Group 8--Christy, Cam, Rhonda--Rocker-Gladen

This is an article of Naomi Rockler-Gladen tittled " Me Against the Media: From the Trenches of a Media Lit Class." In this article, Rockler-Gladen's thesis statement is that I try to make my students more aware of how the media naturalize consumerism through advertisements, product placement, and especially through advertiser-friendly programming.

There are four things that the author uses to back up her thesis. They are following:

1) The dreams, the memories, the rites of passage of Generation Y- all of these are intricately intertwined with consumerism. The author shows the movie Father of the Bride to her class to show an example of how consumerism-fuels expectations. "Dad learns his lesson: consumerism-fueled expectations may be outrageous, but they are necessary, and failure to adhere to these expectations is silly, miserly, and downright unloving." pg 286.

2) Advertisement even reaches out through educational programming and television shows for children after Reagan let advertisers advertise to children in the 1980's. "This helped bring forth a new marketing tactic- which Tom Engelhardt has called the "Shortcake Strategy"- in which children's TV shows were created for the exclusive purpose of marketing large collections of children's toys." pg 287

3) Advertisers even have gotten into the schools. "This is the first generation that came of age in the era of rampant advertising in the schools, as well as Channel One, the news program piped into schools complete with advertisements." pg 287

4) What can media activists do? "Advertisers and media producers consciously create media content that "trains" young people to be consumers", and she said "The trick is to find popular culture texts they relate to that have strong pro-consumerism bent ". She uses the examples of the Friends episode and reality television. pgs 290-291

In the issue of media and young adults, there are other articles such as Amy Goldwasser's “What's the Matter with Kids Today?” or Douglas Rushkoff's “Bart Simpson: Prince of Irreverence.” Our group believes that while Rockler-Gladen would mostly agree with Goldwasser's viewpoints, she would disagree with Rushkoff's opinion. First of all, Rockler-Gladen would agree with Goldwasser's claim that children are separate entities from their parents when talking about media, as general, and internet, specifically. For example, according to Goldwasser, the internet “has turned teenagers into honest documentarians of their own lives,” but it scares parents because “our kids know things we [the parents] don't” (238). As a result, Rockler-Gladen suggests that media activists should find ways to appeal to members of the young generation on the level of the individual (290). Secondly, Rockler-Gladen would definitely agree with Goldwasser about the power of young adult in consumerism. For example, Goldwasser said, “[the kids] are texting at the dinner table and responsible for pretty much every enduring consumer cultural phenomenon,” (238) and Rockler-Gladen said, “Run the term 'Generation Y' through a search engine, and you'll find dozens of sites with information about how companies can take advantage of this marketing gold mine” (285). However, this is the point where the agreement between those authors is ended: Rockler-Gladen would disagree with Goldwasser because she would believe that Goldwasser has overlooked an important point to Rockler-Gladen which is that children are seen as targeted consumers. For example, from her experience, Rockler-Gladen has found that her students are amenable to discussions about how advertisers and media producers consciously create media content that “trains” young people to be consumers (290).

Although Rockler-Gladen has mostly agreed with Goldwasser's point of view, she would disagree with Rushkoff because he said, “[Teenagers] never forget for a moment that they are watching media and they resent those who try to draw them in and sell them something. They will not be part of a “target market,” at least not without a fight” (245). Rockler-Gladen would think Rushkoff is mistaken because his opinion rests upon the questionable assumption that people, especially teenagers, have been released from media “programming” (243). However, in fact, Rockler-Gladen has proven how media content itself naturalize consumerism such as in the movie “Father of the Bride”: consumerism-fuel expectations may be outrageous, but failure to adhere to these expectations is silly, miserly, and downright unloving (287). In another example, Rockler-Gladen argues that consumerism target teenagers in all fronts: stadiums, lunchrooms, a back-to-school party, so on.

Work Cited

Rockler-Gladen, Naomi. “Me Against the Media.”*Adbusters magazine *(2007). Rpt. in They Say/I Say with Reading. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein and Russel Durst. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. Print.

Goldwasser, Amy. “What's the Matter with Kids Today?” *Salon*(2008). Rpt. in They Say/I Say with Reading. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein and Russel Durst. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. Print.

Rushkoff, Douglas. “Bart Simpson: Prince of Irreverence.”*Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture* (2004). Rpt. in They Say/I Say with Reading. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein and Russel Durst. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. Print.