Posts Tagged ‘research’

“Smart Choices” made easy? Indeed…

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Reeses Puffs, named one of the least nutritious but heavily marketed cereals

Reese's Puffs, named one of the least nutritious but heavily marketed cereals

A few days ago, Yale University released the results of a study conducted around the television advertising of cereal to children. Also a few days ago, according to an editorial in this morning’s L.A. Times, the Food & Drug Administration made some noise about plans by the food industry to add “Smart Choices” labels to cereals and other foods which are high in sugar and other non-nutritious additives. On the one hand, I applaud the FDA for stepping up to protect consumers from misleading information, but on the other hand, I’m still furious it took this long. Really–the FDA is just noticing this now? For far too long, it has been too easy to slap a “Smart Choices” label on less-than-smart food.

Among the findings of the Yale study was research demonstrating that marketers in the cereal industry are pretty liberal with their health claims.  For example, Lucky Charms, Golden Grahams, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cookie Crisp and Reese’s Puffs average three or more health claims per box.  A look at the Nutrition Facts box on Lucky Charms reveals that although it does provide several vitamins, it also contains a lot of sugar–14 grams per serving, and that’s a one cup/35 gram serving. And, that one serving fills 10% of the recommended daily intake of both carbohydrates and sodium. Perhaps I’m being cynical, but on top of this, I doubt that most kids eating Lucky Charms are only eating one cup.

Ok, so Lucky Charms is only advertising its strong points. That’s typical; if I wanted to sell a product I would also choose to accentuate the positive while downplaying the negative. But the real trap here is that most people see those few positive things, and forget to ask about the rest. In my opinion, the fact that Lucky Charms is 41% sugar outweighs the benefit of the calcium and vitamin D in it, since I can get my calcium and vitamin D in lots of other ways that don’t also require me to overload on refined sugar. Plus, research shows that fewer consumers under 30 years old are looking at nutrition labels.

The application of media literacy to  this issue is clear. Consumers and children are not asking questions about how something is being marketed to them (why are all the kids cereals on the bottom shelf at the supermarket?), nor can they identify the constructed message which may not tell the whole truth up front.  Like I said, I’m glad the FDA is doing something, and I hope the momentum continues. Better late than never.

–Emily Long

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Yet another wake-up call

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

A study was released by the MacArthur Foundation which reports what most young people already know: Digital media are good for you.  Some of the major findings include the assertion that youth use online media and networks to extend friendships and interests, and that youth engage in self-directed, peer-based learning online.  The report also calls for educational institutions to modernize their systems, and that adults have a responsibility to facilitate the relationship their youth have with new media.

Bingo! This is what we here at the LAMP have said many times before in our workshops and materials: Media needs to be a family affair.  It’s not enough to set up filters; you have to actually talk to your kids about it and learn how to use it yourself.  Too often, I run into adults who look down on new technology as trivial or beyond their ability to understand, and the simple response is that it is not.  I think that we will look back on ourselves years from now, and wonder why we didn’t act sooner.  Schools also have to take the step towards utilizing new media in their lessons, and in tandem with this, administrators and federal funders need to make this possible by allocating money.  Stringent rules (like blocking YouTube from all NYC public school computers) are not the answer–an attempt to standardize something so complex as the Internet does not benefit anyone.

In my view, much of the antagonism adults feel towards new media has been created by sectors of the media itself.  It’s true that online predators exist, and that hateful and inappropriate material floats around in cyberspace.  What’s also true is that these stories are generally reported with more frequency than the positive things that happen with the Internet.  Unfortunately, however, fear of the unknown has prevailed, enabling big media to own the way we view things and turn our heads.  My hope is that the MacArthur report will reach educators and adults who are are paralyzed and overwhelmed by new media, and help them wake up to change and new responsibility.  If you have children, you’re already at an advantage to learn–have them teach you.  You might be surprised.

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Waiting for Corporations to figure it out

Monday, August 4th, 2008

Here in New York City, after a resolution passed by the City Board of Health in 2006, you will find the caloric count listed next to most of your favorite fast food items on the overhead menus. The idea is that as long as you’re aware that the Double Whopper you’re about to order is almost 800 calories (alone, not including the large order of fries and soda you’ll most likely pile on), you’ll make your decision to proceed with or without your purchase informed and knowledgeable. I’m a big proponent of this measure because I theorize that it will cause a shift in the marketplace, where companies start offering more healthy options to their patrons in order to maintain their customer base (and perhaps even grow it). I don’t see the measure as going far enough, but I understand – baby steps.

The Associated Press recently reported on a study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) that explains how few nutritional options the average parent has to choose from for their children when they eat out. The center found 93 percent of 1,474 possible choices at 13 restaurant chains they examined exceed 430 calorie, which is apparently the recommended per meal number of calories for children. I was shocked to learn that there was in fact a recommended amount – my parents sure weren’t trying to stick to a caloric maximum when they were insisting I clean my plate. In fact, our family rarely ate out at fast food joints and restaurants because my parents recognized the indulgence and the poor healthy options offered. Which leads me to my point. Is this report from the CSPI really necessary? How many parents honestly think a meal that consists of deep-fried chicken fingers, deep-fried french fries, or a fried-cheese sandwich swallowed down with a sugary soda or juice could be anything but unhealthy? Instead of waiting for corporations to make the products they offer healthier, parents need to take a more proactive role in their child’s nutritional well-being.

This falls right in line with the LAMP’s goal, bringing families together through their consumption of media in order to make it a healthy and robust relationship rather than waiting for the media companies to make that decision for them.

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Remix Culture and Copyright

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

Some of the most-watched online videos include mashups–essentially, fancy edits of sound and images that twist the intent of the source material for humor, parody and more.  Recently, the Center for Social Media at American University conducted a study on remix and mashup culture, and from it devised a Code of Best Practices for the use of content in online videos.  (The study is called Recut, Reframe, Recycle–be sure to check out the video posted on the study’s website for a quick lesson in what mashups can do, how they are used, and for a guide to some of the best mashups.)  The terms of fair use are not always clear, and they become even less clear in the digital realm, as many industries struggle to resolve the issue of who owns what and who should be getting paid for work displayed online.  The Code was developed by a national team of legal and media scholars, and although it doesn’t constitute a law in and of itself, it provides a useful guide for content creators who want to stay within copyright law.  Anyone out there who is generating their own content online should be sure to take a look.

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Treatment, virtually

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

In this week’s New Yorker magazine, there is a wonderful article called “Virtual Iraq” by Sue Halpern about a new method being used to treat soldiers returning from Iraq who exhibit symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).   By using the same virtual reality technology used for gaming, veterans are treated with intense exposure therapy to overcome anxiety, recurring nightmares and other symptoms of PTSD.  It seems to be working–shedding new light on what gaming can really do, and how to reach a new generation of soldiers who are digital natives.

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Death in Video Games

Monday, March 10th, 2008

I was a little surprised this morning when I read an article on wired.com about a new report by Dr. Niklas Ravaja, a researcher with the Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research at the Helsinki School for Economics.  In it, Dr. Ravaja and his colleagues report that when the emotional states of video game players were monitored with several tiny sensors, they felt a release when they were killed but experienced distress when they killed another character in the game.  (Disclaimer: The paper, entitled The Pyschophysiology of James Bond: Phasic Emotional Responses to Violent Video Game Events, is unavailable to read in full online unless you pay for it.  Everything I know about the report comes from other articles about it, not from my firsthand knowledge of the paper’s contents.  I’m not finding much in the way of scholarly critical response to the paper.)

At first, this conclusion seems backwards.  When you kill another character in a game, you’ve eliminated your opposition, so you should feel a sense of victory, right?  And when you’re killed, it means you’ve lost, and what feels good about losing?  Dr. Ravaja theorizes that this is because even when we operate in a virtual world like a video game, our real-life sense of morality doesn’t entirely switch off.  Although we know intellectually that we didn’t really just kill someone, we feel a little bad about it.  When we die, we’re relieved from the stress of playing.

This was surprising to me because so much past research has suggested that violent video games desensitize a player, blurring the lines between a virtual world of no consequence and a real world where murder holds many, many consequences.  Like Dr. Ravaja, I’m a little relieved at the implication that gamers aren’t completely turned off when their games are turned on.  Given the fact that violent video games aren’t going to disappear, I find the new perspective to be somewhat comforting.

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The Google Generation

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

A new study has been released by the CIBER center, a think-tank with the University College of London, which suggests that the “Google generation” does not know how to search the web.  Defined as anyone born after 1993 and therefore having little to no knowledge of a world without Internet, the Google generation seems to lack the critical and analytical skills needed to perform research.  The increased access to technology has not kept pace with increased teaching of how to challenge information find on the web, nor with effective teaching of how to best use search engines.  It seems that even though young people may know how to speak the language of the Internet, that doesn’t mean they really understand it.

The study is important because it asserts the need for and importance of media literacy.  It tells us that information is absorbed but not necessarily processed–clearly problematic since the ability to gather and use data and research is a key component of the learning process.

If you haven’t done so already, please sign up your child for one of our media literacy classes (see ‘Programs’ at the top of the page).  Also, be sure to check out our workshop called On the Web, which is targeted to adults who want to learn more about the Internet.  Media literacy is important for the younger generation, but it’s also important for the adults who raise them.

Click here for an article about the study.

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Findings from the Geena Davis Institute

Friday, February 8th, 2008

When you turn on the TV, watch a movie or play a video game, you can be sure that at least one thing will happen: the male or female gender will be represented.  As such, it’s important for you and your children or students to understand that the way women and men are presented on screen is not always truthful, but instead they’re seeing something highly conceptual.

For example, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media released an overview of their findings today that males outnumber females at the rate of almost 3 to 1 in films.  It should come as no surprise they found that women were far more likely than men to be hypersexualized in kid-targeted media. However, it is also worth noting their findings regarding the portrayal of men in animated media, specifically the frequency with which men are drawn as having unusually large chests or having an impossibly muscularized body.

Their statistics happen to come out at the same time that Guy Trebay of the New York Times published an article about male models getting thinner and thinner.  (You’d think the media could at least stay on message–which is it, should men be skinny or ripped with muscles?)  Of course, none of this renders the issue of skeletal female models any less urgent, but it serves as a good reminder that both boys and girls are receiving conflicting messages telling them how they “should” look.  For a mildly humorous example of just how conflicted these messages can be, check out this piece about CosmoGirl’s latest attempt at being responsible.

Take some time to sit down with your children and students, and talk to them about what they see.  It’s unrealistic to expect them to never watch another movie, but help them understand the difference between air-brushed entertainment and healthy men and women.

(For tips from Commonsensemedia.org on how to take an active role in your child’s media habits, click here.)

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Growing Up Online

Friday, January 18th, 2008

For parents who want to be more tuned in to how their kids use media, we recommend the upcoming Frontline special on PBS called “Growing Up Online.”  During the show, the producers of Frontline take a look at “the risks, realities and misconceptions of teenage self-expression on the World Wide Web.”  If you’ve got kids, you should be sure to check it out.

It airs on Tuesday, January 22 at 9pm EST on PBS (channel 13 here in New York).  If you can’t catch it then, no need to set your VCR or TiVo–you can stream the entire episode online.

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Study shows violent movies may curb violence

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

A new study presented by two researchers at the annual conference of the American Economists Association suggests that violent movies might help to curb real-world violence–an assertion that flies in the face of previous research by many groups, which has shown that violent movies lead to violent behavior.  Click here to read the article by Peter S. Goodman published January 7th in the New York Times.

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