I have never heard of Channel 1, which is surprising since apparently this program is viewed by millions of teenagers across the nation every morning. After watching the channel one program in lecture the other day, I was shocked by the lack of subtlety of blatant advertisements targeting teens, who are easily influenced. The primary sponsor, Cingular, suggested that teens are like zombies without the ownership of a cell phone and teenagers are encouraged to pressure their parents for material commodities such as this to be socially accepted. Although it seems as though Channel One is a program dedicated to educating students about important current global issues, the priorities of the network are clearly commercial advertisements.
I feel that it is frightening how much emphasis is placed on the power of purchasing and the desire for people to own as much "stuff" as possible and to buy the newest, latest and greatest product in the market. New innovations are put out onto the market all the time, encouraging people to constantly by the newest and updated technologies. Individuals in this society are being turned into consumer zombies, surrounded by advertisements telling them they need to buy certain products to make them feel a certain way and to be socially accepted. Even through a program that is supposed to target kids and educate them on important global issues, Channel One dedicates more airtime promoting products. It is frightening living in a society that places so much emphasis and importance on the economy and how much people are spending and buying. There are more important concerns in the world today that need the same, if not more, amount of attention, and the media is an important factor in spreading this message and informing citizens about current issues as opposed to advertisements for Cingular's most popular featured phone of the moment.
2 comments:
I was really suprised after learning abot Channel 1 as well. I had never heard of the program before, and have never known anyone who had channel on in the class room. (I can't help but think that growing up in liberal Portland had something to do with it.) I am shocked that any discerning teacher, parent, or student who stand for having that sort of blatant advertising in a classroom. A classroom should be the last place where students need to wade through the constant barage of advertisements and images we receive everyday as young people. The classroom should be a safe place for students to try to sort out all these things, not just another place for advertisers to use to gain lifetime consumers. Kids are impressionable, probably the most impressionable demographic of consumers. It's a proven that if an advertiser can get a young kid or teenager to use their brand at that crucial time in their life, they will be dedicated to that brand forever thereby making them lifelong consumers of their product. I think it's immoral and unethical to have programs like Channel One in the classroom.
The viewing of the Channel one show was a little disturbing. Apart from the blatant advertising in the schools a major critique of this channel for me was the so called news stories. The two stories that were covered concerning the bird flu and immigration. The thirty second news clips did nothing to inform or educate the students on these issues. The bird flu storie was seemingly ran as a sensationist peice, and the immegration story said nothing of importance, simply that some immigration bill was being voted on. We were not told about the bil at all.
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