Another important aspect of advertising is the ability to attract one’s attention in the midst of a highly cluttered consumer market in which people are saturated with images and sounds (Gitlin, 2001). Given thousands of competing messages or bits of information geared for the same audience, how does a marketer or advertiser convey their message in a manner that attracts that audience’s attention?
This has led to a new industry of consultants who assist marketers and advertisers who are able to promote attention itself as a valuable commodity (Lankshear & Knobel, 2002). Colin Lankshear & Michelle Knobel (2002) argue that being a member of the “attention economy” requires the ability to know “how to pay and receive attention” (p. 22), something discussed in Module 2 in terms of the media literacy of “attention transacting.” As fans or consumers, people may recognize the difference between an illusory, false attention afforded them by “stars”—celebrities or politicians, and authentic attention. This requires new forms of literacy associated with “attention transacting,” which requires:
Knowing how to elicit information from others, encouraging them to provide it (with appropriate assurances), and knowing how to work with that information so that it becomes an instrument for meeting what the other party believes to be their needs or interests… [through the] the use of new information technologies to obtain, interpret, share, and act on information of a private nature, knowing how to build and honor trust in online settings, knowing how to divulge and interpret information obtained electronically in appropriate ways, and so on. (p. 35).
Another form of literacy is that of “contact displaying” in which people employ “public
media” to “create an opportunity to gain attention” in ways that achieve “‘immediate effects’ (rhetorical, quirky, stunning)” (pp. 32-33).
A central tool in this “attention economy” is the use of technologies designed to attract others’ attention—particularly advertising on the Internet. This ranges from more direct forms of “spam” or “push” messages or uses of animation or flashing signals, to more indirect means of creating “’ad bots’ that inhabit chat rooms and similar spaces on the Net. These respond to trigger words and can engage potential customers in private conversation that has commercial relevance” (p. 27).
While some of the promises of high levels of revenue from advertising on the Web have not materialized, the Web remains a major new site for marketing and advertising. Marketers can target certain audiences with “spam” e-mail advertising. Advertisers can promote specific products within the contexts of specific sites associated with specific audiences who use those sites.
One of the major issues associated with Web advertising involves marketing to children.
In a report on online marketing and privacy issues
http://www.media-awareness.ca/eng/webaware/parents/kids/pkids.htm
the Media Awareness group noted that the Web can often jeopardize children’s privacy. The report contrasts television with online advertising by noting the while there are standards for television advertising, there are none for Web advertising. It also notes that Web-based ads can engage children through interactivity not present in television ads. While television ads have obvious start and stop times, Web-based ads are more subtle and interwoven into the content.
Media Awareness Network: Teacher guide: Online Marketing Strategies geared for children
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/special_initiatives/wa_resources/wa_teachers/tipsheets/online_marketing_strategies.cfm
Webquest: cyberganda: advertising on the Web
http://www.community.k12.mo.us/webquest/bertels/quest.htm#intro
Webquest: create an ad for the Web
http://www.lfelem.lfc.edu/tech/DuBose/webquest/whittier/advertise.html
Webquest: Cycertise Webquest
http://cte.jhu.edu/techacademy/fellows/Harris/cyvertise/
Marketing in Schools
Another recent phenomenon has been the increase in marketing and advertising in schools.
Cynthia Peters, in an article, "Teacher, there's a brand name in my math problem!!"
http://www.zmag.org/zsustainers/zdaily/1999%2D08/23peters.htm
documents some of these marketing campaigns:
According to the "Education and Consumerism" issue of Radical Teacher, a major battle has heated up in the last year between Coke and Pepsi, and it's taking place in U.S. public schools. These multi-million dollar soda companies want to pay schools to exclusively market their product. For the soda marketers, it's a good use of advertising dollars: pay the school to make their brand name central to kids' lives all day everyday. For the school, it's an easy source of much needed funds.
Advertising is becoming ubiquitous in schools. In Colorado Springs, the side of a big yellow school bus becomes a bill board for just $2500. A six-foot commercial banner hung inside the school for one calendar year costs only $700. In Toronto, schools are using screen savers on their computers that mix motivational messages with sales pitches from fast food and soft drink companies. The Pepsi-sponsored screen saver advises kids to "develop a thirst for knowledge." In Braintree, Massachusetts, a company called Cover Concepts has made a multi-million dollar business out of giving away free book covers that are decorated with corporate advertising.
In his book, Educating the Consumer-Citizen: A History of the Marriage
of Schools, Advertising, and Media (2003, Erlbaum), Joel Spring documents the many ways in which advertising and commercialism has pervaded the schools. Advertisers and corporations provide schools with products or funding in return to being able to place ads on textbook covers or in schools or to sell certain fast-food/beverage products in the school. Because school funding has been cut, schools often need additional funds simply to meet basic needs. For example, Primedia’s, Channel One, provides morning in-school “news,” now in some 40% of all secondary schools, by providing schools with free video equipment. 42% of the 12 minute “news” broadcasts consists of ads, self-promotions, and filler, thereby using what is assumed to be a pedagogical tool to insert advertising into the curriculum.
Some states, including New York, and local school districts have not allowed Channel One to be broadcast in their schools.
Channel One
http://www.channelone.com/
Critical analyses/reports on Channel One
http://www.commercialalert.org/index.php?category_id=2&subcategory_id=32&article_id=120
http://www.fair.org/media-outlets/channel-one.html
http://www.fair.org/extra/9705/ch1-miller.html
http://www.aap.org/advocacy/reid1100.htm
Commercialism in Education Research Unit, Arizona State University: http://www.asu.edu/educ/epsl/ceru.htm
Citizens Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools
http://www.scn.org/cccs/
Webquest: Kimberly Colley, School Funding and Commercial Advertising in Schools
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/edis771/spring99webquests/prof/pkimcolley/home.htm
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