Christina Vrooman - Portfolio 4

From Drmills

e-mail contribution:

Hello,

I haven't been able to keep up with everyone's e-mail contributions this week, so I hope nobody has written about this already. Anyway, this video is an interview from the Colbert Report (which is always incredible) featuring a new invention that could mark the end of water-borne disease. It can take any type of filthy water and transform it into perfectly clean, drinkable water without any filters, membranes or chemicals. Incredible!

Check out: http://thoughtware.tv/videos/watch/1653

Good luck on your contributions... Cvrooman 00:51, 26 March 2008 (EDT)

blog contribution:

So, I’m thinking about taking the “camry” decal off my car and replacing it with “oilcoholic” or something to that effect. I’m taking an amazing jewelry class, so I think I’ll be able to cast it in bronze. What do you think? I think it will be a nice addition to my “what are chemtrails?” sign. By the way, if you don’t know what chemtrails are, google it. But avoid the first website that pops up.

I watch thoughtware.tv nearly every day now. Most of the videos feature future technology and give me hope that we might avoid doomsday. Last night I watched the Craig Venter video assigned for class. Videos like this make me really excited for the future. They keep me optimistic. However, I was surprised at how little attention was paid to the possible danger of such technology. I wonder if the suicide genes are mandatory, and generated before each new organism is created. Either way, a program that has the potential to allow organizations to create biological weapons is scary!  Cvrooman 12:49, 26 March 2008 (EDT)

I really like your blog contributions -- they always seem very thoughtful, interesting and honest! ;-)

book wiki contribution:

Children as Consumers: Toward Creating Sustainable Consumption Practices in Future Generations Consider revising your title to reflect the content of your contribution, which seems to make an argument for reducing advertising directed at children rather than encouraging sustainable consumption practices in future generations.

The nearly unregulated promotion and solicitation of irresponsible consumer behaviors in young children is a problem of global importance. Advertising to children has become a very big business in light of the purchasing power they wield. Children are involved in many family purchases, [from lunchboxes, toys and backpacks to minivans] awkward, revise (either "from lunchboxes to toys, and from backpacks to minivans," or "from lunchboxes and toys to backpacks and minivans," etc.). “In 2000, US children twelve years and under influenced $500 billion in family purchases, up from $188 billion in 1997”(Dotson & Hyatt, 2005 quotes require page numbers). This type of spending power provides corporations with an incentive to create evermore ways to advertise to children.

Image of purchasing power of children:

review proper format for inserting photos -- need to add  Source: (link)

Not long ago, television and radio were the only place one was exposed to advertisements. Currently, the commercialization of public space is increasing rapidly, and takes many forms. “Corporate naming of stadiums, the growth of advertising in sport, advertising on subways and buses, the airport and hospital channels, advertising in restaurants, and other place-based advertising such as the illumination of sidewalks with ads, and the growth of street advertising such as product giveaways and what are called guerilla teams doing marketing on the streets” are all examples of this (Carlsson, 2006 need page#). Both children and adults are subjected to it on a daily basis. In addition, children are also exposed to in-school advertising, which rouses the most anger in child wellbeing advocates. Examples of this include, “so called sponsored educational materials or ads in the guise of free curricula provided to teachers, Channel One’s in-classroom ‘news’ broadcast and daily mandatory viewing of commercials, ads on school hallways, buses, and gymnasium floors, branded product giveaways, the sale of naming rights for gyms and even schools to corporate sponsors, exclusive soft-drink contracts, and field trip programs which introduce children to particular stores” (Carlsson, 2006). Ultimately, the daily experience of a child is bombarded with advertisements which have recently been incorporated into every aspect of life. The marketers capitalize on all of these practices by building brand loyalty, which is likely to last into adulthood (cite?).  Much of this paragraph is quotation.  Try paraphrasing in your own words, or put quote in a separate paragraph.

Brand loyalty is not the only thing that is troubling concerned child advocates. An interview with Dr. Allen Kanner, a well-practiced child psychologist, reveals that as a result of incessant advertising, when children “talk about their friends, they talk about the clothes they wear, the designer labels they wear, not the person’s human qualities” (Zoll, 2000, p #). Here, the marketers’ practices are infringing on the values Americans have held for centuries, training children to value products more than people. Values such as?  Explain how marketing practices infringe on these values in more detail.

There are many reasons parents and community leaders alike are concerned about this consumer socialization process. “Children are suffering from marketing-related disease… marketers are engaging in a hostile takeover of childhood” (Carlsson, 2006, p #). The main argument, which proposes to ban advertising to children, cites the child’s inability to understand the motive behind the messages they are receiving in the advertisements. In other words, with regard to television, they are unable to make the distinction between programs and advertisements. Carlsson explains, “advertising is mainly seen as entertainment or unbiased information” (Carlsson, 2006). This raises many ethical issues, especially when the product being advertised inherently has negative impacts on the health of the child.

Image of potential negative impacts of marketing to children:

Child-targeted advertising can be is harmful to children as well as totheir environment because.... Critics of marketers argue that “kids’ consumer culture takes a most intimate thing – the realization and expression of self – and fuses it with a most distant system – the production of goods, services, and media in an impersonal market” (Cook, 2001, p #). Research demonstrates time and time again that exposure to commercials train children to value products, which in turn, shapes their consumer patterns. In other words, the more they are advertised to, the more they judge their worth in the amount and type of products they can accumulate. The more they demand and accumulate, or the more consumption they are trained to practice, the more the environment is degraded to meet those demands. It is widely accepted that, “the behavior of consumers, especially those in so-called affluent societies… exacerbate the problem of resource depletion” (Cram, 1999, p #). This unsustainable behavior must come to an end if these children are to inherit an ecologically bearable future. This end begins with the roles, attitudes, and behaviors of adults.  <- a bit awk, revise.

The three major sources of consumer socialization that influence behavior are parents, peers, and mass media. “Parents are the main source of rational influence on children, with peers and media being primarily irrational influences” (Dotson & Hyatt, 2005, p #). Results of their study “are intuitive, and quantitatively show that children who spend less time with parents experience less rational social influence and more commercial and irrational influence in the consumer socialization process” (Dotson & Hyatt, 2005, p #). It is, then, up to parents to build the knowledge and understanding required for responsible consumption in their children, exerting power over the socialization process. Dan Cook, author of Lunchbox Hegemony, explains “the challenge facing us all – as relatives, teachers, friends, or even not-so-innocent bystanders – is to find ways to affirm children’s personal agency and their membership in a community of peers while insisting that they make the distinction between self-worth and owning a Barbie or a Pokemon card” (Cook, 2001,p #).

The field of psychology is also called upon to mend the current situation.  However, many psychologists are working directly for marketers, informing them of how to most effectively target and persuade children. The marriage of psychologists and marketers has been so successful that “by the time they are 36 months old, American children recognize an average of 100 brand logos” (Zoll., 2000, p #).

Image of advertisment from the most well-recognized brand worldwide:

Source: (web link)

Apparently,The psychologists working to promote these brand logos have not given consideration to the moral dilemma. However, many other psychologists have. Dr. Allen Kanner and 60 others have issued a public letter to the American Psychological Association (APA) which, “urges the APA to declare this practice unethical and recommends the association launch educational campaigns to heighten public awareness about the dangers advertising can pose for children”, encouraging the creation of a sort of Hippocratic oath for psychologists (Zoll, 2000, p #). Though America is still lagging far behind, some countries have incorporated this sort of philosophy into their policies. In Sweden and Norway, directly advertising to children under the age of twelve is prohibited. Europe is considering a similar policy. By bringing crucial evidence of the unfavorable interaction between development and the commercialization of childhood, the arguments of children’s rights activists will be much more compelling. It is the hope of those concerned with the wellbeing of children that America will adopt new regulations that consider child health and psychology as well as acknowledge and address the ecological issues  involved in a consumer culture. Cvrooman 19:04, 28 March 2008 (EDT)

External links

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HKH4YGKnOSs - Consuming Kids - The Commercialization of Childhood

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hKdNuKHHYeQ - Corporations in the Classroom

http://www.harvesth2o.com/willow.shtml - The Willow School - Teaching Sustainability

http://ecoliteracy.org/publications/getting-started.html - Center for Ecoliteracy - Starting a school garden

http://www.conservationvalue.org/eo_teachers.shtml - Resources for Educators: Teaching the Benefits of Sustainability

References

Carlsson, U. (2006). Regulation, awareness, empowerment: Young people and harmful media content in the digital age. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from http://www.nordicom.gu.se/common/publ_pdf/232_Regulation_Awareness_Empowerment.pdf

Cook, D. (2001). Lunchbox hegemony? Kids & the marketplace, then & now. Retrieved March, 20, 2008, from http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/featcook_124.shtml

Cram, F., & Ng, S. (1999, July). Consumer socialisation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 48(3), 297-312. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from PsycINFO database.

Dotson, M. J., & Hyatt, E. M. (2005). Major influence factors in children’s consumer socialization. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 22(1). Retrieved March 20, 2008, from PsycINFO database.

Zoll, M. H. (2000).Psychologists challenge ethics of marketing to children. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from http://www.mediachannel.org/originals/kidsell.shtml

Good -- interesting topic.   If you can find more material re psychological aspects of making kids (and advertisers) more eco-friendly, that would be good.  When you use use a quote, the citation requires a page number.

Rating Sheet

Scale: 1 - 5 (5 is best)

_4__ discovered, integrated and synthesized relevant information about the topic

_3__ critical analysis of information (of both corroborating and non-corroborating evidence)

_4__ conclusions based on evidence, especially empirical evidence, not simply opinion

_4__ written in an impartial, objective tone

_5__ the contribution fits in well with the existing outline and material

_4__ writing is of high quality: interesting, flows, analytic, good argumentation, organized

_4__ used APA style referencing appropriately (including reference list)

For the wiki book only:

_4__ included relevant graphics (tables, histograms, photos, etc.).

_4__ included a list of relevant external web links for more information

Grade:__B+__

Note: You can increase your grade by up to 1/2 a grade by making the revisions suggested above.