HEALTH EDUCATION RESEARCHTheory & Practice

Vol.12 no.4 1997Pages 505-517

Decoding the image—consumption, young people,magazines and smoking. An exploration of theoretical

and methodological issues

David Gray, Amanda Amos and Candace Currie1

Abstract

The concern that young people may beinfluenced by magazine images of smoking canbe traced to cultural developments which havecharacterized the latter part of the 20th century,where the production and consumption of imageis merely one facet in a transformation whichhas altered the way life is lived, perceivedand experienced. These developments have beentermed 'late' or 'post' modernism. This paperdevelops a theoretical explanation of the use ofcigarettes in magazine fashion spreads in thecontext of these wider cultural changes. Therise of consumption as a means to establish self-identity will be discussed, as will its dependenceon the marketing of image. The paper relatesthis to the growth of youth and style magazines,and their increasing use of smoking toemphasize particular moods and images, thesebeing created to exploit certain mythologieswhich young people identify with and aspire to.Three ways in which images of smoking couldinfluence young people's smoking behaviour areidentified. The second part of the paper discussessome key theoretical questions and method-ological issues that need to be considered whenresearching the semiotics of smoking, anddescribes the ways in which the authorsattempted to address these concerns in a study

Department of Public Health Sciences and 'Research Unitin Health and Behavioural Change, Medical School,University of Edinburgh, Teviot Place, EdinburghEH8 9AG, UKCorrespondence to A. Amos

which explored young people's perceptions ofsmoking in youth and style magazines. Thethird part of the paper discusses the authors'experience of using the methods which theydeveloped and the implications for futureresearch in this field. The focus of the paper isthus on theoretical and methodological issuesrather than the empirical findings of the study,which are reported elsewhere.

Razor-sharp silhouettes and winklepickers indark-as-night shades look back to Paris in thelate 60s this autumn. Think Stephen Dorff inBackbeat, think left-bank pool hall chic, then

wake up and smell the Gitanes.(By-line in fashion spread, Sky Magazine,

October 1994)

Introduction

Recent research showing an increase in the numberof images of smoking in several British youthmagazines over the last few years (Amos, 1992)has raised concerns about their possible influenceon smoking behaviour among young people. How-ever, while studies have looked at the influence ofcigarette advertising on smoking behaviour amongadolescents (Aitken and Eadie, 1990; Aitken et al.,1991; Hastings et al., 1994) and the semioticsof cigarette advertising (Chapman, 1986), untilrecently no research has looked at the meaningswhich young people attach to non-advertisingimages of smoking (Gray et al., 1996). Thispaper aims to explore some of the theoretical andmethodological issues around developing empirical

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approaches to researching young people's percep-tions of and responses to media images of smoking.The first part of the paper draws on the work onthe sociology of consumption to understand whyauthors such as Bunton and Burrows (1994) haveargued that in order to understand people's con-sumption preferences, health educators need 'to beaware of the symbolic meanings that are embeddedwithin commodities and practices', in this casecigarettes and smoking. The second and third partsfocus more on the methodological issues thatneed to be considered, the authors' experiences ofattempting to address some of these issues and theimplications for future research in this field.

Consumption and the Image ofsmoking in style magazines

From modern to post-modernConcerns about the appearance of cigarettes inyouth magazine photo spreads need to be viewedwithin the context of recent societal trends, wherethe establishment of self-image through the con-sumption of goods and lifestyles has become anincreasingly critical component in defining self-identity. In post-modern times the consumptionand production of image has assumed particularimportance. In this context, a picture of smokingin a magazine which promotes current fashion ispart of an image production process, while thecigarette as part of the look is integral to apotentially consumable image.

Loss of imposed self-identity and the riseof the consumption cultureSince the early 1970s there has been a 'sea-change'in cultural as well as political/economic practices,which is 'bound up with the emergence of newdominant ways which we experience space andtime' (Harvey, 1989). Perhaps the most importantcultural characteristic of this new epoch has beenthe evolution of consumption, the impetus to whichhas been attributed, by the likes of Bauman (1988)and Giddens (1991), to the erosion of self-identity.In modern times self-identity was strongly medi-

ated by social and geographical structures factorssuch as the family, community, local tradition,class and local industry. In post-modern times,changing circumstances in an ever more globalworld have undermined the importance of thesefactors. These include the collapse of Fordistmethods of production and consumption in theWest (where goods were produced in large factoriesfor mass consumption with only limited concernfor individual taste or fashion), and the breakdownof both class barriers and the nuclear family, whileadvances in communications, the mass media andtransport have markedly altered people's percep-tions of space and time. Familiarity is no longerrestricted to immediate locality.

It has been argued that in reacting to thesechanges, people have striven to establish their self-identity by referencing themselves through theimage of the products and lifestyles they consume.Warde (1994) observes that one feature commonto the social theories of Beck (1992), Giddens(1991) and Bauman (1988) is the notion that 'today,people define themselves through the messagesthey transmit to others through the goods andpractices that they possess and display'. In aworld where there is an increasing number ofcommodities available to act as props, identitybecomes more than ever a matter of creatingand maintaining self-image through selecting andconsuming products or behaviours which embodyvalues, analogous with or desirable to a person'sown. Western economies, therefore, havedeveloped into what Clark (1991) calls consump-tion economies, characterized by relatively affluentconsumers demanding product differentiation andsymbolic capital (value through meaning ratherthan price) attesting to the taste and distinction ofthe owner.

However, an economy based on the simplepremise of buying more commodities cannot workwithout an impetus to encourage people to consumemore products. Need is created through the market-ing of products through branding, and associatingbrands with specific mythologies which consumersmay identify with and which their self-image maybe incomplete without. For example, Marlboro

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cigarettes are associated with an image of machoindependence (Chapman, 1986). Within this eco-nomy, key elements include the marketing andconsumption of image, the mobilization of fashionand labelling in mass as opposed to elite markets,and the ephemerality of fashion. These provide ameans to accelerate the pace of consumption, notonly in clothing, ornament and decoration, butacross a whole swathe of lifestyles and behaviours.

The image production industry

In so far as images have become commodities, thephenomenon has led Baudrillard (1988) at theextreme to argue that capitalism is now predomi-nantly concerned with the production of fragmentedimages rather than commodities themselves. Cru-cial to this process is the manipulation of the massmedia by what Harvey (1989) calls the 'imageproduction industry'. For example, the youth styleand fashion magazines which grew up in the early1980s in Britain, notably The Face, were crucialin exposing and marketing the latest fashions andstyles to young people. These magazines createda desirable image for certain products which, bybeing perceived as trendy and fashionable, accruedsymbolic value.

The production and consumption of imageThe increasing differentiation between a productand the symbolic capital associated with its brandhas been a central feature of recent times (Harvey,1989). For each product or consumable therecan be a number of dislocated, even competingrepresentations which can be held about themwhich are fieetingly unstable, contextual, and heldby different social and cultural groups and indi-viduals. Therefore, there is a process of negotiationbetween a consumer's self-image and the imageof a product, a process where there exists thepossibility of making a mistake. There is, therefore,an element of risk in consumption and the roleof the image production industry in facilitatingappropriate consumer behaviour in this process islikely to be important.

While considerable attention has been paid tothe role of branding and advertising in reducing

the risk in matching images with consumers' self-images, there has been less research on othermedia—such as magazines—which also featureimagery reflecting the mythology of modem life.Youth magazines embody in their editorial pagesvalues, knowledge and emotions which they sharewith their readership. This is particularly manifestin fashion spreads which utilize the creativity andimagination of top photographers to portray lookswhich tap into and reflect back the mythology ofbeing a young person today and which youngpeople may identify with and aspire to; the mytho-logy of being young, noticeable and 'someone'.The aim of this genre of photo spread may be toshock, to convey a certain mood or portray amodel in 'realistic' surroundings (Guha, 1995).The implication is that the characters in the youthfashion spreads inhabit a world and a way of lifethat is more desirable than that of those withoutthe appropriate style and self-image.

Increasingly, to achieve these sorts of images,models in many fashion spreads are posed with acigarette (Figure 1) (Amos, 1992). Smoking, bybeing a congruent part of many of the imagesbeing promoted, seems to be a fundamental elementof the mythology of this more exciting world. Thusfashion, myth, image, attitude and smoking appearto be inter-related. However, although cigaretteadvertising has been shown to influence both brandchoice and smoking uptake among adolescents(Aitken and Eadie, 1990; Aitken et al, 1991;Hastings et al., 1994), no research has looked atthe influence of smoking as it appears in theeditorial sections of these magazines.

Active subject positions and consumptionIn studying magazine images, semiology and mediastudies have traditionally been concerned with'reception' (Comer, 1991). In this approachemphasis would be placed on the textual symbolismof a cigarette in a picture, how it is read and howthe cigarette, as text, 'plays' to the reader. Thusthe subject position of the reader is viewed asbeing defined by the text and the reader's role isrelatively passive. However, in consumption theorythe reader is regarded as having a more active role

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(a) (b)

(c)

Fig. 1. Examples of smoking images from youth and fashion magazines, (a) Photographer Jeurgen Teller, The Face, (b) PhotographerMartin Brading, Arena, (c) Photographer Norman Watson, Arena, (d) Photographer Mike Penn, Sky.

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in the process. Rather than merely absorbing adiscourse, there is a dialogic relation between theimage and the consumer. Therefore it is not aquestion of how pictures play to readers, but ratherhow different individuals and groups negotiatewith and consume images.

As discussed previously, in the modern epochpeople's self-identity was largely conditioned byfactors such as class, age and gender. As a con-sequence media communications were also 'read'from an imposed and relatively stable subjectposition. However, the transition from modem topost-modem witnessed the diminishing importanceof these factors to self-identity, and the flexibilityand manipulation which now characterizes identitymanagement is also apparent in the subject posi-tions readers adopt when negotiating media com-munications. Therefore, in studying how youngpeople react to magazine images of smoking itwould be incorrect to assume that passive consump-tion takes place. Consequently, research must seekto investigate how young people react to anddecode magazine images containing cigarettes, andexplore the representations which are constructedfrom the images. Similarly, research needs to studythe images and the extent to which young peoplerespond positively to smoking images, and recog-nize and identify with the cultural styles illustratedin the photos. Responses and interpretations mayalso vary by age, gender, social class and smokingstatus. Futhermore, it is of interest to investigatewhether knowledge of the symbolic capital ofsmoking is an important issue.

The possible effect of the magazinepictures on young people

Drawing on research on cigarette advertising,which has shown that advertisements influencenot only brand choice but also the uptake andmaintenance of smoking among adolescents(Aitken and Eadie, 1990; Aitken et al., 1991;Hastings et al., 1994), it seems possible thatnon-advertising images in magazines might alsoinfluence smoking behaviour. For example, follow-ing Chapman (1986), it could be expected thatsuch imagery could have the effect of 'building up

goodwill', and establishing an implicit associationbetween smoking and being stylish, trendy andadult in the minds of young people. Similarly,Hastings et al. (1994) in their study of the Regalcigarettes' 'Reg' campaign suggested that theseadvertisements may have served to reduce theguilt young people have about their habit throughlegitimizing smoking, i.e. giving smokers a justi-fication for doing so. It would be logical to assumethat this may also be the case with magazinefashion spreads which featured smoking.

Smoking images are most common in magazineslike Arena and The Face which are aimed atrelatively affluent consumers in their late teens,20s and 30s. Younger adolescents who read thesemagazines may find the images and styles whichthey portray as too adult and trendy. Since 'theirsis the essential dichotomy of being a self-directingindividual and not being too different' (Hastingset al., 1994), they would avoid mimicking clothesor behaviour which might elicit mockery fromtheir peers. However, although a relatively smallnumber of young people read these magazines,they might have a wider influence in their role asstyle 'innovators'.

The theory of diffusion of innovations suggeststhat trends start with a small group of highlyknowledgeable early innovators, whose ideas orbehaviour are then taken up by early adoptersand so on until the innovation eventually spreadsthrough the whole of society (Orlandi et al., 1990).This is particularly true of fashion where visibleearly innovators hail from occupations such ashairdressing, design and the media. This groupadheres closely to the ideas propagated throughmagazines like The Face and i-D, and translatethem into highly stylized self-images which reflectmagazine images. Elements of their styles arepassed to early adopters, i.e. those young peoplewho occupy the same social space. In this way thelatest elements of what's in fashion percolate downthrough the early adopters, eventually reachingmass culture. With regard to smoking, this suggeststhat the use of cigarettes as fashion accessories inmagazines could produce another plausible dislo-cated image of smoking, one which combines with

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mythologies important to certain sub-groups andwhich are widely divorced from the actual socialpractice or health effects of the behaviour. Throughcultural reproduction, this image could be rein-forced and disseminated through youth fashion,and therefore a relatively small number of peopleadopting ideas from style magazines may influencea much larger number of people in embracingand consuming a image which includes smokingbehaviour.

Researching smoking imagery-theoretical and methodological issues

As stated previously, there has been no researchwhich has attempted to explore or test the validityof the hypotheses identified above. As a firststep towards increasing our understanding of themeanings that young people attach to magazineimages of smoking, and thus their possible impact,a study was designed to investigate the following:(1) the process by which young people interpretfashion pictures from youth magazines, (2)whether, and in what ways, a cigarette makes adifference to the way a picture is perceived, and(3) whether young people look upon images ofsmoking positively.

Given the exploratory nature of the study, qualit-ative methods, in this case focus groups, werechosen as being the most appropriate way ofgetting young people relaxed and able to talk aboutyouth culture and magazine images (Hastings,1990; Kitzinger, 1990; Seeker et al., 1995). Boththeoretical and practical considerations had to betaken into account in the design of the researchmethods.

Theoretical questions(1) Semiotics. Is it possible to isolate the cigarette

and explore what it signifies to young people?(2) Decoding the photos. Is it possible to under-

stand how young people interpret and decodemagazine images, whether they understand theimage portrayed by a composition, and whether

this is meaningfully interpreted and acceptedas a natural discourse?

(3) Exploring the mythology. Can the mythologywhich young people relate to their self-imagesand which they aspire to be explored?

(4) Private accounts. Is it possible to tap into theprivate accounts which young people holdabout the relationship between smoking andimage and compare these with their publicaccounts?

Practical considerationsCan methods be designed to investigate youngpeople's perceptions, which work across age, gen-der, academic achievement, and cultural and socialbackground? In particular, can tasks bedeveloped which:

(1) Make the data gathering exercise as informalas possible so that the participants do not feelthat their perceptions are being scrutinized andjudged for 'appropriateness'?

(2) Produce data which as closely as possiblereflect young people's perceptions on smokingand image? That is, data which are not biasedby respondents imparting what they think isbeing looked for, guessing what the researchis really about and/or showing off or trying toimpress other members of the group?

(3) Focus their attention and keep them interestedand motivated, i.e. could tasks be developedwhich participants find stimulating and enjoy-able, and encourage them to interact as agroup, while still focusing on the topic?

(4) Get them talking, given difficulties of develop-ing tasks which are not too boring for olderparticipants but too difficult for younger onesand which enable them to translate theirimpressions into words?

Developing the methods—the pilot focusgroupsIn order to take into account the theoretical andpractical issues identified above, five pilot focusgroups were held to develop and pre-test differentmethods which aimed to get young people aged12-19 years to interact around magazine images

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of smoking. Mixed gender and age groups wereavoided as previous studies had indicated that atti-tudes towards smoking differed by age and sex(Allbutt et al., 1995). There was also a concern thatolder teenagers might dominate the discussions. Themoderator attempted to create an informal atmo-sphere which encouraged the participants to enjoythe session and activities. Any imposed disciplinewas kept to a minimum to avoid any perceivedteacher/pupil relationship. The moderator dressedrelatively casually so not to intimidate or look likea teacher, and used colloquial language where appro-priate to emphasize the informality of the sessionsand his non-teacher status.

A series of tasks or activities was developed toexplore the theoretical questions and focus groupprotocol drawn up. This protocol consisted of fivestages (Table I). The introduction focused on topicswhich the participants were used to talking aboutamongst themselves, such as their tastes in music,football, television programmes and what they didat weekends or in their spare time. Care was takento ensure that the participants did not know thatthe research was about smoking. The groups wereinitially told that the research was about youthmagazines and lifestyle.

The main part of the session involved severalshort and stimulating tasks. All points of viewwere encouraged and, by emphasizing that therewere no right or wrong answers, participants wereencouraged to use their imaginations. The taskswere designed to encourage participation, focusdebate and be enjoyable. An individually com-pleted task was included, but most activities werecompleted in groups and sub-groups as it wasassumed that the participants would enjoy themmore, while the focused discussion would bemore enlightening for the investigators. The tasksinvolved projecting personalities onto people inpictures, which it was thought would be possiblefor all the age groups, irrespective of intellectualor verbal ability and familiarity with the magazinesin question. Photographs included a mixture ofmale and female models, some of whom weresmoking, who varied with respect to their culturaland social distance from the participants. By pro-

jecting accounts from the look or image of a modelit was hoped that this would reveal the culturalknowledge, stereotypes and mythologies associatedwith different looks, investigate the extent to whichthe participants identified with and aspired tocertain images, and distinguish cultural and socialidentification.

In an attempt to explore more specifically therole of the cigarette within such pictures, the thirdtask (Table I) involved using pictures which wereidentical apart from the presence or absence of acigarette. This was achieved by screening magazineimages of smoking into a computer and thenremoving digitally the cigarette, any lettering andby-line. The non-smoking version thus acted as acontrol for the smoking version.

The pilot groups worked well in that theygenerally engaged the participants attention andpromoted discussion. Participants, when asked tocomment at the end of the groups, felt that theywere enjoyable and interesting. They did not feelthat there had been any problems when it hademerged that the main focus was smoking. Ratherthey felt that the approach taken had been relevantand appropriate. The size of the group, the moder-ator's role and as well as the nature of the activitieswere all found to impact on the group process.Small groups of four or five participants, especiallywith 12-13 year olds, were found to be easier tomanage, maximized the amount of discussion onrelevant subjects and encouraged participation bythe more reticent participants.

Issues raised by the methods

Following the pilot groups, a total of 33 focusgroups, using the same protocol, were held withyoung people from three age groups: 12-13, 15-16 and 18-19 years. In order to elicit opinion froma wide range of cultural backgrounds groups weredrawn from a diverse range of schools in bothaffluent and deprived areas in Lothian Region,youth clubs and colleges. Participating schoolsranged from private boarding schools with high

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Table I. Focus group protocol po

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Description of tasks Objectives of task Theoretical reasoning behind task Practical reasoning behind task

Introduction

Discussion of participants' lifestyles, recreationalinterests, musical tastes and magazine readership.

Task I: Describing a picture

Magazine photo of a female smoking held up for afew seconds. Participants, on their own, wrole briefdescriptions of Ihc picture. Photo held up for alonger period Participants added to descriptions,noting anything mused the first time. Groupdiscussion of what they had written.

Task 2: Personality profilesThe participants asked as a group to project apersonality, background and lifestyle prohle on toeach of four pictures of people from magazines.Two pictures were of smokers (female and male)and two of non-smokers (male and female).

Task 3: Rating people In photosSplit up into two sub-groups to rale, on a scoresheet, pictures of a man and a woman on five traits.In one sub-group the man was a smoker while thewoman was not, in the other the reverse was thecase. The respective pictures of the woman and theman were identical to each other, the non-smokingimage having been produced by removing thecigarette digitally from the original picture Thegroup as a whole then discussed any differencesand similarities in (heir ratings and whether thepresence of a cigarette altered the way the personlooked in the photo.

Discussion around magazines and smokingSeveral other examples of people smoking in youthmagazines were shown to the group, participantswere asked their opinion on why the models in thephotos were given cigarettes. The sessionconcluded with a general discussion aboutsmoking, image and magazines.

Relaxing the group

Individual decoding andinterpretation

Leam something about participants' culturaland social backgrounds and contextualizcsubsequent data.

1) Investigate the interpretive and decodingprocess, e g do respondents describe thecomposition of the photo or what it signifies tothem.2) The salience of the cigarette—do theparticipants note the cigarette after o short orlonger exposure or not at all.

1) Investigate group interpretive and decodingprocess.2) Explore shared cultural knowledge,stereotype and mythology associated withcharacters' images.3) Elicit evidence of identification with oradmiration of characters.

Exploring the effect of a cigarette 1) The effect of a cigarette on the perception ofon participants' perceptions of a person.

Group decoding andinterpretation.

people in photos.

Exploring attitudes towardssmoking in both magazines andmore generally.

2) Isolating and controlling for the presence ofa cigarette.3) Comparison of public and private accounts,i.e. compare earlier accounts of smoking whenparticipants did not know work was concernedwith smoking with subsequent attitudestowards it.

1) Assess participants' familiarity with thesemagazines2) Compare 'overt' or socially acceptableattitudes with those expressed previously.

Relax participants, gel them used to talking ina group. Establish easy going non-threateningenvironment where they can say what they like

Novel task—short memory exercise. Shortaccounts—not to seem too much likeschoolwork. Simulate flicking through amagazine.

To make task enjoyable, lively, stimulating andinteractive. Participants encouraged to enjoythemselves and use their imaginations to keepthem interested and focused. Only fourpictures so that task does not become boring.

Different task for variety, short to ovoidboredom. Use of sub-groups means new andstimulating scenario. Novelty of 'discovery'that research is about smoking could result infresh interest, excitement and enthusiasm forremainder of the session.

Wind down Task less structured, group able tointeract freely and raise any issues that theywanted to.

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academic ratings to low academically rated stateschools. Participants were selected by teachers,youth club workers and lecturers, as appropriate.The analysis of the empirical findings of thesefocus groups is presented elsewhere (Gray et al.,1996). This part of the paper will discuss the extentto which the focus groups and the tasks successfullyaddressed the previously identified theoreticalquestions and practical considerations.

The protocolOverall the focus groups appeared to work well inthat they engaged and retained the participants'interest, and enabled them to interact around smok-ing images. The introduction not only helped relaxparticipants but generated comments about theirsocial and cultural worlds which were useful incontextualizing subsequent comments and discus-sion. Although the participants varied considerablyin their familiarity with the magazines from whichthe pictures were drawn, most participants wereable to complete the tasks and express their views.

Decoding images

The mix of tasks produced information aboutwhich textual elements were used to decode andinterpret images, the relative importance of acigarette within this process, and the meaningsattached to smoking. For example, when con-structing personality profiles the fact that a modelsmoked was often mentioned as just one indicatoramong others such as the model's clothes and hair,of a wider lifestyle that might include taking drugs,drinking and getting into trouble at school. Thusthe cigarette was read as being congruent withother significant elements in the image. Alternat-ively, e.g. in Task 3, the presence of the cigarettewas sometimes explicitly stated as having changedthe participants' image of the model, e.g. in onegroup to being a risk taker.

The inclusion of individual and group tasks alsogave some indications of the extent to whichmeanings differed between individuals and/or werenegotiated within a group. The tasks producedgroup knowledge and perceptions, moderated bythe perceived congruence of the images within

their collective models of reality. In interpreting thephotos, producing group accounts and eventuallytalking about smoking, young people collectivelyor individually adopted a number of differentor even competing meanings or representations.Furthermore, these accounts often changed duringthe course of the session. This reflects one of thestrengths of using focus groups, which draw on aninterpretivist paradigm (Kitzinger, 1994; Seekeret al., 1995), in that they can reveal the complexityof accounts which reflect ambivalence, contradic-tion and uncertainty which are often lost or maskedwhen using more closed or positivist methodolo-gies. Indeed, it is important for smoking researchto recognize that there is not one single, rational-ized, clear perspective on smoking. Rather accountsare evolving with different perspectives dominatingat different times, reflecting in this study theinfluence of the media, health promotion, friendsand personal experience.

The focus groups also revealed some importantdifferences in the meanings attached to similarwords used to describe the models. For example,in Task 3, in one group both sub-groups describedone of the models as a 'tart'. The sub-group whichhad the photograph where the model was smokingthought she would be unpopular because she wasa 'tart'. However, the sub-group who had the non-smoking version rated her as popular. It wouldhave been easy to conclude that the cigarettemade the woman look tarty and unpopular, butsubsequent discussion revealed that the other sub-group also perceived her to be a 'tart' and ratedher as popular because they thought that she wouldbe popular with men.

While the focus groups generally worked wellthere were some marked differences both betweensome groups and within groups in terms of theparticipants' responses to different tasks, whichhave implications for future research in this fieldand, more generally, the use of focus groups.

Context and genre

It is important to acknowledge that magazineimages, and smoking within them, are highlycontextualized and taking them out of context may

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alter the way they are perceived, decoded and read.The photograph in Task 1, for example, was froma magazine spread entitled Counter Culture andfeatured a waitress in many different outfits indifferent situations. Thus the portrayal of smokingwould have been unambiguous in that context.However, many of the participants initially con-cluded from the visual clues in the picture (e.g.she was leaning against a wall) that the womanwas a 'tart' or a prostitute. When probed aboutwhat was the white thing in her hand they seemedless sure, and when told that it was an apron, therepresentation of the woman in the perceptions ofthe participants made a very swift and seamlesstransformation into her being a waitress nippingout for a quick cigarette in her break. However, asCorner has argued (Comer, 1991), this does notnecessarily negate the accounts revealed by thistype of methodology but rather highlights the needto use a range of methodological approaches toexplore audience perceptions.

Differences in articulacy

Differences in articulacy between social and agegroups were marked. However, it was not the casethat many young people could not meaningfullyinterpret the images, but they often had difficultyputting this into words. This was perhaps mostnoticeable in relation to Task 3 where participantsworked in two separate sub-groups rating two pic-tures on five attributes such as popular. These delib-erations were taped in the hope that this would giveinsights about which elements of the image the parti-cipants used to achieve their ratings. However, inmany cases there was very little discussion, withoften one person making a decision and the other(s)just agreeing with it. Although more informationabout what had been involved in the rating processwas gained when the two sub-groups were broughtback together and had to explain their ratings, insome instances they found it impossible to articulatewhy they had reached their decisions. In additionthere was often a feeling that this was a task whichthey had been set and had therefore just done it asquickly as possible. This raises another importantissue, the nature of the accounts which these

methods, and focus groups more generally, generateand the role of the moderator.

Natural groups in a natural setting?The sub-group work in Task 3 was the only partof the session which was not directly focused bythe moderator. This lack of involvement of themoderator resulted in sub-group work which varieddepending on the way in which the participantsinterpreted the task. This produced significant dif-ferences in:

(1) The way they tackled the task, how seriouslythey took it, how much time they spent on it,how much they thought about it and, as discus-sed above, whether any of the points wereactually discussed and debated.

(2) What they focused on while making theirassessments. There were differences in thedialogue and ratings precipitated by initialreactions to the photos, whether the participantswere anti-smoking, whether they found thecomposition or the image appealing, whetherthey found the model attractive or unattractive,and other more photo-specific factors. Theparticipants were therefore decoding the photosin different ways, focusing on different ele-ments within the picture, and holding differingperspectives on what part of the photo wasimportant, relevant, interesting, positive andnegative. What was signified by and significantabout the composition therefore varied fromgroup to group and sub-group to sub-groupmaking it difficult to compare taped accounts.

These differences link back to the dangers ofassuming a one-to-one relationship between acigarette (signifier) and what it signifies to differentpeople. Although all participants were shown thesame photographs the way they choose to interpretthem in an un-moderated sub-group varied. Thishighlights the artificial nature of the focus groups,and illustrates that the role that the moderator takesin focusing the group is perhaps more of aninfluence than is often acknowledged (Seekeretal., 1995).

Regardless of how informal the context, a focus

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group is not a natural setting. For example, thefocus groups in this study were mostly carried outin schools. Therefore, despite attempts to thecontrary, some discipline and a certain relationshipbetween the moderator and the participants wasimplicitly present. This was well illustrated whenattempts were made to hold groups in the more'natural' and 'informal' surroundings of a youthclub. Less success was achieved because particip-ants were under no obligation to 'behave' orparticipate for any length of time. Indeed one ofthe groups had to be abandoned after 10 min. (Thiswas supposed to have been a male group but noneof the young men present at the youth club thatnight volunteered. Instead a mixed sex group wasset up but participants soon started to drift away,in part distracted by other activities going on inthe next room.) Also, regardless of how informaland natural the moderator attempts to be, theparticipants are interacting and producing know-ledge in the presence of a stranger, which is likelyto have an implicit influence. People who knowthat their activities are being scrutinized frequentlydo not behave as they do normally and maysubconsciously or even to consciously attempt toproduce 'right' answer (Comwell, 1984).

Gender can also be an issue. In these focusgroups a male moderator was used and this mighthave had an influence on some focus groups. Insome female focus groups, the moderator felt thatparticipants appeared to be intimidated and shy infront of an adult male, whilst others giggled ortalked non-stop in an apparent effort to impresshim. Some younger males also appeared to beintimidated by the moderator. Others either triedto show how 'cool' they were by passing offhandcomments to amuse their friends, or by impressingmoderator with tales of their drugs or alcoholconsumption. While one of the other researcherssat in on the pilot groups it is difficult to validatethe moderator's impressions in the other groupswhere he was on his own, though detailed noteswere kept after each group on the process andwere read in conjunction with the transcripts bythe other researchers.

Conclusion

This paper has attempted to locate concerns aboutthe continued, and increasing, portrayal of smokingin youth and style magazines within a more generaltheoretical framework drawn from the sociology ofconsumption and cultural theory. It has postulatedthat such images might influence smoking amongyoung people in three ways. First, by providing areservoir of positive thought about smoking andstyle. Second, by providing a justification forsmokers about their behaviour, this being a particu-lar concern as many young smokers are known tofeel ambivalent about their own and others' smoking(Allbutt et al., 1995). Finally by influencing theattitudes and behaviour of young style and fashioninnovators who read these magazines and may con-sequently influence other young people who, whilenot readers of these magazines, may pick up trendsfrom their more innovatory peers.

This study, which set out to explore youngpeople's perceptions of smoking images in thesemagazines, showed that it is possible to developmethods which enable research to tap into the mean-ings which young people attach to these images.It also provides support for adopting a theoreticalperspective which views young people as taking anactive role in how they read, interpret and consumethese images (Corner, 1991).

Developing an understanding of the semiotics ofsmoking is important for health promotion (Buntonand Burrows, 1995). Health promoters may beencouraged to draw on these insights when develop-ing their own mass media work or when trying todraw out the policy implications of the possibleinfluence of the type of images of smoking that arepromoted by different media. Further research inthis area would also help inform the growing critiqueof current health education approaches in this field,which appear to be failing to reduce the level ofsmoking uptake, by helping contextualize smokingwithin the cultural and social worlds of young peoplein the 1990s.

Thus there is a need to build on the preliminaryinsights gained in this study through developingmethodologies which can explore, in more depth,

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the possible influence of such images. This mightinclude:

(1) Using the methods developed in this studywith a wider range of young people, perhapsdrawing focus groups which reflect differentstyle/youth sub-cultures, friendship groupsand/or magazine readerships. This would per-mit a deeper exploration of possible linksbetween self-image, style and perceptions ofsmoking images.

(2) Further develop the potential of using digitallyaltered magazine images, i.e. with and withoutcigarettes, to gain further insights about therelationship between a cigarette (signifier) andhow what it signifies varies depending on otherelements in the image and viewer character-istics. For example, following this study afurther series of focus groups were carried outwhere young people produced a range ofadjectives to describe various magazine imagesof smoking and their digitally altered non-smoking versions. Subsequently these attrib-utes were incorporated with a self completionquestionnaire where respondents rated a rangeof matched smoking and non-smoking imagesand themselves on these attributes (Amos et al.,in press). This has been used to assess anydifferences that the presence of the cigarettemakes in relation to a number of the respond-ents' characters such as age, sex and smokingbehaviour.

(3) Developing methods which can explore theeffect of viewing such images in the naturalcontext of the whole magazine rather than asisolated images.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Morag Leitch and DeborahNash for their help with typing and all the youngpeople who participated in the study and theorganizations which provided access. The studywas funded by the Chief Scientist Office, ScottishOffice Home and Health Department. The views

expressed in this paper are those of the authorsand do not necessarily reflect the views of thefunding body.

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