Teach Your Children Well;
Media Literacy Training in Alcohol Advertising
Alysia Rogers
It is quite ironic that America, one of the leaders in exportation as well as consumption of media, lags so far behind other English speaking countries in the realm Media Literacy (Kubey, 1998). Maybe it is the third-person effect in action. Americans are in denial about how much the media is able to persuade them, and especially their children. When America sees something it doesn’t particularly like about the media, instead of educating themselves against the destructive message, they try to take the easy way out, which doesn’t usually work. The easy way out includes changing the media rather than their own perceptions of media, which can reduce negative effects more drastically than any sort of “Parental Control” on a television can do.
Media literacy is the top preventer of negative effects from media (Austin, 1995), yet takes a backseat to other forms of controlling media that have not been proven as effective (e. g. Safe Harbor, content labels, et cetera). Even as early as the 1930’s, media literacy has been seen as an effective way to change the attitudes of young people with regards to media persuasiveness (Kubey, 1998). But after WWII came, most media literacy programs fell by the wayside until the 1960’s.
John Culkin, who is considered to be “the man who invented media literacy” (Cantor, 1976), recognized the need for “America to create a media literate population” (Cantor, 1976). Culkin began his research in the mid-60’s believing that it was the school’s responsibility to provide adequate understanding to teachers and students about media. In 1969 he founded the Center for Understanding Media, Inc. which tried to enhance teachers’ knowledge about all forms of media (Kubey, 1998).
In the mid-1970’s form a growing concern that children would “learn bad behavior” from television, sprang the Television Awareness Training program, or TAT as it became... [continues]
Media Literacy Training in Alcohol Advertising
Alysia Rogers
It is quite ironic that America, one of the leaders in exportation as well as consumption of media, lags so far behind other English speaking countries in the realm Media Literacy (Kubey, 1998). Maybe it is the third-person effect in action. Americans are in denial about how much the media is able to persuade them, and especially their children. When America sees something it doesn’t particularly like about the media, instead of educating themselves against the destructive message, they try to take the easy way out, which doesn’t usually work. The easy way out includes changing the media rather than their own perceptions of media, which can reduce negative effects more drastically than any sort of “Parental Control” on a television can do.
Media literacy is the top preventer of negative effects from media (Austin, 1995), yet takes a backseat to other forms of controlling media that have not been proven as effective (e. g. Safe Harbor, content labels, et cetera). Even as early as the 1930’s, media literacy has been seen as an effective way to change the attitudes of young people with regards to media persuasiveness (Kubey, 1998). But after WWII came, most media literacy programs fell by the wayside until the 1960’s.
John Culkin, who is considered to be “the man who invented media literacy” (Cantor, 1976), recognized the need for “America to create a media literate population” (Cantor, 1976). Culkin began his research in the mid-60’s believing that it was the school’s responsibility to provide adequate understanding to teachers and students about media. In 1969 he founded the Center for Understanding Media, Inc. which tried to enhance teachers’ knowledge about all forms of media (Kubey, 1998).
In the mid-1970’s form a growing concern that children would “learn bad behavior” from television, sprang the Television Awareness Training program, or TAT as it became... [continues]
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