Workshop A (Friday,
10:45-12:00)
1.
The Case for Make-Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized
World
Susan Linn, CCFC & Joan Almon, Alliance for Childhood
Creative play
is not only the foundation of learning, problem solving and
critical thinking--it is essential for self-reflection, the
human drive to make life meaningful. Yet in a commercialized
world, nurturing children's creative play is actually
counter-cultural. Hands on play is no longer children's default
leisure activity. More than ever--as marketing drives even very
young children to a life of screens, and the best selling toys
are electronic or media-linked and come with their own story
lines--it is essential that we all work to provide children with
the time, space, and tools that foster imaginative play. This
workshop explores how we meet the 21scentury
challenges of insuring children's right to make believe play.
2.
Media Literacy for the New World Order
and Adolescent girls learn about the importance of being "hot"
Susan Owusu, Boston YWCA and Jessica Greenstone, Tufts
University
This two-part workshop will explore new research that
illustrates how media messages are undermining adolescent girls
healthy development and how media literacy can be used to
encourage youth to be critical consumers of media.
First, Jessica Greenstone reports on her discussions with ninth
and tenth grade girls. Participants reported the belief that
the primary way available for achieving attention from others
and self-worth is by emphasizing their physical identities,
expressed as “hotness” (which refers to idealized physical
attributes and dress). They also reported that efforts to
achieve “hotness” are in tension with a focus on smartness, and
that they felt rewarded socially for emphasizing their physical
identities. The girls in this study reported that popular media
was the primary source for their peers’ and their own ideas
about what clothing styles were fashionable, as well as the
source of what was considered “hot.”
Then Susan Owusu will lead a workshop on empowering youth
through media literacy. Media consumption is not a passive
process, but a dynamic experience where youth develop identity
and values to last a lifetime. With the average teen spending
more than 12 hours a day consuming media it is critical that
they have the tools to better analyze the media messages that
surround them. Youth need the skills to think critically so
they can understand the media they see, and the communities they
are a part of. Enter Media Minds—media literacy curriculum and
activities designed especially for urban teens delivered by
competent staff experienced in working directly with Boston
Public School students. Learn how to encourage youth to be
critical consumers of media, thinking about what they see and
hear, and how it shapes what they think.
3.
Private Enterprise in Public Schools: Communicating School
Commercialization
Gary Brunk, Kansas Action & Lynn Davey, FrameWorks Institute
This workshop will present findings from the FrameWorks
Institute’s research on how Kansans think about issues related
to commercial activity in public schools, and what can be done
to advance public thinking to align with expert perspectives on
healthy contexts for children’s development. FrameWorks
Institute’s research in Kansas suggests a number of
communications strategies that can encourage critical thinking
about the impact of commercial activity in schools, and improve
support for advancing public policies necessary to improve
children’s health and well-being.
4.
The Well-Being of Children Deserves the Best Science Available
Brandy King, Center on Media and Child Health
"Children who watch television with sexual content become
sexually active 2 years earlier than children who do not." The
Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH), an interdisciplinary
center of excellence at Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard
Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, is an
important resource for anyone who raises, cares for, or works
with children growing up in the Media Age. Parents, teachers,
psychologists, pediatricians, media producers and now - your own
organization - can leverage what research can teach us to
improve the well-being of children. Brandy King will introduce
CMCH origins, mission, and focus on the positive and negative
influences of media on the physical, mental, and social health
of children. Brandy King will demonstrate how the CMCH website,
blog, and newsletters can offer free information and strategies
to address the sexualization of children and work toward safe
and healthy media use for children everywhere.
5.
Using the Power of the Media for Positive Change
Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth
Find out how to leverage the same media and marketing tactics
used by those within advertising and the entertainment industry
to flip harmful messages into productive pursuits and use media
as a positive distribution channel for social change. Shaping
Youth will share how we use persuasion and motivation to shift
the energy in a healthier direction, inspiring actions for
sustainable change using our counter-marketing tactics from
industry insiders.
We’re embedding positive cues into digital media and virtual
worlds, using peer to peer viral tactics to enlighten/inform,
mobilizing via social media hubs like Facebook/Twitter, and
empowering actions to ‘take hold’ of the manipulation machine
that’s defining kids before they can even define themselves.
Subject Areas Covered/Global Impact:
•Fast food usurping indigenous/fresh foods in emerging nations
(obesity/agriculture/jobs)
•Appearance ideals/objectification
(anxiety/depression/disordered eating/substance abuse)
•Consumption/products/packaging (environment/sustainability
issues)
•Behavioral cues (early sexualization/aggression/habit-setting/relationship
distortions)
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Workshop B
(Friday,
2:45-4:00)
1.
Towards Greater Health, Wealth and Wisdom: How to Have Fun, Kick
(Corporate) Butts and Take Names with 21st Century ACME-Style
Media Education
Rob Williams, Action Coalition for Media Education
Interested in learning the basics of a dynamic, fun and engaging
approach to media education? Tired of nasty multinational
corporations pushing their crap down your kids' throats and into
their growing brains? Wanna do something about it? And have fun,
too? Then come participate in our fun and interactive workshop
with ACME co-founder and co-president Dr. Rob Williams. Handouts
and plenty of free multimedia goodies will be provided. Fun for
the whole family!
2.
Who Stole the Sexual Revolution: Kids, Marketing and the
Politics of Sex
Carl Bybee and Debra Merskin, University of Oregon
This
presentation looks at the sexualization of children through the
context of the progressive effort to bring questions of sex,
sexuality, gender and politics into the public eye. The
presentation questions what transformed the sexual revolution
into a sexy look and sexual activity marketed to youth as
rebellion without politics. The sexualization of childhood as
an obstacle (for children, parents and marketers) to engaged
citizenship will be addressed, as well as Thomas Frank’s idea of
liberation marketing, Benjamin Barber’s thinking on the links
between consumerism and democracy and some older ideas on this
phenomena, perhaps originating with Herbert Marcuse, all in an
accessible, jargon-free language.
3.
How to Teach Youth about their Consumer Culture
Tim Kasser, Knox College, Velma LaPoint, Howard
University, Garland Waller, Boston University Tim Kasser, Tim
Rairdon
In this workshop, three college professors (and one college
student) will discuss strategies for teaching young people about
consumer culture. Ideas for syllabi and assignments will be
shared, and workshop participants will have the opportunity to
discuss the joys and challenges of helping youth understand the
dynamics and resist the influences of consumer culture.
4.
The Wondershop: Nurturing Creative Thinkers in a Commercial
World
Ginger Carlsson, author, Child of Wonder
Come learn how commercialization impacts creativity and thinking
skills. Together, we will explore a variety of positive ways to
encourage creative thinking and how children can develop a
strong sense of self, confidence in personal thinking, and in
the world around them. In this workshop, participants will:
Consider the effect of popular culture and media representations
on personal expression and critical thinking. Rethink
environmental and gender expectations. Discover practical ways
to nurture natural instincts and lead children in unique
personal expression.
5.
“Come In and Play!”: How Social Networks Exploit Young
Children
Richard Freed, psychologist, private practice
The latest social networks entice young children to play online
where they become prey for marketers. While MySpace has
cornered the market on older youth, new social networks such as
Webkinz, Club Penguin, and Neopets target kids as young as five
years of age. Surprisingly, there is a push to get these social
networks into children’s schools. In this interactive session,
participants will learn about and discuss the consequences of
moving children’s play from the real world into virtual branded
environments. Strategies for combating this trend will be
explored.
6.
Airwaves and Activism
Lynn Ziegler,
author, Spongeheadz: U & Media
Airwaves and
Activism is a "re-framing" of TV viewing, structured on the
remote control. In this workshop, participants will be
encouraged to explore linking TV viewing choices with real-time
social issues. A look at the COLOR button will explore the
importance of diversity; the BALANCE button will look at gender
and race bias in news; and the SELECT button addresses consumer
choices, particularly about food--and even politics. The PAGE
button celebrates reading. And so on. There are easy,
inexpensive (cheap!) and quick activities, suitable for use in
class or at home, for every button we examine.
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Workshop C
(Saturday,
11:20-12:35)
1.
Media Violence as a Form of Child Abuse: How Schools Can Protect
Children Against it With Success
Jacques Brodeur, EDUPAX
Surveys have shown that millions of parents are aware of the
(increasing) negative influence of television and videogames on
their child. The media has become so powerful that it takes
parents tremendous effort, patience and knowledge to protect
their children from five types of collateral damage:
manipulation, addiction, imitation, desensitization and obesity.
The power of the media has also been used to convince some
citizens that media violence is a controversial issue. While
legislation has proven to be the only way to civilize the
industry, joint mobilization by families and schools
have succeeded in raising children's and teen's critical viewing
skills. How did it work ? What results have been reached ?
2.
The Impact of Sexualization on Classroom Culture, Teaching and
Learning...and What to Do about It
Diane Levin, coauthor, So Sexy So Soon
Designed as a follow-up to Diane and Jean Kilbourne’s plenary
session on So Sexy So Soon, this workshop will provide an
opportunity for attendees to explore how the information covered
in the plenary relates to children in educational settings and
to consider possible strategies for what we can do to counteract
the harm being caused.
3.
Children, Digital Environments, and the Law: Moving Forward to
Protect Public Health
Jason Smith and Robert J. L. Moore, Public Health Advocacy
Institute
The content of commercial messages directed at children is no
longer the appropriate focus for activists. Interventions that
seek to curb advertising's excesses must target how content is
generated and disseminated. Essentially, we are the content: our
behavior online and offline leaves a trail of data that can be
interpreted to glean very personal information about our daily
lives. We construct the web pages and Facebook sites that drive
Internet traffic; we purchase goods with credit cards and
thereby reveal our location and spending habits; we carry around
GPS-enabled cell phones; etc. Our children do the same.
Soon, marketers will have enough data to tailor advertising for
us as individuals. Interventions that worked on previous
incarnations of advertising - efforts addressed to particular
content - will become obsolete, as there will be an infinite
variety of content. At the same time, the efficacy of, and the
magnitude of the threat posed by, advertising increase
substantially. Those concerned about the content to which our
children are exposed must consider how to instill some measure
of control over the use of personal data by marketers, a sector
that has not been subject to much government oversight. This
presentation will explain the ramifications of developments in
technology and the current law for the digital sphere, then make
recommendations for a framework for taking action.
4. Capitalism
on the Couch: A Psychological Analysis of Economic Systems and
Their Impact on Children
Allen Kanner
co-editor, Psychology and Consumer Culture
and Tim Kasser author,
the High Price of Materialism
Psychology rarely examines the effects of economic systems on
people’s lives. Nor does it address the assumptions about
individual motivation and behavior that lie at the heart of such
systems. For example, the commercialization of childhood is a
natural and logical extension of American Corporate Capitalism
(ACC), a system that assumes people are self-interested,
competitive, and materialistic and are happiest when their
values and goals are consistent with these proclivities. Yet
research findings and clinical insights strongly dispute these
claims. Join us for a discussion about how a psychological
analysis of any economic system provides important information
about its likely impact on its participants, including children.
Such an analysis is of great value in considering alternatives
to ACC, which is spreading across the globe and harming children
everywhere.
5.
The Importance of Educating Parents on Kids’ 24/7 Media Lives
Laura Martinez, Common Sense Media
Students live in a 24/7 media world that is evolving at a
dizzying pace. Young people's media experiences, especially
their participation on social networking sites ranging from Club
Penguin to MySpace, have a profound impact on the way the way
they make decisions, learn, and socialize. This presentation
will include an overview of what kids are doing online, the
impact this has on their development, and the challenges and
opportunities the new media world poses for schools and parents.
Practical ideas will also be offered on how to enter into a
strong home-school media education partnership, with the goal of
raising a generation of kids that are safe, smart and ethical
media consumers and creators.
