Week Nine: The Canute Complex: Commericalization of Schools

This week's topic continued the debates and issues of researching the controversies of children and the media. In tutorial we were asked to reflect on the rights and research ethics of children according to the UN convention. Having attended the consumer literacy group pilot project meeting, i was unable to listen and contribute to the discussions in tutorial.
Based on the readings for this week, my ideas and thoughts are as followed.
The first article by Heather-jane Robertson "Hyenas at the Oasis: Corporate Marketing to Captive Students looks at the peril of control corporations have on 'resource-hungry' schools.
The article begins with her attendance at at marketing show that is selling the ideal of marketing to children within the school system. The clear message suggested by the marketers is as followed, "we are told that children represent three markets...they control enviable amounts of disposable income...kids influence approximately $1 trillion of their parents's spending...children are consumers -in-training, imprinting constantly as they prepare to take their place as full adults."(18) As marketers realize that children are one of the most important target makrkets and do everything they can to achieve this by pleasing their captivated market. Marketers must fulfill their needs while fulfilling their own. The author goes through different examples of companies and resources that use children to make a profit. Her concern is woven through the article as well.
The article that i found interesting was "Captive Audiences" by Juliet Schor.
It is alarming to think that in public institutions that strive to foster creative and individual thought, such as Education systems, that advertisers have been welcomed into the classrooms with arms wide open. Advertising as social communication has the ability to convert and distort the minds of students with propaganda programming that children are forced to watch. As advertisers quickly realized children are a valuable market and the possibility to target them from within social institutions should be taken advantage of as soon as the possibility arose. With programs such as “Channel One” in the United States, advertisers offer schools necessary resources such as computers and televisions as long as the ensure the 10 minute promotional messages be delivered to the children. Corporate influence in the school system ranges in reason. Coke, Pepsi and other branded snack foods have been in the schools for many years and with recent debates regarding advertising in the schools, fact is they are there to stay. Schore notes that "schools are selling ad space on buses and stadium walls, even inside school buildings and classrooms."(89) Channel One is a mandatory daily viewing of advertisments and propaganda. As Schor suggests, "from the beginning Channel One has been controversial, teachers, parents' groups and conservative religious organizations have opposed the practice of forcing kids to watch." When i think about the positive aspects this program can have on children it is actually hard to image what they are. THe only possible conclusion would be that students need the technological tools such as computers, audio-visual devices and other necessities. Because government funding is being reduced teachers have less access to simple things such as paper. The sadest part of Channel One is the involvement of the military in the programming. Another sad factor is that corporations write the curriculum, if we are just feeding the lies and ideas of money hungry corporations why even bother sending children to school. Why not just make them go straight to work so they can please corporations, PR firms and such and start feeding into the consumerist cycle at an earlier age. Yes, these rants are particularly exaggerated and distorted and mellowdramatic. The question remains, when will consumers wake up and realize that we are living a lie based on the images and propaganda of advertisements for corporations and begin to questions our future as a united community of citizens and not as consumers. The children are our future and if we continue to let corporations dictate them how life is suppose to be lead, we will definitly have a consumption problem in the future. Which is scary when today's society is already at a level of uncertainty.
http://adstandards.com/en/clearance/childrencode.asp