) “Mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) consumers view “green” consumers as people who adopt “alternative” green consumption behaviour. A “green syndrome” has developed whereby “green” is viewed as an unattainable goal, limiting mainstream participation in green consumption behaviour; (3) “Green” and “mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) consumers cope with their non-environmental actions with tradeoff and neutralisation arguments which reinforce the “attitude-behaviour gap” in green consumerism and (4) Personal relationships and household dynamics (i.e., household roles, lifecycle and structure) can affect the adoption and effectiveness of green consumption behaviour practiced within households. Pro-environmental behaviour can be encouraged by explicit green social norms in the social environment, as this reduces the efficacy of neutralisation techniques. Furthermore, the “mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) population will adopt green products and practices when they are effective, convenient and cost-efficient.</p>

Green Consumption Behaviour as a Social Process

<p>In recent years, environmental concern, sustainability and climate change have become widespread political and social issues. The prevalence of environmental issues in the social environment has encouraged the majority of consumers to develop concern for environmental issues, pro-environmental attitudes and an intention to purchase green products and practice green behaviour. However, future growth of green consumerism is threatened by an “attitude-behaviour gap”. Sustainable consumption behaviour is limited to a niche market of “green” consumers, and must expand into more mainstream consumer markets. This study is aimed at exploring how individual perceptions, personal relationships and social experiences shape green consumption behaviour. Its objectives were (1) to achieve a greater understanding of how the social environment influences the green consumption behaviour of individual consumers; and (2) to explore how pro-environmental behaviour change takes place. This study used qualitative methods and adopted an adapted case study methodology. The primary data was collected from semi-structured depth interviews with two participants from seven household cases. Four key insights of this research were: (1) “Green” and “mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) consumers positively influence the green consumption behaviour of other consumers via social observations, comparisons and “greening strategies”, resulting in pro-environmental behaviour change; (2) “Mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) consumers view “green” consumers as people who adopt “alternative” green consumption behaviour. A “green syndrome” has developed whereby “green” is viewed as an unattainable goal, limiting mainstream participation in green consumption behaviour; (3) “Green” and “mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) consumers cope with their non-environmental actions with tradeoff and neutralisation arguments which reinforce the “attitude-behaviour gap” in green consumerism and (4) Personal relationships and household dynamics (i.e., household roles, lifecycle and structure) can affect the adoption and effectiveness of green consumption behaviour practiced within households. Pro-environmental behaviour can be encouraged by explicit green social norms in the social environment, as this reduces the efficacy of neutralisation techniques. Furthermore, the “mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) population will adopt green products and practices when they are effective, convenient and cost-efficient.</p>

User Deep Energy Efficiency Evaluation via Load Perception and Clustering

With the constantly upgrading of the living level of urban residents, the types and quantities of domestic appliances continue to increase, and the electricity consumption behaviour is becoming more and more complex. Based on the fine-grained user energy consumption data obtained by load intelligent perception, this paper proposes a user energy efficiency evaluation method through fuzzy comprehension evaluation. First, the energy consumption characteristics at appliance level which can effectively represent energy consumption behaviour of users are designed and filtered, and then the energy efficiency evaluation strategy of appliances based on fuzzy comprehensive evaluation is established. The strategy adopts two-level fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. The first appliance-level fuzzy evaluation realizes the energy efficiency evaluation of the appliances. The second level is the comprehensive evaluation of user energy efficiency based on the appliance energy efficiency assessment, and the target users are divided into different energy efficiency levels. The measured data-based analysis results prove the effectiveness of the proposed method, and the results can guide users to optimize their electricity consumption behaviour scientifically and realize energy saving and carbon reduction.

Pandangan Ekonomi Islam terhadap Sikap Konsumerisme Akibat Metode Pembayaran Tunda Bayar (PayLater)

The marketplace has experienced unprecedented growth in the last few years, which significantly impacts changing consumers' ways of performing their consumption behaviour by offering a new payment method called PayLater. PayLater is assumed to lead people into consumptive behaviour on buying products due to processing the payment later. Notwithstanding, Islam has certain principles regarding consumption activities, including the prohibition of extravagance in personal consumption and collectively. Thus, in Islam, consumption must be based on needs, not just the fulfilment of lust which is, of course, endless. This study examines the influence of PayLater on Muslim consumption. This study uses descriptive research with a qualitative approach. Based on the analysis, this study confirms that Islam guides all human beings, specifically Muslims, to consume based on their ability. Muslims is suggested to manage their consumption which implies that Muslim's consumption expenditure should not be greater than their income, leading to wasteful behaviour. On the other hand, Muslims should not suppress their expenditure which will lead to destruction.