ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to explore the dynamics and tensions thrown up at the intersection of alcohol and social media as it plays out for young adult members of three key ethnic groupings in Aotearoa New Zealand – Maori, Pasifika and Pakeha. In this setting Maori are the indigenous people of Aotearoa who have been colonised over 175 years by Pakeha settler groups largely from western Europe. Pasifika peoples are more recent immigrants to this country from diverse Pacific islands especially Samoa, the Cook Islands and Tonga. The focus on the convergence of drinking cultures and social media use requires some contextualising to alcohol and media policy in Aotearoa New Zealand. The policy environments surrounding both are largely determined by a major swing in the politics of this country commencing in 1984 that saw the entrenchment of radical neoliberalism through the 1990s and early twenty-first century.