Negative Media Effects - Case Study Example

Media Effects Research The persuasion of mass media has become a major concern in the current times. Children are perhaps a captive audience when itcomes to mass media and in particular advertising. The influence that media exerts on children can typically limit their thinking and their way of perceiving things. Especially for the benefit of the kids, it is important to keep a check on the effects that these media and its ads bring on children. The media effects of TV ads can be attributed to the Social Learning Theory. The media-influenced depictions of society or lifestyle can be instrumental in changing the behaviors and attitudes of the children, particularly towards the advertised concepts in the media. The discussion focuses on a particular TV show and its advertisements thereby analyzing the ways these commercials are advertised, the products involved, and how it is directed towards the children. The persuasive strategies used by the advertising companies in these commercials to sell the product are also discussed. In addition, the effects of these ads and their potential health effects on children are assessed in detail. As in Europe, the idea of prohibiting or restricting advertising of products directly to children, particularly when it comes to food-related products is a good measure that can be adopted. Social Learning Theory was formulated with principles of social models by Albert Bandura, highlighting the cognitive, self-regulatory, and self-reflective processes of humans. This theory is a highly influential theory in the study of media effects, as it symbolically represents media to be a vital source to facilitate observational learning and self-efficacy among the viewers. From the media perspective, Social Learning Theory suggests that, for TV ads positively influence the audience, it has to provide an engaging, attractive, and similar model that relates to realistic characteristics. In that sense, it can be said that Social Learning Theory provides a vantage point to examine the influence of media commercials on children’s attitudes and behaviors in a way that is convincing to bring personal and social changes. Social cognition theory suggests that repetitive and redundant portrayals of behaviors would prompt viewers to develop expectations and perceptions of the similar behavior in reality. “Research shows that product preference has been known to occur with as little as a single commercial exposure and strengthens with repeated exposure” (McKay, 2013). According to this Social Learning Theory, the media representation of commercial products influences the children’s social construction of reality because they usually learn by the way they see, hear, and perceive things. In that direction, wrong portrayal of products would stimulate the children’s attention to the deceived information, consequently influencing their behavior. Children who spent a lot of time on TV daily are considerably affected by the media habituation and impacts of it are harmful in many ways. Various research studies have investigated the children’s TV habits and their interest in the ads has contributed to their health and psychological problems. So, the representation of common grounds between TV advertising and Social Learning Theory explains the unintended, negative effects as well as the intended, positive effects of media depictions targeted towards children through TV shows. The Children’s TV program that is taken for discussion is the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon series aired in the Nickelodeon. This animated television series chronicles the misadventures of the Spongebob, an optimistic fast-food restaurant working sea sponge, and his challenges with his seawater friends in the fictional sub-aquatic city. The popularity of the series intensified because of the nonsensical adventures of the mainly character, depicting how his overzealous actions create chaos in his world. The ads presented during the show ranged from retail products, toys, mobiles, automobiles, local services, personal care products, restaurants, food & beverages, and more. Among them, more than 70 percent of the ads were specifically directed towards children. Most of the ads, nearly 80 percent of the ads, presented in this show, were related to foods and drinks products like sugary cereals, candy, yogurt, fast food restaurants, snacks, beverages, and more. Some of the ads were from the popular Food & Beverage brands like McDonald’s, Kraft Foods, Coca-Cola, Wendy’s, Subway, KFC, Taco Bell, Burger King, Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. The list of ads displayed includes General Mills Cookie Crisp, Kellogg’s Coco Pops Cereal Bars, Cocoa Krispies cereals, Kellogg Rice Krispies Treats, Reeses Puffs cereals, Campbells Goldfish crackers and SpaghettiOs, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Unilever Popsicles as well as other snack foods like Oreos and Kool-Aid. Though Nickelodeon is a kid-friendly network, it has poor regulatory policies when it comes to advertising media. Because of its popularity, the show tends to have an overarching power among the advertising sector, and it features the top brand products to persuade the children. Generally speaking, the US fast-food industry has successfully influenced the consumer behavior, especially that of the children, through marketing and advertising on TVs. However, such an advertising demand does not shield the children from the potentially harmful products in any way. The food products advertised in the Nickelodeon network were of poor nutritional quality as lots of ads were about junk foods. Such ads would evidently promote obesity, diabetes, and other health-related problems among the children. Products like cookies, sweetened yogurts, fruit-flavored snacks do not meet the nutritional standards and so are expected to harm the children. According to the Center for Science, after cataloguing Nickelodeon programming, it was found to have “88 ads for foods. Of those, 69 percent were for foods of poor nutritional quality. The most common products marketed to kids were sugary cereals, candy, yogurt with added sugars, fast food and other restaurants, and snacks.”(“Nearly”, 2013). Advertising companies use persuasive strategies to sell their products and so kids are targeted through deceiving fast-food ads that entice them to get the product. Most of the products are promoted to the children in a misleading way such that they directly influence the children’s attitude of perceiving things. For example, the ad of Kelloggs “Coco Pops” cereal bars advertises it as the ‘best lunchbox treat’ by showing images of attractive and healthy whole meal breads and grapes on the packages thereby inducing the kids to desire for the food without knowing the real content of the package. Similarly, when advertising Oreo cookies or crisps, the advertiser uses toy advertising or advergaming to make the children involved with the product. These marketing techniques help the companies to promote product identification among the children and influence the children’s attitude and behavior with the product. Companies and advertisers are indeed adept in persuading children and getting their product into their heads using ads. The emotional ties that an ad or ad character creates with the children is one of the foremost reason to encourage them in like and buy the products. In this way, kids are often used as surrogate salesmen by the companies for their products using deceiving ads and by making use of their ‘pestering power’. Since kid’s shows are peppered with ads of high sugar content, high fats, and preservatives, it naturally keeps the children used to those products. Products like fast food, soda, and candy come with negative health implications, and when children get used to these products, it creates harmful effects on their health. Moreover, some products are adult-oriented and getting children exposed to it can hinder their moral development in future as well. It is high time to regulate TV ads to mitigate their effects on children. In UK and other European countries, ads directed to children are prohibited or severely restricted. Such restrictions and regulations are particularly essential for food-related products, as any impact of such unhealthy ads will bring adverse health consequences to children. Similar to these trends, Nickelodeon network should take appropriate measures to restrict ads that target children and promote unhealthy food. It is important that they have to implement appropriate policies to guide the food-related ads that are targeted towards children. It is essential to have in-house checks of the food and beverage products to find out its nutrition standards. In that direction, the ads of those products have to be categorized for general-audience, adults, and kids, in order to stop children from getting exposed to unhealthy and inappropriate food products. So, it is obvious that Nickelodeon serves up improper ads to its viewers, especially affecting the children’s health. These TV ads are sure to affect the children mainly because it does not provide accurate information about the products and thereby leads to unhealthy lifestyles and food choices among the children. In that direction, it is obvious that children ads need to be monitored for its accuracy, because children are vulnerable and can be easily manipulated through appealing ads. Since, kid’s ads control their minds and change their way of thinking, as analyzed by the Social Learning Theory, it is important to uproot or even minimize these ads. In this regard, more regulations and restrictions have to be enforced on the advertising agencies and the TV channels thereby limiting their control on kids and bring some favorable changes. References: Mckay, H. (2013, July 1). Disney dumping junk food ads, but Nickelodeon still says no. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/07/01/disney-dumping- junk-food-ads-but-nickelodeon-still-says-no/ “Nearly 70% of Food Ads on Nickelodeon are for Junk.” (2013, March 21). In Center For Science in the Public Interest. Retrieved from http://www.cspinet.org/new/201303211.html Read More