Stephan Dahl's Blog

Campus Conspiracy

Stephan Dahl — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:16:26 +0000

You can tell I’m a little behind in my reading list when I’ve finally started to read a book originally published in 2006. “A Campus Conspiracy” is a satiric look at modern university life - set against the backdrop of the now defunct RAE (Research Assessment Exercise), and telling the story of a Professor of Christian [...]

And the brand played on

Stephan Dahl — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 14:49:03 +0000

If the conversion of products into (almost real) friends in the social networking sphere isn’t enough for you, then a new tool might make brands just a little more “human”. Some brands, like for example Dorito, the crisps brand, now comes with music attached - in the form of its very own playlist (see here). Similarly, [...]

Open Access Your Work!

Stephan Dahl — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:56:54 +0000

Last week was Open Access week - the week to celebrate and highlight the amazing amount of research that is being made available through the various open access sources. One of the ways to get open access to published research is through scholars or universities self-archiving their material online. For scholars, this is extremely useful, [...]

65+ and Active: Headline findings

Stephan Dahl — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 08:49:27 +0000

Society is getting older - and also less active. With 2012 being the European Year of Active Aging, the importance of remaining active in later life is becoming more at the forefront of policy making - and not a year too soon: In England only 17% of males and 13% of women aged 65-74 are [...]

Oh No! We don’t do THAT [on tv - but everywhere else]!

Stephan Dahl — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:31:05 +0000

So… the alcohol industry has slammed a report by Gerard Hastings and Nick Sheron in BMJ that brandished the self regulation code as “clumsily imposed”, and asks for much tighter regulation - similar to the regulations currently in force in France. The mad.co.uk report features a statement from Diageo (owner of Guinness amongst other) describing [...]

#altmetrics - Are You Reading Yet?

Stephan Dahl — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 12:43:22 +0000

Social media has changed market research, making real time “consumer research” possible. With the growing popularity of #altmetrics (or less twitter-like: alt-metrics) it is also starting to make inroads into measuring (academic) research impact (N.B. for those in the UK: this is not the same as the REF impact - but hey, we only have [...]

Sunny March Days in Hull

Stephan Dahl — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:05:17 +0000

Just in case you ever wondered what happens when it’s a sunny March day in Hull - and a few (arty) academics get together…

Some good news? Beer and Cigarette Duty up.

Stephan Dahl — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:18:17 +0000

The Chancellor presented his budget for the next year today. Of course, not all of the exact figures are in the final document (which can be found here), but here are some first observations: The budget raises the duty on alcohol and tobacco - something that isn’t actually an invention of the current government, but a [...]

Why are some Social Marketing ads so boring?

Stephan Dahl — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:11:26 +0000

Of course, there are some really great health-promoting advertisements around. Some are well designed, snazzy, well target - but unfortunately, more often than not, adverts promoting healthy behaviours are beyond lacklustre. Go to your local GP surgery, and you’ll probably be amazed at the amount of flyers you can pick up that seem to have [...]

Good News, Bad News

Stephan Dahl — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:02:07 +0000

The government has been in for quite a ride in the last two days: On Monday, several high profile groups rejected the government’s “responsibility deal” on alcohol, leaving only three health groups siding with the government. Today the government then announced a deal with 170 companies (and three health groups) on better labeling and more [...]