BBC DJs criticised for promoting booze

uploaded by Paul Conneally September 4, 2008 at 11:27 pm
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BBC DJs criticised for promoting booze by Paul Conneally

BBC DJs and in particular DJ Chris Moyles who hosts Radio 1's flagship morning show, have been criticised in a report by Bristol University for promoting booze culture. When DJ generated comments alone on alcohol were studied 70% of them were promoting alcohol as cool. Britain currently has a booze culture problem with binge drinking amongst young people a real worry both in terms of violent crime and health issues. The BBC denys that its DJs are promoting alcohol use.

"Alcohol was frequently positioned as a marker of the weekend, and a hangover as a marker of a good night out," said lead researcher Professor Norma Daykin.

"The notion of not drinking alcohol to enjoy yourself, particularly at times of celebration such as Christmas and New Year, seemed unthinkable."

But she pointed out some presenters were able to create an identity and connection with their audience without encouraging drinking.

"This suggests radio presenters and producers have a choice - they don't have to encourage drinking to be seen as 'cool' or in touch with their listeners."

Radio DJs including Chris Moyles could be driving listeners to drink.

#bodycopy a { font-size: 12pThey regularly talk about booze or hangovers, and about three-quarters of their remarks encourage supping, sometimes to excess.
Researchers who studied 1,200 hours of radio output found 703 references to boozing. One show was even entitled The Morning After and had a jingle starting: “If you’re hung over from the night before…”