Module 2 Re-Cap!
One of my favorite parts of this class is talking about marketing! Therefore, reading about product placement and Shah’s article which describes children as huge consumers is right up my alley. Although I don’t believe that it’s ethical to market to an audience that doesn’t understand why they want what they want, I find it fascinating to read the research which talks about how the characters on cereal boxes are designed to catch a child’s attention and how the ‘tween’ age is one of the largest spenders because they are constantly re-defining the meaning of what is ‘cool’ or in style. It is so hard to be a parent in an age when your child is being marketed to all day long. But who is to blame for our kids wanting the brand name ‘My Little Pony’ toys? How much can we blame the media when we, as parents, just want to make our children happy when the industry is playing to that need?
As I read the assigned text for the class, I realize more and more how I wasn’t right in feeling like the media is to blame for all things bad. I learned from Karen Sternheimer that contrary to my original belief, the American childhood is easier and more luxurious now than in the early 20th century. I always thought it would have been so much nicer to be a child in a different time but the reality is that if I can grown up in the 1920’s, I would have probably been poor or working at a young age to help my family and probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to finish school. After completing the reading from Cortes (2000), I realized how many generalizations are taught within our schools and how I am guilty of generalizing so much and sometimes not really looking into something further to get the full story. I agree with the reading that children (and adults) need to be taught the differences between stereotypes and evidence-based generalizations. Making a generalization is something we have to do daily in order to survive.
For instance, if I am driving and the car in front of me hits the brakes, it generally means that they are coming to a stop and I need to follow suit or risk hitting them. However, on the other hand, Larry Gross (2001) helped me to see that the media tells us what life is like through ‘reality’ television. In my mind I know it isn’t real but there’s so much ‘reality’ TV that sometimes it’s hard to reject that it it’s only a charade. For example, not every homosexual male is scrawny, emotional and weak which ties back in to the stereotypes. The media expands on what the audience already thinks is reality and pushes the boundaries. Tollefson (2008) and Foucault showed me that discipline isn’t a bad thing and that it may be necessary in order to regulate or help things run more efficiently and although I agree that we need a healthier system that isn’t based around the elite, I also think that the elite hold the money which equals power and that’s why things are a certain way. The key is to have everyone on the same page and really help our educational system out: for the future of our world!
