Reflecting on Childhood Entertainment and It's Uses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llezjMibxp4 (This isn't the clip I watched for the blog, but it's similar. The one I watched is in the first episode of Season Two - the Classics - on Netflix.)

    While television in its current form is often brain-rotting playing to the lowest common denominator of intelligence, it is not so across the board. In particular, children's television programming is one area that psychologists and programmers have done extensive research on to ensure they are beneficial to kids. For example, when Joan Clooney implemented her idea for an educational program that would begin a learning epidemic among kids and parents alike, called Sesame Street, she tested the educational value of the show and found that it rated higher than any other kids show at the time. The key to this success was the "stickiness factor" or the ability for an idea to stick in someone's brain.
    As I watched an episode of Sesame Street at the age of 20, I could see where this "stickiness factor," which turned out to be an annoyingness factor more than anything, came into play. In particular, one scene that caught my attention was when the puppets were singing a song teaching how to count to three. Each character had three items - food, animals, sports equipment - that they sang "three [items], one, two, three!" Later, as I walked around after the show preparing soup for dinner, I found myself sing-song-counting the spices and cans as I put the ingredients in my crock pot. As silly as this was, I could see how kids might actually learn some useful skills from the show.
   However, when I was a kid I didn't watch much television, especially not Sesame Street. I was very fond of reading and read voraciously, sometimes two or three books a week that were a few levels above my supposed reading level (when I was in elementary school.) My parents read to me every night before I taught myself to read. I gained my extensive vocabulary and love of learning from these books, not from TV. But, I did still enjoy TV for entertainment and watched shows like Arthur or Little Bear when I could. I watched Blue's Clues, too, but I preferred shows with a plot line over overtly educational programs (like Sesame Street.) These shows still had a "stickiness factor" for me as I was invested in the characters, so the lessons they learned - which were often morally educational as well as scholastically educational - stuck with me.
   Years from now, whenever I have kids, I'm hoping to be able to find shows that combine an entertaining plot line with scholastic education (in addition to teaching a love for books) so that while they may think they're watching TV solely for entertainment - through the plot line - they are also learning useful skills such as counting and spelling. But, I still don't believe is using television as the major mechanism for teaching. The most effective way of learning is always through interaction (with text, a peer, a teacher, or an object) and TV is exclusively a one way street as kids cannot actually interact with characters on television. So, while educational television programs can certainly be used as supplemental tools to drill basic knowledge into children's brains, it must be backed up with actual interactive teaching.

Evolution of PSAs and why they should be integrated into television programming

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HkqeORgn_U (Friends Episode, can start around 2 minutes)

    When I hear the words "public service announcement," I immediately imagine cheesy, homemade videos with terrible one-liners. They may have a great message promoting health in a variety of different areas, but for many years, PSA's have had a bad reputation for being over-acted and under-produced.
    PSAs have been around longer than television, in fact during WWII the government used them to promote the war effort over the radio. Billboards, newspaper ads, brochures,  are other media through which organization spread important announcements to the public. However, in this television age, PSAs are most often run on TV.
    And, as technology has improved, so have PSAs, so that now it is their messages rather than their production, that people pay attention to. This entertainment education has helped promote messages informing the public about substance abuse, teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, cancer, bullying, and physical fitness that help spread knowledge to the public about healthy ways to handle each of these problems.
    Yet, many of them still don't work, because people don't really want to learn anything while watching mind-numbing television. Often, rather than listening to important health information, people change the channel or mute it. But, there are some eye-catching announcements that are actually fairly effective. The best ones use conventional advertising methods such as personal stories, humor, basic statistics and catchy slogans. 
    For instance, in the campaign against texting while driving, personal stories and catchy slogans raise awareness of the dangers of texting and driving. In each one, a "normal person" gives their testimony of what happened when they texted and drove, who got hurt and how terrible the consequences are. These are particularly effective because I know I've been close to those same situations and have only been lucky to escape unscathed. Each short ad ends with the phrase "it can wait" which sticks in my head every time I pick up my phone while driving.
    I think the best way for groups to promote healthy informational messages is actually in the television programs. For example, in a 2002 episode of Friends, the characters discussed the issues of unplanned pregnancy in the plot of the show. As it was in the dialogue itself, and not in a commercial, viewers paid much more attention to their favorite characters' plight and also learned better how to use condoms and why to practice safe sex. The Kaiser Foundation helped the RAND corporation fund a study of this episode's reception and they found that 65% of teen viewers remembered the episode, and many discussed the issues with an adult. As the analysts behind Use of Mass Media Campaigns to Change Health Behavior showed, media campaigns typically have only moderate or less evidence of benefits to the public. However, PSAs within television programs could use celebrities, humor and personal stories (of the characters viewers are invested in) to promote healthy behavior much better than statistic-spouting, over-acted commercial PSAs.

A Beautiful Disaster

   I began this blog with the intention of  "exploring the dichotomy between unconsciousness towards media messages and consciousness of my body's messages shows the dulling effect the media can have towards awareness." In essence, I wanted to study mass media's ability to dull my awareness of my health. But, as I've explored this topic through a variety of genres, I noticed that mass media has just as much of a positive effect as negative. While media certainly does often show me a one-sided view of health that I take for fact which may or may not be good for me, social media has the ability to spread information to the masses that can be both beneficial and eye-opening.
    Yes, mass media does have a "dulling effect," as I have said. On social media, I've noticed this in particular with regard to political agendas pertaining to health. During the shutdown squabble over the Affordable Care Act, many of my "friends" on Facebook posted infographics, news stories, and memes about the act. They often had a very transparent political agendas that discussed the act from that party's perspective. So, while it was helpful to see quite a bit of information about the act, I also couldn't tell which information was true, particularly when my "friends" got into heated political on message threads that used misinterpreted data. Many poorly-educated people then take this information for fact and act accordingly, so they may be voting against an act that would help then or vice versa.
    On the other hand, social media possesses the great power of spreading a message to the masses with the click of a button. On two un-health-related notes, when my friend lost my cat while cat-sitting him, I went straight to Facebook and Twitter. I tweeted local pet and news networks in both sites and immediately got an incredible response of people looking for him. Also, when I started my photography business, I opened a Facebook page to promote my work. Through it, I have received many job opportunities that I wouldn't otherwise have gotten had people had less viewing access to my photos.
    Health news works the same way. The ability to spread important research to anyone on social media means that health professionals can quickly reach millions of people almost instantly. For example, this week I followed New York Times Health and HealthCare.gov on Twitter to see what the organizations thought was important. From articles discussing the advantages of quitting smoking to PSAs showing the numerical benefits of eating healthy, to reviews of other health publications, both organizations tweeted quite a bit of interesting information. And, while most people know it's important to eat healthy or not smoke, seeing this information show up on social media when they're taking a few moments just to relax, puts the message into their minds when they're most vulnerable to browsable information. Thus, they might be more likely to read a health article on Facebook or Twitter than in a newspaper or some other less "in" form of publication.
    Social media also brings together the "flatter" mode of communication, as the Health Affairs article says, in that the masses get the voices of many (anyone else on social media) rather than the voices of few (those in the information business.) In that way, information often seems less biased because a reader can take the average of all she reads and find somewhere within all of it what they believe to be true. For this reason, I think the age of social media may actually be a beneficial thing for the nation's health.

A PSA that I found particularly interesting:
http://www.upworthy.com/an-apple-a-day-does-a-hell-of-a-lot-more-than-keep-the-doctor-away

Seeing is Believing, Unless its on Television

  "News," a messenger bringing an important message to the masses, has played a large part in the political and social structure of communities since even biblical times (think Gabriel, the messenger angel.) In medieval times, a town crier shouted messages from the king to all who where in the streets. More recently, the printing press allowed for government propaganda. Now, the rise of televised news proves to be one of the most wide-spread manners to spread ideas and agendas, particularly those of government parties.

   There are many different types of news stations and publications - from national news stations, to local stations, to national and local print publications - that range in political dominance along both sides and the middle of the spectrum. That being said, as these media are run by humans, who cannot be completely objective, simply because of differences in perspective, each and every type of media is biased towards the particular affiliate's political agenda. While local news is often influenced by the opinions of locals throughout the community (not making it less biased, just spreading the majority of the community), national news corporations are typically financed through companies with particular political affiliations making it seem more biased.
    While health news is only ranked eighth among issues covered on national television, it has lately been a hot topic among politicians. Two different areas - political health reform and self-improvement- are the main topics debated among politicians, and stations such as Fox News (typically very conservative) and NBC (typically fairly liberal) tend to cover the sides of the issue that play to their parties' agendas. For instance, in the news coverage of the Affordable Care Act, one of Fox's programs featured Senator Mitchell McConnell discussing all of the problems of the new health care reform. On the other hand, NBC's coverage of ACA included a nice piece on President Obama helping women about to faint during his speech on the act.
    Yet self-reform topics are often not affiliated with a particular party, rather are more equally promoted. For example, in any story on obesity or diabetes, news stations across the board tend to show the increase in both diseases within the US, say the problem needs to change, and promotes exercise and healthy habits, as I saw when watching both Fox and NBC's afternoon broadcasts.

    As the article Medical News for the Public to Use says, television news has an incredibly influence on viewers' behaviors, and as Americans' primary source of health information is from television news, it is important that viewers take into account the source of media and what the agenda behind the dissemination of information may be.

Television is Finally Becoming Two-Dimensional

    In the past fifteen or so years, television has finally started becoming two-dimensional, figuratively, of course. By that, I mean that while programs often portrayed social groups, such as older people or gay people, stereotypically, they're beginning to forge a new path by giving these social groups more complexity. Modern Family and Brokeback Mountain both show the one- and two-dimensionality of characterizing the elderly and gays.
    In his study Aging with Television: Images on Television Drama and Conceptions of Social Reality, George Gerbner notes that the elderly are not often portrayed in a positive light. Because most shows, reality shows and soap operas especially, show almost exclusively young people, older characters are often seen as childlike, absentminded,  irrational and out of touch with reality. Jay Pritchett, the patriarch of Modern Family, is the classic "man's man" who loves sports and is uncomfortable with his son being gay (though he eventually accepts it.) He is often a little out of touch with other members of the family because he's not of the same generation, so he is a point of humor in the show when he doesn't understand pop culture references. On the other hand, he is also well-off, reasonably healthy, and married to a woman half his age who he truly loves. He tries to relate to younger generations particularly by spending time with his step-son Manny, and in this way his character shows more complexity than the stereotypical elderly generation. Jake Twist's father, from Brokeback Mountain, does not have much air time, but is the stereotypical closeminded and bitter elderly man who speaks viciously of Jake's desire to "run a ranch" with another man.

Gay characters are also receiving a lot of good attention lately. While many people still envision gay men as overly-flamboyant and feminine, this stereotype is quickly going out the window with more complex characterization. Brokeback Mountain, especially, does this by showing two cowboys - stereotypically very manly men -  in a long-lasting homosexual affair with each other. While the whole movie they hide their relationship, even though Jake doesn't want to, the fact that they continue to explore their sexuality together is an interesting development in modern television. Mitchell and Cameron from Modern Family are another ground-breaking gay couple slowly changing the opinions of the American audience because of their likeability. While they are more stereotypically portrayed, they are also adoptive parents, which is a fairly new phenomenon.
    By making marginalized social groups likeable and showing them in a positive light, television programmers are helping to open the minds of their audience.

A Foray into Mental Health Understanding

In all of my previous posts, I went into my research and media- immersion with some previous knowledge about the topic. This week, with the topic of mental illness, I realized that besides some family history of bi-polar disorder (which I was never told much about, I only heard that the relative in question had problems) I know very little on the subject. This made watching the media all the more interesting.
One of the most prevalent themes I took from the media's depiction of mental illness is that sufferers are incredibly violent. Silver Linings Playbook, while an award-winning movie showing two protagonists with bi-polar disorder - among others - in a more positive and enlightening manner, still showed "ex-mental health patient" Pal Solitano with crazy bouts of violence when things go poorly for him. In fact, he actually hits his own father when his parents are trying to calm him down. While these outbursts do occur in people with the disorder, they also occur in those without. In fact, Margarita Tartakovsky writes in Media's Damaging Depictions of Mental Illness that
“research suggests that mentally ill people are more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violence.” Yet, violence is very often immediately associated with bi-polar disorder.

The media also often pushes mental illness in teens and young adults under the rug saying that such patients are simply "going through a phase." In Swing, an episode of Law and Order: SVU, the daughter of one of the detectives suffers from bi-polar disorder, but she treats it and covers it up with drugs and pills. Before finding out about the mental illness, everyone involved in the girl's life - her detective father included - reprimand her for taking the partying path of other people her age.
On the other hand, these shows also try to shed some light on mental health disorders. In Swing, the aforementioned detective seeks his "crazy" mother's help in clearing his daughter's name in court by showing family history of mental disease. While the detective remembers his childhood filled with neglect from his mother and terrible parenting, she tries to explain herself that she is simply unique and a free spirit who was chasing snowflakes when she ran her car with her son into a poll. She says that rather than take the medicine prescribed her that made her feel like an empty shell, she decided to live her life to the fullest, whatever the outcome.
The episode ends with the daughter confessing to crimes she committed while under the influence of drugs and going willingly into a mental institute for help.  Her grandmother also told her that while she did not want to take drugs, this also left her in a poor state later in life. So it seems like the message is still that mental patients need help and mind-altering drugs may be the miraculous and oft-prescribed answer.

Advertising takes up an extraordinary amount of time of television. For an hour long TV program slot, 15 minutes is solely advertising and commercials, leaving only 45 or so minutes for the actual show. Even more, in sports programs it often seems like no sooner does the game come back on than it goes right back to a commercial break, so that there is almost more time spent watching ads than the game. 
    Ads typically have a catchy tune, an interesting graphic, or a funny storyline to catch the attention of viewers. And as television programmers spend so much time showing commercials, viewers are practically forced to take in a very large number of ads on a regular basis. Particularly as Americans on average watch 34 hours of television per week, according to Neilson research. For this reason, it is important to see what kind of ads viewers are watching and how they impact the audience.
    One of the heaviest advertising industries is the food and beverage enterprise. From commercials advertising the deliciousness of a soda to PSA's talking about the importance of eating fruits and vegetables,we are constantly inundated with food advertisements, many of while are edited to make the food look better than it actually looks in real life. While many of these commercials often promote unhealthiness, there is a new movement to promote good nutrition habits.

    On the unhealthy side, as a research study on the "Priming Effects of Television Food Advertising on Eating Behavior" says, "advertising for food and beverages communicates potentially powerful food consumption cues, including images of attractive models eating, snacking at nonmeal times, and positive emotions linked to food consumption." These commercials tend to be on more adult channels, particularly sports ones. While watching a football game, I saw many commercials for products such as Coca-Cola or Papa John's pizza with cute images of polar bears holding Coke cans or deliciously greasy pizza. The spokes people talked about how tasty these products were, leaving out the "nutrition" information. Seeing so many commercials of healthy foods that portray them in a positive light leads more adults to think of and often buy these disgusting products.
    On the other hand, many kids' programs are trying to fix the obesity epidemic, as obesity is rising to the forefront as the deadliest disease in America. Disney Channel, especially, is making a big change in their advertising to promote healthy living and eating to their viewers. For example, one commercial shows a Disney Channel Star rapping about the importance of eating a large and balanced breakfast to kick-start the day. Another shows a son and dad both drinking soda, until the mother sees that the son is doing exactly what the father is doing, so she hands the dad a bottle of water. The spokesperson then says that replacing one sugary drink a day can help reduce overall sugar intake. As kids are very susceptible to ideas they see on television, seeing this kind of healthy advertising could begin to change the generation's eating habits.
    As a photographer and graphic designer, I often look at ads more for their artistic merit than their content. But, although I eat a very healthy and balanced diet, whenever I see commercials for fast food, soda, pizza, or other unhealthy foods that I avoid, I instantly crave them.The same applies across the board for all age groups watching TV. For this reason, it is important for television programmers to look at the food products they are advertising and see if they are sending the right message to their viewers. While most probably won't go as far as Disney who is not re-signing contracts with any unhealthy advertisers beginning in the next couple years, but maybe more channels will cut back on their programming. Then, in a more perfect world, companies might assess their products and try to make them healthier so that they could make more money in advertising again.