It’s possible that being on Mackinac Island Monday; working at our babysitting co-op Wednesday then having lots of fun at my mother’s group annual banquet that night; dropping by the Maranda Park Party then hopping on a trolley to the Zoo, Douglas J and the Children’s Museum for the Mane Event Thursday (oh, and attending a Great Start Parent Coalition Meeting that night); jumping on a hay-ride wagon to pick strawberries Friday; and to the library, Schuler Books Story Time, and Baker Bookhouse to sign up for their summer program this morning then bowling in the afternoon has gotten to me, but in between all of those activities I have been – asleep.
I am drinking my usual caffeine ration of about 5 gallons a day, but I just can’t stay awake. Concerned, I tried to Web MD myself but came up with an unlikely diagnosis of malaria. I think I’m just whipped. What a drag it is getting old!
I do have one thing I can manage to write about before I fall asleep again. Thursday night’s coalition meeting included a presenter that really got to me. Jeff Smith from the Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy (GRIID) talked with us about using media effectively.
Now, it’s no secret that I loathe advertising to children, and that I make efforts to control the amount of commercialsthey see. I fancied myself quite aware of the effects of television on children prior to this presentation. I also had heard of GRIID but thought they were a little, well, wacky.
I was wrong on both counts. First, Jeff put up a screen with the alphabet. Each letter was taken from a product. For example, A was the A from All detergent. O was from Oreo. There were few letters that we all didn’t know, even out of context with the rest of the word. Then he put up Bush’s cabinet. Apart from Condi Rice, we were at a total loss to identify the rest of them. You can look at the slides from the exercise here. I didn’t realize what a politically uninformed, marketing sucker I was.
There is no way that I could pack all of the information (and resulting shock value) provided during that presentation into one post. The big message is that we need to learn, and teach our children, media literacy. His example was that we don’t just throw a book at a kid and say “read it” when teaching them how to read. We model it; break it down for them, and spend time with them. We need to do that with all forms of media and not just books. Jeff provided five key strategies for Media Education you can look here.
I hope you’ll take a minute to look over these materials and the GRIID website for more info. My first step towards teaching my children included buying the book, “The Berenstain Bears: The Trouble With Commercials” in which Brother and Sister bear learn that the claims made on commercials are not always true. I have a feeling this issue will come up again on Big Binder; but I’m too tired for any more right now…
8 Comments
June 21, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Wow, that really was an interesting letter exercise. Should I be happy that I could only identify 11 of the letter ones, or dismayed that I too only knew Condi Rice?
June 21, 2008 at 10:19 pm
15 on the letters. And yep, just Condi for me too. Poop.
I too am a TV and commercial nazi. It doesn’t even matter though, my kids can spot Golden Arches from a mile away.
However, I have managed to create children who love to read and would frankly rather do so than watch TV so I am doing something right.
Track down this guy to come speak at Moms Club. This is a message mommies need to hear!!
June 22, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Wow. I only got 7 of the letter ones – I wonder if that’s good or bad. And only Condi Rice too, yikes.
We have that Berenstain Bears book too – it’s a good one.
June 22, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Wow. I got 22 out of 26! I apparently am a BRAND FREAK! I did however also know 4 of the cabinet members, so I’m not all bad.
No commercials here either! It’s amazing how they get to the kids anyways. Those darn right sneaky marketers!
June 22, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Media literacy is so important, for parents as well as the kids. I think many parents would be shocked to see how marketers and advertisers think of them when they are creating campaigns to sell stuff to children.
How nice it is to see a collection of parents who take a stand on commericals!
June 22, 2008 at 9:19 pm
I got 17 out of 26 on the letters. A couple of them, I had the wrong brand…like Quaker instead of Q-Tips.
Girl, you been busy!! Wish I known you were head for strawberries!! We could have met up and gone together or I watch your kids and you pick me some too.
or something! 
Was it easy pickin’ at the farm? Cause that was the farm I was thinking on getting some from in the next couple of weeks.
Have a good week!
June 22, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I got 17 out of 26 on the letters. A couple of them, I had the wrong brand…like Quaker instead of Q-Tips.
Girl, you been busy!! Wish I known you were head for strawberries!! We could have met up and gone together or I watch your kids and you pick me some too.
or something! 
Was it easy pickin’ at the farm? Cause that was the farm I was thinking on getting some from in the next couple of weeks.
Have a good week!
July 12, 2008 at 2:24 pm
[...] programming section here. It’s one of the topics we talked about at the presentation from GRIID and it’s interesting and a little scary. OK really quite [...]