Management in the Media

Welcome to Management in the Media, our monthly selection of some of the School of Management research and expertise making headlines in the worlds’ media:

The world’s media went, er, bananas for the story on Dr Lisa Eckmann’s research, showing that labelling lone bananas as ‘sad singles’ tugs at shoppers’ heartstrings, increases sales and helps solve the growing problem of food waste. The story was picked up by over 300 outlets, including MSN news US, London Evening Standard’s?Tech and Science Daily Podcast, Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine, The Independent, Daily Mail, BBC Newsround, ITV’s This Morning magazine show, and national BBC radio and UK commercial stations, among others.

News that Vauxhall plans to close its van manufacturing plant in Luton was headline news in the UK and elsewhere. Professor Andrew Graves was featured in a lengthy analysis piece by the Independent on the problems facing the industry and President-elect Donald Trump's approach to international trade. "For us, of course, being a small island outside the European Union, we’re really vulnerable to tariffs, because we have little or no economic power on our own, unless we’re part of Europe. So it’s some dangerous days ahead, I’m afraid.” The article was republished by India Daily Mail and Yahoo Finance, among others.?

Dr Annie Snelson-Powell responded to an intriguing request from The Conversation, which asked academic experts to explain why the CEO of ExxonMobil had, to the surprise of many, voiced his support for the Paris agreement on climate change. In this piece, extracts of which were picked up by MSN in their round-up on COP29, she explains the sound strategic reasons for such a stance.?

Professor David Ellis?comments on Australia’s social media ban for under-16s, via Science Media Centre, were picked by News Finale and other Australian outlets: “The current evidence base simply does not support the Australian social media ban. Unfortunately, this is an example of legislation that is doomed to fail. For a start, there is no workable age verification solution and it deflects from real issues facing teens who have not only been largely excluded from the debate, but will work around the ban using VPNs or associated technologies. Evidence from other countries shows that similar bans are easily circumvented. Even the definition of what constitutes social media is unclear. All in all, it is a sad day for evidence based policy,” David said.?

Separately David was interviewed by ITV West Country News on the online scams and fraud around Black Friday. David explained the main sort of scams that are catching people out and offered advice for shoppers. This followed his talking to BBC Radio Scotland about whether we need to reduce our use of smartphones, and separately about Amazon Alexa.??

Germany's Brigitte magazine, with a readership of over 4 million people, picked up on Professor Chris Dawson's research on realism, optimism and pessimism, cheering up gloomy people with its article equating pessimism with intelligence.?

In a thought-provoking piece for The Conversation, Dr Akhil Bhardwaj and Dr Anastasia Sergeeva joined forces to tackle the promise and peril of AI, memorably stating that "...in dabbling with artificial intelligence (AI), humans seem to have taken on the role of Prometheus – apparently gifting machines the “fire” that sparked civilisation."

Dr Olivier Sibai responded to a BBC Radio Bristol request for a branding expert to discuss this year's Christmas ads and their part in building customer loyalty.?Listen to the interview here from 2.11.14 (please note, link expires 3 December)?

Dr Olivia Brown took to the airwaves in the final quarter, explaining to Greatest Hits Radio how the X algorithm is designed to work in Elon Musk's favour: ""The algorithm on X is designed to boost musk's?visibility. If Elon Musk is to share a post?connected with Trump's campaign,?that piece of information is likely to reach the?most amount of people on the planet?platform. It makes sense, then, that information in support of the Republican?Party may be more prevalent."

Professor Stephen Wyatt offered a thorough analysis to LBC News of the Post Office's plans to close more than 100 branches, placing hundreds of jobs at risk, as the state-owned UK business seeks to put itself on a sounder financial footing following an IT scandal. Steve explained in depth the challenges of overcoming legacy issues and the particular nature of the Post Office in how it serves communities.?

For more University of Bath news stories see our Media Centre or follow on BlueSky @uniofbathnews.bsky.social?