Children are exposed to a very large number of advertisements, there has been much controversy over the influences this has on children to conform they have been seen to influence pester power, unhealthy eating habits, stereotypes and gender role expectations (Gunter et al, 2005). Furnham (2000) however suggests ‘banning advertising of any sort shelters or at least delays a child’s understanding and decision making’ (Gunter et al, 2005). This led Gunter et al (2005:1) to raise the question ‘is it fair to advertise to children unless they fully understand the intent of the advertisers?’
Gunter et al (2005:9) states ‘young children are thought to be particularly vulnerable to advertising because they know less about the intent of advertisers and the process of creating an advertisement’. With this in mind this creates a variety of reasons to teach advertisements in the classroom which have an important contribution to make to children’s learning, firstly in terms of the design and content of advertising (Banaji, 2010), secondly to discuss the effects used for purpose, Furnham (2000) supports this view, adding the most effective way to help children understand advertising is by discussing products to inform the nature of advertising (Gunter at al, 2005), however this needs to be tackled in an age appropriate manner (Banaji, 2010).
Banaji (2010, 69) however found that some teachers avoid
teaching advertisement as they believe they get enough at home. Children may
not be given the chance when watching advertisements at home to discuss and critically
analyse the effects used and how they impact on us as consumers. Furnham (2000)
however supports this view that it is the role of parents to educate their
children into the economic world (Gunter et al, 2005). Should we as teachers
leave this to parents? as Gunter et al (2005:12) suggests pressures on primary
school curriculum mean that time spent on topics such as advertising may be
limited’.
It could be suggested that as adults our role in society is as consumers therefore adverts are merely guiding children into their role in society, the more understanding children gain about the purpose of advertisments can help enable them to make informed decisions.
Banaji, S (2010) ‘Analysing Advertisements in the classroom’
in Bazelgette, C. (Ed) Teaching Media in
Primary Schools London: SAGE
Gunter, B. Oates, C. & Blades, M. (2005) Advertising to Children on TV New Jersey,
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates pp1-13
At the beginning of last weeks seminar I placed my name on the disagree end of the washing line, thinking advertising was a bad influence for children. After Jon provoking our discussion and reading further into it I have changed my opinion to appreciating that as long as children are educated about advertising and are aware of their intents they are not necessarily a negative.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting how you discussed the idea that some teachers avoided teaching advertising and felt that we, as teachers, have a responsiblity to work alongside parents to educate the children in this matter. I wonder how many parents do educate their children about advertising though or whether most children will only have the input from teachers?
When reading about this issue of parents having responsibility to educate their children about advertisements, I also wondered if this was really discussed at home. All children come to the classroom with different experiences and I think this will be especially true to this topic. This made me more certain that we should educate children about advertising in the classroom to ensure all children have some awareness.
DeleteIt is interesting to read both of your views on this. My opinion has also changed since the seminar and doing further reading. I placed middle of the washing line in the seminar because I thought there were equally good and bad points to children's advertising however, now I have a more negative viewpoint. As a teacher, I feel that there is too much negative on children's advertising to teach it with confidence, relating to your comments within your blog. I wonder if there would be any specific teaching and strategies to use to give teachers greater confidence in teaching this topic?
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to read that your view has changed as I also thought there was equally good and bad points but can now see their uses. I think there is a range of advertising available, therefore it could be suggested introducing less sensitive adverts could be a starting point in the classroom.
DeleteI agree specific teaching strategies and guide lines to picking suitable adverts for analysis in the primary classroom may decrease teachers anxieties .
DeleteThe question of who's responsibility it is to teach children about advertisement interests me. I think if parents did teach their children about advertisement it may decrease teachers anxieties of teaching advertisement . It also could be used as a starting point with the children. However , I think it is important for the teacher to teach advertisement as children's understanding of advertisement may develop from creating their own adverts. Previous readings for blogs have suggested children's quality of work is better when they have a purpose and specific audience, so advertisement may improve children's persuasive writing due to having a specific audience and purpose .
ReplyDeleteI wonder if our confidence of teaching advertisement would change when you have your own class ? As you would know if it would be a suitable topic.
I also believe that allowing children to create their own advetisements can be educational, it can make explicit to children the effects used for purpose such as pictures,colours etc.
DeleteI think this could be true as when you know a class, choosing appropraite content becomes easier, also introducing less persuasive advertisements first could help in improving confidence of its use.
In comparison to the above comments, I placed my name on the agree side of the washing line, as I have seen on my school experience advertisement being taught in literacy lessons, which enabled the children to fully understand the purpose of advertising. I felt this would allow children to be critical of the media, therefore regardless if the advert was bad or good, the child was not as naive, as some of the readings have suggested. It is interesting your comments have picked up on the teachers confidence, as I also reflected on this. I feel that as a student teacher, I am confident in the features of advertisement, however agree with Emma that there should be guidance on specific teaching strategies, so that I would know what is relevant for each age group.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to know if any of you have seen advertisement being used in key stage one?
I agree that it is the content of some advertisements which make us as student teachers wary of using them. I am yet to see advertisments used in the classroom but feel maybe if I did this would give me more confidence in actually using them myself as although I recognise they should be taught like others have expressed I would still be apprehensive to use them in my own teaching at the moment.
DeleteAfter creating an advert for rigths of the child with year three children, it has improved my confidence in teaching advertisement. But i question if this is because of the educational content .
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