Chapter 6: Protection and Empowerment
"Media makers are not the enemy. Their job is to create stories that compel our attention, because attention is the commodity that has value in the market-place."
I think that this is a great concept to teach to student because they tend to blur the lines. After seeing something in a movie or TV show students are prone to reproduce the action because they think it will make them look "cool" in the eyes of their peers like it did in the movie/TV show. Having the students understanding and discussing why it is or is not a good idea to repeat these actions can help deter them actually performing the actions.
"Instead, she introduced a comparison-contrast activity in her health class to encourage all her students to examine their own sense of connectedness to various media personalities and reflect upon the contradictory messages about gender, race, and identity offered up by the mass media and celebrity culture."
This sounded like a great activity to do with students because it not only has students see what mass media does to a person's image, but also can help all the students come to a common understanding and get rid of misconceptions. Debate is normally a good tool to help students get to this common understanding and get all the information from all of the participants out in the open.
"Viewers are punked by stealth marketing when they interpret these messages as simple entertainment and are unaware of their persuasive."
This stealth marketing was eye opening because I don't know if I have actually seen these ads. This can be a good or bad thing for me because that means they are either not reaching me or are stealthed so well that I didn't notice their existence. I wonder if this is related to things such as product placement where it is not pointed out, but it is noted that the actors are using specific products. Something as simple as one of your role-models where Levi jeans; you may notice that they are wearing that type of jeans and thus feel a need to also wear those jeans because your role-model wears them.
I think that it is easy to view media makers as the enemy because we don’t like to view ourselves as a commodity. Nor do we care to admit that the techniques they employ work. Our society places a lot of importance on free will and to suggest that media influences our decisions in any way; it just doesn’t go over well. By marking them as the enemy, it alleviates responsibility of our choices.
ReplyDeleteI took stealth marketing to mean product placement as well. As much as I do not like a lot of the techniques used, I have to admit that some of them are rather clever. Product placement is one of those because it works at such a subconscious level. For some, it may just trigger a craving to see someone drink a Pepsi on a television show. On a much more subconscious level, I think seeing celebrities use products that typical people have access to, creates a bridge between the two. By consuming that product, they’re on the same level as a celebrity.
A lot of times we see the media makers as enemies because kids do follow what they see and we blame the media. Maybe if we think about it, and if the kids would see it in real life that they might do it to. They often think because they see it in the media they have to follow because they will be cool and everyone likes them. This part of your reading where you posted this quote and where you talked about it, made me think of all the things that were said about teen pregnancy because they see it on TV with teen mom. But do they really get pregnant because they think its cool or is it just under-educated about the subject. The media is showing what happens when your young and I think we think that sometimes we want to protect our children from seeing that because we feel they will get influenced.
ReplyDeleteI don't watch a whole lot of commercials today (thank you DVR) but when I do watch them there is defintely a lot of stealth advertisement. On the cartoon channels that my youngest daughter watches there are many advertisements for the best and coolest toys. Of course my daughter wants them all. Perhaps one of the best stealth advertisements that I have ever seen is the Herbal Essence shampoo commercial in which the lady is in the shower. It is indicated that she is getting sexual satisfaction out of washing her hair. I was shocked the first time I saw that commercial and still am.
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