Papers and articles on advice columns and programmes
The following articles and papers focus on advice columns from a variety of perspectives and disciplines. Some describe the contents of advice columns or assess their impact, while others look at how advice columns inform attitudes and behaviour or are shaped by public opinion, still more take a critical approach to either the idea of advice giving or the way advice is framed or shared.
Where possible open access papers are included. If you know of any papers not listed here, or if you are researching this area and have articles or dissertations to share please let me know.
Asera R, Bagarukayo H, Shuey D and Barton T. 1997. An epidemic of apprehension: Questions about HIV/AIDS to an East African newspaper health advice column. AIDS Care: Psychological and Socio-medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV. 9 (1) pp.5-12.
Baker G and Boynton PM. 2005. A different picture of Africa. British Medical Journal, 331 p.782.
Bingham A. 2012. Newspaper problem pages and British sexual culture since 1918. Media History. 18 (1) pp.51-63.
Boni F. 2002. Framing media masculinities: Men’s lifestyle magazines and the biopolitics of the male body. European Journal of Communication. 17 (4) pp.465-478.
Boynton PM. 2003. The value of agony aunts. British Medical Journal. 326 (7404) pp.1465.
Boynton PM. 2004a Beware the sexperts. The Guardian. Friday July 30
Boynton PM 2004b. The problem with Agony Aunts. Press Gazette.October 7.
Boynton PM 2004c. Better dicks through drugs? The penis as a pharmaceutical target. SCAN. 1 (3)
Boynton PM. 2006. ‘Enough with tips and advice and thangs’: The experience of a critically reflexive, evidence-based Agony Aunt. Feminist Media Studies. 6 (4) pp.541-546.
Boynton PM. 2007. Advice for sex advisors: a guide for ‘agony aunts’, relationship therapists and sex educators who want to work with the media. Sex Education
. 7 (3) pp. 309–326.
Buckland S. 1994. Unmet needs for health information – a literature review. Health Libraries Review. 11 pp.82-95.
Cabe PA, Walker MH and Williams M. 1999. Newspaper Advice Column Letters as Teaching Cases for Developmental Psychology. Teaching of Psychology. 26 (2) pp.128-130.
Cardoso LD. 2007. A systemic functional approach to experiential meaning construal in Agony Aunt columns: a case study on two columns of Glamour magazine. Student Dissertation.
Chang J. 2000. Agony-resolution pathways: how women perceive American men in Cosmopolitan’s Agony (Advice) Column. Men’s Studies. 8 (3)
Clark HW. 1977. Dear Abby, Miss Lonelyhearts, and the Eighteenth Century: The Origins of the Newspaper Advice Column. Journal of Popular Culture. 11 (2) Fall pp.345-352.
Clarfield M. 1997. Self-help medical advice was popular in the 1930s, too. Canadian Medical Association Journal. 157 pp.1272-1273.
Dibner SS. 1974. Newspaper advice columns as a mental health resource. Community Mental Health Journal. 10 (2) pp.147-155.
Entwhistle V. 1999. Who’s afraid of the newspaper advice column? Canadian Medical Association Journal. 161 (4) pp. 397-398.
Fair JE. 2012/13. Discourses of Love and Newspapers Advice Columns in Ghana. Ghana Studies, Special Issue Health and Health Care. 15/16 pp.413-466.
Farvid P and Braun G. 2014. The “Sassy Woman” and the “Performing Man”: Heterosexual casual sex advice and the (re)constitution of gendered subjectivities. Feminist Media Studies. 14 (1) pp.118-134.
Garner A, Sterk HM and Adams S. 1998. Narrative analysis of sexual etiquette in Teenage Magazines. Journal of Communication. 48 (4) pp.59-78.
Gill R. 2009. Mediated intimacy and postfeminism: a discourse analytic examination of sex and relationships advice in a women’s magazine. Discourse and Communication. 3 (4) pp.345-369.
Gunn ADG. 1984. Self help. British Medical Journal. 288 pp.1024.
Gupta AE, Zimmerman TS and Fruhauf CA. 1998. Relationship Advice in the Top Selling Women’s Magazine, Cosmopolitan: A Content Analysis.Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy. Innovations in Clinical and Educational Interventions. 7 (3) pp.248-266.
Gysels M, Pool R and Nyanzi S. 2005. The adventures of the Randy Professor and Angela the Sugar Mummy: Sex in fictional serials in Ugandan popular magazines. AIDS Care: Psychological and Socio-medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV. 17 (8) pp.967-977.
Hemming J. 1972. The search for reassurance. In Agony aunties and their contribution to health education. Royal Society of Health Journal. 92 (5) pp.246-249.
Jackson S. 2005. ‘I’m 15 and Desperate for Sex’: ‘Doing’ and ‘Undoing’ Desire in Letters to a Teenage Magazine. Feminism and Psychology. 15 (3) pp.295-313.
Jackson S. 2005. ‘Dear Girlfriend…’: Constructions of Sexual Health Problems and Sexual Identities in Letters to a Teenage Magazine. Sexualities 8 pp.282-305.
Jahoda G. 1959. Love, marriage and social change: letters to the advice column of an African Newspaper. Africa. 29 (2) pp.177-190.
Kang M, Cannon B, Remond L and Quine S. 2009. ‘Is it normal to feel these questions . . .?’: a content analysis of the health concerns of adolescent girls writing to a magazine. Family Practice. 26 pp.196–203.
Kehily MJ. 1999. More sugar? Teenage magazines, gender displays and sexual learning. European Journal of Cultural Studies. 2 (1) pp.65-89.
Kirkman A. 2001. Productive Readings: The Portrayal of Health “Experts” in Women’s Magazines. Qualitative Health Research. 11 (6) pp.751-765.
Kogan LR and Kellaway JA. 2004. Relationship Advice Columns from Two Popular Magazines. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy. 19 (1) pp.35-55.
Kolehmainen M. 2012. Tracing ambivalent norms of sexuality: Agony columns, audience responses and parody. Sexualities. 15 (8) pp.978-994.
Kurtz I. 1987. Health educators – the new puritans. Journal of Medical Ethics. 13. pp.40-41,48.
Locher MA. 2010. Health Internet sites: a linguistic perspective on health advice columns. Social Semiotics. 20 (1) pp.43-59.
McRobbie A. 1978. Jackie: An ideology of adolescent femininity. Occasional Paper, Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. Women Take Issue. Hutchinson. London.
McLelland M. 2001. Live Life More Selfishly: An on-line gay advice column in Japan. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies. 15 (1) pp.103-116.
Molnar FJ, Man-Son-Hing M, Dalziel WB, Mitchell SL, Power BE, Byszewski AM, et al. Assessing the quality of newspaper medical advice columns for elderly readers. Canadian Medical Association Journal. 1999 161 (4) pp.393-395.
Morris P. 2007. From private to public: Alba de Céspedes’ agony column in 1950s Italy. Modern Italy. 9 (1) pp.11-20.
Neville P. 2012. “You’ve Got Male”: Advice-Seeking Behaviour in Men Using the Online Advice Site www.worldweary.com. The Journal of Men’s Studies. 20 (3) pp.227-242.
Prah M. 2008. Help! I don’t love my husband. Advice Columns as Teaching Resources for Gender and Sexuality Experiences from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Studies in Gender and Development in Africa. 1 pp.1-13.
Proops M. 1972. What reader seeks, what aunties give. In Agony aunties and their contribution to health education. Royal Society of Health Journal. 92 (5) pp.250–251.
Rayner C. 1972. Plugging the gap. In Agony aunties and their contribution to health education, Royal Society of Health Journal. 92 (5) pp.251–254.
Ryan P. 2010. Asking Angela: Discourses about Sexuality in an Irish Problem Page, 1963-1980. Journal of the History of Sexuality. 19 (2) pp.317-339.
Ryan P. 2011. Love, lust and the Irish: Exploring intimate lives through Angela Macnamara’s problem page, 1963-1980. Sexualities. 14 (2) pp.218-234.
Smith R. 1983. Part time agony aunt in trousers. British Medical Journal 287. pp. 1029-1032.
Spalding R, Zimmerman TS, Fruhauf CA, Banning JH and Pepin J. 2010. Relationship Advice in Top-Selling Men’s Magazines: A Qualitative Document Analysis. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 22:3, 203-224.
Sugg C.2014. Making waves: Media’s potential for girls in the Global South. Policy Document. BBC Media Action.
Unterhalter E, Epstein D, Morrell R and Moletsane R 2004. Be Yourself: class, race, gender and sexuality in South African schoolchildren’s accounts of social relations. Pedagogy, Culture and Society. 12 (1) pp.53-72.
Wilbraham L and Delvin D. 1996. Dear Doctor Delve-in: A feminist analysis of a sex advice column for women. Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity. Provinces in Focus. 30. pp. 51-65.
Williams M. 2004. What teenage girls write to agony aunts: Their relationships, perception, pressures and needs. Health Education Journal. 63 (4) pp.324-333.
Yu G and Wu Y. 2014. Managing awkward, sensitive or delicate topics on (Chinese) radio medical consultations. Discourse Processes.