Sunday, February 24, 2013
Blog 6: Should children learn about advertising in school and if so, what do teachers need to understand about the way in which children engage with advertising?
Despite being surrounded by a variety of advertising formats, children spend a considerable amount of time viewing them on television (Gunter, Oates and Blades, 2005). Some of these are arguably inappropriate, encouraging children to 'pester' their parents on shopping trips for things they don't need, as well as giving an 'unachievable stereotype' of the people and their lifestyles (Gunter et al, 2005). This can have an effect on children's perceptions of themselves, particularly as they are considered to be vulnerable and unaware of advertising intentions (Gunter et al,2005). Furthermore, Banaji (2010) suggests that whilst revealing these intentions may educate children, it 'does not guarantee that children have an understanding of the complex, profit-based factors involved', for instance the use of celebrities (p.63). An implication of this is that when teaching children about advertising, teachers should be aware of what children already understand and what could be misleading, for instance, the celebrity is paid for the advert and therefore 'may not be providing an objective recommendation' (Gunter et al, 2005:p8). I feel that it is important to teach children about the intentions of advertisers so they can make their own informed opinion about products. Also pressure on parents to provide their children with the latest toy or game is evident as parents shopping with their child appear to spend more than they would alone (Banaji, 2010), arguably encouraging materialism.
Banaji, S. (2010) 'Analysing Advertisements in the Classroom' in Bazalgette, C. (Ed.) Teaching Media in Primary Schools London: Sage
Gunter, B., Oates, C., and Blades, M. (2005) Advertising to Children on TV. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
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Do you think advertising is more relevant to teach in KS1 or KS2? I think teachers might try and 'protect' children from advertising from a young age and maybe not even think about it until teaching in KS3. Do you think it can be taught effectively across the key stages and how which resources/adverts in particular would you use?
ReplyDeleteI think possibly KS2, but perhaps this is because I was never taught about advertising in KS1 myself. Making children aware of advertising intentions from a young age has it's pros and cons, but deepening this understanding and unpicking advertising techniques, I feel, would be more beneficial for children in KS2. I would probably start by using newspapers or magazines to annotate on an interactive whiteboard, then move on to television adverts enabling children to establish similarities in how advertisers try to make their product or idea more appealing.
ReplyDeleteI am unsure about how it could be taught in KS1. Would you use adverts surrounding popular culture such as 'moshi monsters' or would it be more beneficial to use an advert for something more general? If we use pop culture adverts, is this going to make children less enthusiastic about particular kinds of toys? Will this put a negative slant on 'crazes' and other things which can be a useful tool to engage children in lessons?
I think I would do the same at KS2 starting with paper based advertising before moving onto electronic, maybe even bringing in the internet and advertisements on there. I think for KS1 much of it depends on how to use it. Maybe if the children just watched some adverts and then made an advert for a particular product/item without getting into the detail of adverts, purely so they have experiences learning with them as a tool.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't the children have to get into the detail of the adverts in order to create their own? Or do you mean that they just wouldn't explore the more controversial issues such as false advertising? I hadn't thought of internet adverts. I think that sometimes they are overlooked, perhaps because they are littered on many websites and so we ignore them. Also, pop-ups and other adverts, particularly on social networking sites are often seen as 'scams', so maybe they aren't taken seriously.
ReplyDeleteWell I'm not sure if they would need to get into the detail of adverts in themselves. if the teacher carefully shose an advert that was suitable the children could discuss it and then would be able to build on that throughout their schooling maybe? Yes definitely I think internet adverts would be somehing to explore maybe as a safeguarding aspect in upper KS2. It still suprises me how many ten year olds have facebook and other social networking sites and they need to be aware of what is on there and how it is used. I remember someone saying before they target adverts at the information you put in and it would be very easy for a child to be mislead by an advertisement on facebook.
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