Dove Evolution

My Top 10

Top 10 Things I Learned In Media Literacy Class
(not ranked by importance)

1. Advertising has gone from informative to emotional. Advertising is not informative at all. It hits us at the limbic and reptilian brain. Love the brain stuff.

2. The follow the money activity. I love to know all the parent companies of different products. I am so interested in how companies are consolidating. I never thought of doing that as an activity with kids and their media usage.

3. Disney. Having a daughter who loves Disney, it was really interesting seeing the movies from a different perspective. The portrayal of women in these movies seems archaic.

4. The constant influx advertising. I knew that advertising was all around us, but this class really opened my eyes to it. We can’t tell students to not listen to advertising. It is impossible. We need to teach them to be critical thinking in terms of their media consumption and the way they view advertising.

5. VNR’s Say what? VNR! I had never heard of that! I couldn’t imagine! I am outraged! I thought my morning news was news, not a FEED coming in from a PR firm!

6. Understanding more persuasive techniques. I knew many, but I couldn’t come up with 29 on my own. I feel this will be a really useful tool with students.

7. Media at War. I knew that our media took a pro-US viewpoint, but the movie was very revealing. There certainly are cons to having embedded media with the troops (especially with just the troops).

8. Facebook and Advertising. I just started using Facebook a few months ago. I never really noticed the ads too much, at least consciously. I didn’t realize the extent the company uses profile information to target advertising at its users.

9. Acxiom, Acxiom, Acxiom… Scary, scary, scary…. Need I say more? I guess I have to. I can’t believe this company collects so much information about people. They use their credit cards, buy plane tickets, get magazines and there is an assumption of privacy. They can target advertising to just about anyone.

10. How we have gone from having informative programming to infotainment. We are losing meaningful conversations about important issues in the world because we are inundated with such media fluff.

Questions for the Future:

1. How can we pull ourselves out of this? Will media education be enough to solve this problem? Advertisers are always trying to find the next new concept to cut through the clutter. How will we keep up with them?

2. Where will the Internet go? Will it remain, “free.” How will advertising and the Internet work together?

3. I am exciting to incorporate these concepts into my curriculum. I think the kids will really enjoy it. The question would be, with 4th and 5th graders, how far do I go?

Deconstructing Ads Video

Here is the "Deconstructing Ads" video for my final media literacy project.

Product Placement Video Project

The "Persuaders" Was Quite Persuading

What I learned from, "The Persuaders."

1. Almost all products are alike now. Many of them do a good job. Advertisers don't sell product based on the qualities of the product, but how we feel about it. This seems to pull at our emotions. I love the comment that successful ads don't persuade you to buy something, but get you to persuade yourself to buy it.

2. Brands that are good at marketing are ingrained in us. We attach certain feelings to them. When we buy the product we expect that feeling. I have felt it, but then I am usually disappointed after using the product. How long will people buy products and be continually disappointed? Will advertisers have to keep pushing us with new products and stronger emotions?

3. Acxion, the Big Brother of Advertising. I didn't realize people tracked my purchases. I use my debit card for almost all purchases. I think I will start using cash.

4. The use of words in political campaigns was interesting and a little scary. Luntz claimed that he was just changing the words that are used, but different words have different meanings and carry different emotions. By changing the words politicians use, they are attempting to make an apathetic public. This is dangerous. The public should be the ultimate checks and balances of our government. If we allow politicians to continually pull the wool over our eyes with their engineered wording, we may allow (or have allowed) them to do what is not in our or the country's best interest. They may also find issues to distract us from the real issues, such as knowing the debate around the Georgia state flag would create controversy and motivate voters.

5. We have become an advertising culture. Our culture is full of advertising, "clutter." Where are they going to go now? I thought the comment about how in a society that is full of advertising, people don't see the common good, only what is good for themselves (or their demographic). This is scary. My children will grow up in an age when advertisers are bombarding them with messages that focus on their wants by using their emotions. Scary.

My Mind Was Fed By "Feed"

I think M.T. Anderson's book was not only a commentary and the bleak future of the United States, but also a commentary on our current media-laden culture.

1. Media and advertising have become a distraction. Like the feed in the minds of most people in the book, we are overwhelmed with media messages. This constant advertising and meaningless entertainment has distracted us from having meaning discussions about important issues. Our current news "feed" is filled with stories that are more for entertainment than informative/educational.

2. Technology has weakened relationships. M-chat, conversations that are interrupted by blasts of advertising. The teenagers in Feed were unable to have meaningful relationships. Their connection to one another was based on their relationship with the feed. I worry about that with our current culture as well. Water cooler conversations based on celebrities, texting, Facebook, Twitter. Will it bring us closer? I hope so. I am cautiously optimistic.

3. Commercialism, Commercialism, Commercialism. In Feed, the characters were hit with advertisers all the time. Not only that, but the feed helped them make up their mind. This constant bombardment of persuasive messages had the characters changing hairstyles, clothes, and toys as the trends change. And those trends did change- quickly. These changes must make a lot of money for the corporations, but fill our world with waste: products tossed aside. In our current culture, companies profit from yearly changes in clothing styles, new upgrades in technology, etc. It makes me think: Do technology companies work together to hold back newer technologies so they can continually release new technology, making us upgrade and buy new products; our old products in the landfill?

4. Sorry. I have to do a 4th theme. I think the connection seen between the information that corporations had on Feed users and the information gathered by Acxiom as depicted in The Persuaders is uncanny. The lack of privacy in Feed is very obvious (such as the invasion of Titus' brain during a 'dream'), but in our culture we have a perceived notion of privacy. Most people are unaware of the profiles that corporations keep on them and what those profiles say. We may not have a feed in our brains, but hardware or not, are we moving in that direction at a rapid pace?

Response to the Propaganda Paper and the Big Trade-Off

Hodgkinson's article was not only unprofessional, it was irresponsible. Hodgkinson seems like an activist. As such, I feel it is imperative that his writing be grounded with facts and a solid, rational argument. Although Hodgkinson used a variety of persuasive techniques (such as scapegoating and the strawman) his argument preoccupation with board members of Facebook seemed more like ranting. He started off with describing the life of a Facebooker as lonely and not genuine. Instead of researching this and supporting it with fact he targeted the board members. I don't agree with the political leanings of the board members who are getting more rich off of Facebook and supporting neocon groups. Unfortunately,many readers will dismiss Hodgkinson's argument as rantings.
Facebook does have the potential to be a useful tool for groups of many different political groups. I saw a post today from a "friend," that had a link that led me to a website about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and a group that is trying to clean it up. I would not have known about this environmental problem if it weren't for Facebook- the trade-off.
When you sign up for Facebook, you sign away your privacy. People should know that. I was unaware of the ads that target my profile. This article illuminated that issue for me. I immediately went on to Facebook and looked at my profile. Interests include hiking and cooking. I looked at the ads on the sidebar: North Face, City Market, and culinary schools. What a powerful tool, except I barely notice that the ads are there. I have many 4th and 5th grade students with Facebook accounts. I wonder if they are aware of this? Room for a media education moment!