Papers by Michael Prieler
Communicatio, Apr 3, 2022
Young Consumers: Insight and Ideas for Responsible Marketers, Apr 18, 2023
Purpose Online influencers are increasingly used by brands around the globe to establish brand co... more Purpose Online influencers are increasingly used by brands around the globe to establish brand communication. This study aims to investigate the characteristics of social media content in terms of presentation style and brand communication among online influencers in China. The authors identified how characteristics of social media posts influence young consumers’ engagement with the posts. Design/methodology/approach The authors analyzed 1,779 posts from the Sina Weibo accounts of ten top-ranked online influencers by combining traditional content analysis with Web data crawling of audience engagement with social media posts. Findings Online influencers in China more frequently used photos than videos to communicate with their social media audience. Altogether 8% and 6% of posts carried information about promotion and event, respectively. Posts with promotional incentives as well as event information were more likely to engage audiences. Altogether 22% of the sampled social media posts mentioned brands. Posts with brand information, however, were less likely to engage audiences. Furthermore, having long text is more effective than photos/images in generating likes from social media audiences. Originality/value Combining content analysis of social media posts and engagement analytics obtained via Web data crawling, this study is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, one of the first empirical studies to analyze influencer marketing and young consumers’ reactions to social media in China.
Asian Women, Jun 30, 2012
There have been few studies on gender representation in television advertisements featuring a Con... more There have been few studies on gender representation in television advertisements featuring a Confucian culture. Based on a content analysis of 322 television advertisements, this article presents results of gender stereotypes, including females portrayed as younger and thinner than males and product categories reflecting typical gender associations. With regard to the latter finding, body care/cosmetics and household appliances were associated with females, and mobile phones and home entertainment products were associated with males. In contrast, counter-stereotypical gender representations included a numerical dominance of females and settings and voiceovers that showed no traditional gender association. The possible effects of such representations on the audience were analyzed using social cognitive theory.
IGI Global eBooks, Aug 19, 2022
The rapid development of information and communication technologies contributes to the growth of ... more The rapid development of information and communication technologies contributes to the growth of social media channels, which also bring some problems such as cyberbullying. Previous studies have analyzed the prevalence and consequences of cyberbullying and the detection and prevention of it. However, little research pays attention to cyberbullying on Chinese social media. This research uses the content analysis method to analyze cyberbullying on one of the biggest social media platforms in China, Weibo, focusing on language features and factors that influence the frequency of cyberbullying language in comments on key opinion leaders' (KOLs) posts. The findings reveal that most cyberbullying language on Weibo appears in the form of mildly offensive or ordinary words with special meanings and offensive references, rather than directly offensive words. In addition, this research found that KOL type and post content type interact to affect the frequency of cyberbullying language on Weibo. Overall, this research has made a valuable contribution to cyberbullying research.
The current cross-sectional study among Austrian, Belgian, Spanish, and South Korean adolescents ... more The current cross-sectional study among Austrian, Belgian, Spanish, and South Korean adolescents (n = 1,983; Mage = 14.41, 50.3% boys) examined adolescents’ daily usage of TV, social media, magazines, and pornographic media, and explored potential differences according to gender, age, and country. First, social media consumption was more popular than TV viewing. Second, girls used social media in general and Instagram in particular more frequently than boys. Gender differences also emerged in genres that explicitly target a male vs. a female audience (i.e., pornographic media and women’s magazines). Third, age differences in media selection habits corresponded to developmental differences in social, sexual and cognitive needs with older adolescents using social media, pornographic media, and U.S. produced TV programs more frequently. Lastly, national differences occurred for all examined media genres except for pornography use, and interacted with gender and age differences.status: publishe
Asian Perspectives on Digital Culture, 2016
ACR Asia-Pacific Advances, 2011
Despite the growing importance of the 50+ age group in the population, older consumers are still ... more Despite the growing importance of the 50+ age group in the population, older consumers are still under-researched and often not included in a range of marketing and advertising practices This empirical study is the first one to analyze the response of Japanese consumers to the portrayal of older people in TV advertising. We find that respondents perceive the portrayal of older people in TV advertisements as stereotypical/inaccurate and partly negative, albeit not necessarily as insulting, and that they are willing to boycott products and/or companies portraying older people negatively in advertising.
International Communication Gazette, 2020
This study conducted a content analysis of 442 television advertisements from Hong Kong, Japan, a... more This study conducted a content analysis of 442 television advertisements from Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea to determine their representations of ‘Others’. Findings reveal that in East Asian advertisements, Others are overrepresented, mostly non-celebrities, and depicted in major roles, which is in contrast to previous studies in the United States where ‘Others’ are generally shown in minor or background roles. The results also reveal that Others are predominantly white, demonstrating the importance of whites in these societies and representing some type of racial/ethnic hierarchy. However, Others are also depicted as separate from the majority population. For example, they are usually depicted abroad rather than in a local setting, and they rarely interact with the local population, which sends a message of exclusion and might lead to the conclusion that they do not belong to their respective location. Possible effects and practice implications of these findings are discussed.
Asian Women, 2020
Despite the increase in the percentage of older people around the world, older people and particu... more Despite the increase in the percentage of older people around the world, older people and particularly older women are quite underrepresented in the media. This article gives an overview of the representation of older women and men, starting with a short literature review showing that older women and men are nearly invisible in the worldwide media, and when represented, they are often depicted in negative ways. We show that such under- and misrepresentation should be taken seriously because media representations influence how older people regard themselves and how they are regarded by younger people. Based on this literature review, we identify research gaps and provide suggestions for future research on gender representations of older people.
The Social Science Journal, 2021
Research has constantly revealed that depressive symptoms usually include negative cognitions abo... more Research has constantly revealed that depressive symptoms usually include negative cognitions about the world, the future, and the self, termed the negative cognitive triad. More recently, research...
Asian Journal of Communication, 2020
Asian Communication Research, 2019
Advertising in the Aging Society, 2016
This chapter looks at advertising practitioners’ views on the use of older models in advertising ... more This chapter looks at advertising practitioners’ views on the use of older models in advertising in Japan (see also: Hagiwara et al., 2010; Kohlbacher, Prieler, & Hagiwara, 2011b, 2014). Our content analysis of television advertising (Chapter 3) seems to suggest that advertising agencies are relatively reluctant to feature older models, especially those who are non-celebrities, as well as those who are 65 years and older. However, the content analysis can only serve as an indirect indication of advertising practitioners’ views and attitudes and does not reveal the reasons for their decision not to use many older models. We have therefore decided to ask advertising practitioners directly through qualitative interviews and a questionnaire-based survey.
Advertising in the Aging Society, 2016
This chapter aims to contribute to the state-of-the-field of research on older consumers and adve... more This chapter aims to contribute to the state-of-the-field of research on older consumers and advertising in general and the Japanese older consumer in particular. It focuses on the advertising usage and consumer response to the portrayal of older people in television advertising based on a large sample survey conducted in Japan. Our empirical study is the first one to analyze the response of older Japanese consumers to the portrayal of older people in television advertising. We investigate the level of ad usage in making purchasing decisions and the attitude and response toward advertising and the portrayal of older people therein.
Advertising in the Aging Society, 2016
This chapter will give a short introduction to Japanese advertising (including advertising agenci... more This chapter will give a short introduction to Japanese advertising (including advertising agencies, advertising media, and television advertisements) and then introduces some of the so-called specialties of Japanese television advertising and offer common explanations and discussion of these characteristics. We will conclude, however, that most of these “specialties” are actually myths and are not unique to Japan and lack empirical evidence. As noted by previous researchers, many accounts are based only on personal observations, rather than empirical data (McCreery, 2000; Moeran, 1996; Praet, 1999). In short, this chapter will debunk the myths about Japanese advertising and show that cultural explanations are not sufficient, in and of themselves; it is necessary to take factors other than culture into account. For example, considering these so-called specialties in an international context will show whether they are really unique to Japan, as claimed by several articles, or whether they might be based either on the sole referent system of the United States or some form of exoticization by foreigners and/or self-exoticization by the Japanese (see also Prieler, 2008b).
Mass Communication and Society, 2015
This study analyzed 394 U.S. Spanish- and English-language television advertisements from 2013 fo... more This study analyzed 394 U.S. Spanish- and English-language television advertisements from 2013 for differences in gender representation. The findings indicate a high prevalence of gender stereotypes in both samples. For example, more women than men were depicted as young and were usually shown at home. Men actors were generally fully dressed, whereas women were often suggestively dressed. Voice-overs were clearly dominated by men, and product categories were stereotypically associated with gender. Despite allegedly more traditional Latina/o gender role attitudes in society, this study found little variation between Spanish- and English-language television advertisements in terms of gender stereotypes. The potential effects of such representations on audiences are discussed based on social cognitive theory and cultivation theory.
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Papers by Michael Prieler