Protecting sources and whistleblowers in a digital age

A working report published as part of an initiative supported by Guardian News and Media, based on research conducted at the Information Law and Policy Centre, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. Launched at an event in Parliament on 22nd February 2017

Making the brand appealing: advertising strategies and consumers’ attitude towards UK retail bank brands

Purpose: The present state of the financial services industry suggests the need for banks to appeal to consumers’ emotions with the aim of improving their reputation; this study aims to explore how UK banks are using emotional appeals in their advertisements and how this shapes consumers’ attitudes towards their brands. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis in a two-stage study – Study 1 analysed the content of 1,274 UK bank advertisements to understand how the banks convey emotional appeals, whereas Study 2 elicited consumers’ perceptions of these advertising appeals and how they influenced their attitudes through semi-structured interview with 33 UK retail bank customers in London and Luton. Findings: UK banks are using emotional appeals in their marketing communication strategies. The qualitative findings highlight the bi-dimensional nature of feelings towards the advertisements and how this relates to the brand. There is a lacklustre attitude towards the brands; there was no sense of pride in associating with any bank, even with though there are possibilities of switching; and consumers feel there is no better offer elsewhere as all banks are the same. Practical implications: Bank brands should present distinct values about their services to the target audience, endeavour to build relationships with existing customers and reward loyalty. Importantly, financial brands need to engage in and highlight charitable activities and any corporate social responsibility as this can help to improve consumers’ attitudes as they often consider bank brands greedy and selfish. Originality/value: Qualitative research methodology was adopted to better understand consumers’ attitudes towards UK retail bank brands

In-medium omega-meson broadening and S-wave pion annihilation into e^+e^- pairs

An $\omega$-meson in motion with respect to a nuclear medium can couple to a $\sigma$-meson through a particle-hole excitation. This coupling is large. We investigate its consequences for the width of $\omega$-mesons in matter and for the s-wave annihilation of pions into lepton pairs which can take place in relativistic heavy ion collisions. We find that the two pion decay of $\omega$-mesons, resulting from the $\omega-\sigma$ transition and the subsequent $2\pi$ decay of the $\sigma$-meson, leads to a substantial broadening of $\omega$-mesons in matter and possibly to an observable effect in experiments measuring the $e^+e^-$ decay of vector mesons produced in nuclei and in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The inverse process, the s-wave annihilation of pions into $\omega$-mesons decaying into $e^+e^-$ pairs, has in general a much smaller cross section than the corresponding p-wave annihilation through $\rho$-mesons and is expected to contribute rather little to the total $e^+e^-$ pair production in relativistic heavy ion collisions.Comment: 18 pages Latex, 5 figures, final version to appear in Nucl. Phys. A. (Section 4 is rewritten and few references are added