Module 6 - Part 4, Angel Discussion Board Assignment
Due Monday, April 18
"All in all you're just another brick in the wall"
"We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall."
- Roger Waters (1979)
It's time to wrap up Module 6 with some serious
thinking.
Re-read Jean Kilbourne's chapter from "Deadly
Persuasion" in the Module 6 readings. She makes a
scathing indictment of the advertising industry,
arguing that many social, political, and physical
problems in our country are a direct result of ads.
"Human beings used to be influenced primarily by
the stories of our particular
tribe or community, not by stories that are
mass-produced and market-driven. As
George Gerbner, one of the world's most respected
researchers on the influence
of the media, said, "For the first time in human
history, most of the stories about
people, life, and values are told not by parents,
schools, churches, or others in the
community who have something to tell, but by a
group of distant conglomerates
that have something to sell." The stories that most
influence our children these
days are the stories told by advertisers."
Then re-read McLaughlin's essay "The Cunning of
the Hand." He uses the writings of Madison Avenue
executives to outline his thesis on the deception of
advertising.
Now think back to your earlier Angel Discussion Board responses.
Do you really have free will when it comes to purchasing decisions?
Given what you now know about
advertising and its manipulative powers, how much
of your purchasing decision is really yours, and what steps can YOU take to limit the influence of advertising? |