Review by Choice Review
Refuting a common assertion, the author argues that there is little empirical evidence to link media advertising to increased alcohol use or abuse in the US, Canada, Britain, and Australia. Fisher, an advertising executive and researcher, provides an extensive, international literature review which encompasses studies in mass communication, health communication, advertising, social psychology, psychology, public health, marketing, and economics. He finds that advertising reinforces the alcohol consumption habits of relatively few persons. Learning about alcohol seems more a factor of social and peer pressures and idiosyncratic preferences rather than of persuasive or enticing advertising. Fisher notes little effect of of advertising, even among at-risk groups such as teenagers and alcoholics. The book also provides insightful critiques of the weaknesses in media studies of content analysis (a common media research technique), and social learning theory, which underpins many working hypotheses in health communications. Fisher's book also is one of the first in health communications literature to report econometric studies that analyze the impact of media exposure on consumption patterns for alcohol and cigarettes. The writing is inaccessible to undergraduates, but the interdisciplinary sweep makes the book valuable for graduate collections. R. A. Logan; University of Missouri--Columbia
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
