Thursday, August 14, 2008

Topic: Critical Viewing

10-Second Review: A series of questions about broadcast advertising

Title: “Media Literacy: The Right to Know.” Herb Karl. English Journal (October 1974), 7 – 9. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Quote: “About Broadcast Advertising—What claims, if any, are made about the product or service advertised? What can be verified? What appeals are made and what is the nature of the appeals: sex? security? femininity? masculinity? individuality? What assumptions…underlie the appeals? Do I ‘buy’ the appeal? Generally, who uses broadcast media for advertising, when do they advertise and at whom is their advertising aimed? What larger socio-political assumptions underlie broadcast advertising?”

Comment: Writing from 2008, I think the questions are good. But the advertising comes at me so quickly today that I don’t have time to respond to these questions. I would need to isolate commercials and run them again and again in order to determine the answers to these questions. And before I would have the answers, the advertising would change, needing a whole flock of new answers. Maybe a simpler list of generic questions would be better? What should be the first question everyone should ask of an advertisement? RayS.

The purpose of English Education Archives is to present articles from the past that are still relevant in today's world.

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