Communication Studies, Department of
Date of this Version
2001
Abstract
College drinking has traditionally been studied from a public health perspective that attempts to quantify behavior as a means toward description, explanation, and intervention. This article offers a critical and cultural approach to understanding the meanings and functions of high-risk drinking and the ways in which those meanings are reproduced within the culture. Data were collected via an ethnographic study of fraternity members at a large midwestern university to explore the communication of excessive drinking norms. Viewed from various narrative and structural theories, the study examines collected drinking stories as a source for analyzing the construction of meanings surrounding drunkenness for the fraternity subculture. Five themes emerged as functions of drunkenness for the culture. Implications for prevention are discussed.
Comments
Published in HEALTH COMMUNICATION, 13(4), 427–447. Copyright © 2001, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Used by permission.