Big Media for a Small World

I largely agree with McChesney. There needs to be more awareness of the growing media conglomerates, and then some kind of action could be taken.

As far as awareness goes, give youth some visual aid. McChesney had several good ones in the video. So, maybe we just show the video to classes? I would suggest that Frontline's excellent "Merchants of Cool" also be included. It provides in-depth foci on specific media areas.

I can't begin to suggest an action. We are far from that stage. For now, let them know what their eating first, and then they can decide whether they want to swallow it or not.

The McDonald's Game

You all have probably heard of this before, but it is a game where you essentially have to run a McDonald's store and make decisions about health vs profit and such.

I think it is a nice look at the corporate globalization from this week and the body image stuff from a few weeks ago.

Game: http://www.mcvideogame.com/index-eng.html

Just Do It: Direct Vs. Indirect Media Education Lessons for Men and Women

Hatoum and Belle (2006) pointed out that reading magazines targeted at men often lead males to be dissatisfied with their physique and want to add muscle. Also, men had much higher, usually unrealistic, expectations of female fitness if they regularly read these magazines.

There are at least two routes toward combating this trend. We can put men and women (or boys and girls, but only one age group in a session) in a classroom setting and introduce them to advertisement and magazine images that represent unrealistic human form. We can inform them what makes these images unrealistic (ie. digital manipulation, steroids) and the pervasiveness of the practice in advertising.

This would be the direct route. Normally, I am all for this, but we have seen such studies only attain pieces of the desired results. Therefore, I suggest we come at them sideways.

We are now in a formal setting, and the students are informed that the next project will be worth a significant portion of the grade for class X. We discuss advertising and the strategies that are used to make a persuasive television advertisement, possibly showing some examples. Assured that they are noticing issues like unrealistic body image, we inform them of the assignment. They must produce a short advertisement for a product, using the strategies that they are aware of. The ads will be shown to another class and their grade will be determined by how many of those students would be willing to buy the product advertised.

So now the students scurry off and seek ways to sell their product. What they will soon realize is that they cannot rely on the tactics that soda and car commercials do, because they cannot possibly put those things in front of the camera. The body of Cindy Crawford is not going to help them sell their can of Pepsi because a very low percentage of women have a shape remotely like hers, and it is unlikely that one of those few is sitting in their classroom. They will realize that the bodies of the real, tangible individuals that we interact with daily do not resemble Heidi Klum or Jesse "The Body" Ventura.

Now the students realize that what they encounter in magazines and commercials are less "real" people and more constructions created through dozens of individuals manipulating and producing what is essentially an "effect." The degree of separation between the manipulation of a model in a magazine advertisement and the digital/physical amalgamation of Benjamin Button in David Fincher's film is due to nothing more than a matter of preferred method of production. The digitally "painted on" model and computer generated model of Brad Pitt's head on the body of a 60 year-old actor are equally absurd in their appearance when compared to the reality that is placed in front of the camera.

At least Fincher gives us, the audience, a tell to indicate that this is indeed fantasy. Even the least sophisticated viewer will notice that Button's head (the digital model of Pitt's) is unusually large for his body. The character maintains this proportion until his age is approximately that of Pitt, when he actually does his own acting.

The magazines don't give us this wink of the eye. They would have us believe that what we are gazing upon is reality. It is a disservice that harms the self-esteem of many individuals, and a practice that shows no sign of dissipating.

Practical Classes

I ran across this article about practical classes that should be offered in public schools. Unfortunately, there are only two on there, but I think we can assume there are several more that are certainly needed.

http://bit.ly/cVTulm

And here is one about the poor decision to base education policy on exceptions to the poverty/knowledge gap.

http://wapo.st/9GDpKH

Got Veggies? NOT!!!

Severson's (2010) article has some pretty intense recommendations. And it isn't the first time in our readings that an organization recommended nine servings of fruits and vegetables in a day. That seems like an outrageous amount to me. I thought it was silly when they were talking to people that are intimidated by vegetables, but this intimidates me.

No wonder people don't even bother trying. They are told that this is how much they are supposed to be eating, and it is far from their current consumption, so they tune out. I think we may need to set a more reasonable goal to start reversing some of these troublesome trends.

One idea that I really like is the "edible schoolyard" (despite its weird name). Kids pitching in to produce veggies seems like an easy way to create some ego involvement with their healthy food. Now, Berkeley schools are most likely going to have resources far beyond most public schools, but it is a step in the right direction. Maybe the parents can get their children involved in growing veggies at home and get a similar effect? How do the kids that grow up on the farms of the Midwest fare in the vegetable eating contest?

Maybe we should all get some of those French cooks we saw in the clip last week, who hid the veggies in tasty treats? If America won't listen, we will just trick every single one of them into eating vegetables.

It would be Lex Luthor's lamest, but healthiest, scheme ever.

Food ad

In an attempt to get past the popular ads from the last few Super Bowls, I did some real digging. The result is this gem from Australia or New Zealand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDPnZBezwjw

Especially relevant for those of us who took rhetoric last year.

Ads in High School

I have very little recollection of advertising in any school before high school. The only exception would be the book fair, which Betsy covered already (I agree that it is a "pester power" machine).

In high school, I recall the band selling candy (leave it to the band to corrupt our community ;) ), which Lindsey admitted to doing herself. Other than that, the only thing I can think of is the Coke and Powerade (which is owned by Coke) machines. The interesting part is that they were not available during the school day. They were located in a breezeway between the main gym and the little "back gym," where the training room was also located. However, this breezeway would remained locked through the school day, leaving only one access point between the gyms. After the official school day was over, the breezeway would be unlocked. Therefore, the only people using it were athletes, some of the after school clubs, and faculty members. I don't know what the official line is, but I think the lack of access during the school day makes a major difference. I don't think that, correct or not, anyone would dispute that after school and during school activities fall under different philosophies.

I may be wrong, but after I graduated I think they went to having the machines be accessible all day. They were not making enough money with the current strategy, so they could either remove them or maximize profits on them. Of course, they went with the latter.