Communications Description of Communications Discipline/Subject Matter Communications Studies are increasingly globally important. The worldwide relevance and interplay of Communications Studies can be seen, for example, in the fact that China and Japan have agreed to collaborate in their Communications Studies programs (JIJI Press America, Ltd
¶ … BEER a MALE BEVERAGE? Communications and Women's Studies: Beer Is Beer a Male Beverage? Is Beer a Male Beverage? For much of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries, American popular culture has viewed beer drinking primarily as a masculine trait (Miller, 2002). This view was captured in a tongue-and-cheek manner in the Miller commercials depicting 'masculine' male celebrities sitting around a table hashing out what constituted "Man Law" (Bosman, 2006)
Yet, films catering to the college crowd frequently portray female students holding their own at 'keggers', which are parties where beer consumption appears to be the main agenda. Women bloggers who are beer fans have noticed women make up a significant percentage (35-50%) of attendees at craft beer festivals and are involved in running their own breweries (Companion, 2011)
Spitz (2010) attributed the high prevalence of female CEOs in the brewery industry to women's willingness to adapt to male business values. She may be right, given the results of a study that found low gender diversity in major brewery employees (Griffin and Weber, 2006)
The likability of specific beers also varies considerably, based on individual preferences. When 170 beer consumers were asked to rate the taste of 24 beers their opinions differed significantly (Guinard, Uotani, and Schlich, 2001)
If Companion's observations have any merit, then women may be doing an end run around the major breweries by making their own beer and selling it to the public. This should strike fear into the hearts of brewery boardrooms, because a recent Wall Street Journal article discussed the growing phenomenon of women as beer tasters (Kesmodel, 2010)
¶ … BEER a MALE BEVERAGE? Communications and Women's Studies: Beer Is Beer a Male Beverage? Is Beer a Male Beverage? For much of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries, American popular culture has viewed beer drinking primarily as a masculine trait (Miller, 2002)
With a growing craft brewing industry and women becoming valued tasters, beer formulations might be expected to change. Beer consists of water, carbohydrates (barley), flavorings (hops), and yeast (Powell and Compton, 1991)
The brewery industry is divided over this issue though, with Miller and Molson jumping in with both feet and others claiming that such an idea is ludicrous. Interestingly, the presence of women as CEOs in major and moderate sized breweries is higher than would be expected based on Fortune 500 companies (Spitz, 2010)
Maybe the breweries and their marketing firms are a bit behind the curve in terms of public tolerance for these marketing strategies. When children from a Northern California community between the ages of 9 and 15 were asked to view several different beer commercials, both genders and all age groups reacted negatively to ads that portrayed women in a negative way or ads that seemed to advocate a lifestyle incorporating exploitation or misrepresentation (Waiters, Treno, and Grube, 2001)
Rather than having a better grip on this problem than we did ten years ago, experts might understand it better, the disease is now becoming more widespread. The study of eating disorders would be something that would be ideal for one to study as an integration of communication and women's studies, as eating disorders are a condition that mainly impact women (though male eating disorders are on the rise, (Corbin, 2012)
"Historically, eating disorder research has focused on teens and young women, but the study out Thursday in the International Journal of Eating Disorders shows 13% of women ages 50 and older struggle with the problem -- some for the first time in their lives. Eating disorders are more common in women than men and include purging, binge eating, excessive dieting and excessive exercising" (Lloyd, 2012)
¶ … Employers Like About Interdisciplinary Studies Majors In an era where specialization and continual acceleration of knowledge across industries, many employers are seeing the value of hiring interdisciplinary studies majors who have a broader, more strategic view of the world and the ability to think in abstract, conceptual terms quickly Employers need to balance their hiring across the highly specialized skill sets needed for running their businesses while also hiring for the skill set of abstract, conceptual thinking, strong problem-solving skills that span across disciplines and functional departments (Ahamer, 27, 28) and the innate abilities of communication and collaboration (Merdin, 105)
These include the ability to critically evaluate and critique the work of experts including an assessment of how their methodologies could be potentially improved. This attribute is more orientated towards critical thinking and analysis of data; two supporting skills of this first attribute not as easily quantified as others typically are (Garman, Leach, Spector, 832-833)
¶ … Employers Like About Interdisciplinary Studies Majors In an era where specialization and continual acceleration of knowledge across industries, many employers are seeing the value of hiring interdisciplinary studies majors who have a broader, more strategic view of the world and the ability to think in abstract, conceptual terms quickly Employers need to balance their hiring across the highly specialized skill sets needed for running their businesses while also hiring for the skill set of abstract, conceptual thinking, strong problem-solving skills that span across disciplines and functional departments (Ahamer, 27, 28) and the innate abilities of communication and collaboration (Merdin, 105)
The problems required a high level of shared outcomes and support, which was also a learning experience for the next characteristic pertaining to shared values. The definition of solving problems emanates form the ability to think creatively and look for new alternatives not considered in the past (Rao, Anis, et al