http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5109415725027567998
In high school I had to watch this video in class while we reading Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death (Dr. Prill has alluded to the book a few times this semester) because it focuses in part on the powerful influence public discourse and media can hold, in this case, the media's ability to cater to and market to (and ultimately manipulate) teenagers.
I realize that the video, like the previous sentence, seems too long. But I strongly encourage everyone who sees this post to watch as much of the video as your 21st century American attention span can tolerate because PBS did a good job of making a video that is so very pertinent to what we are studying and discussing in class.
The video reveals how entertainment and marketing media in America pursues teenagers because of their spending power (parents meet all of their basic needs so what little income or allowance kids have is spent on luxuries for themselves), their susceptability (we are all influenced by media everyday but persuading a kid is like shooting a fish in a barrel for someone making a commercial advertising a toy or something geared towards kids) but most importantly teenagers' value for "cool" and the price they are willing to pay to obtain it.
We as a society are constantly bombarded by advertisements. Just a couple hours before I began this post I walked right into an advertising effort. I was making a normal trek to Sub Connection wondering if today would be the day that Sodexho finally killed me with food poisoning... Then the second that i set foot in the student center a Nashville Predators' cheerleader (I use "cheerleader" because I don't know that hockey teams have cheerleaders but it sounded better than team hooker) shoves a flyer in my face. It informs me that I can not only buy a ticket for "only" twenty bucks but that I can buy a soda for half price. Although the soda is half price (so only 2.5 what it should cost instead of the usual 5 times cost) but I discover I can only be thirsty the first 15 minutes of the game because the offer is only good through the first period.
I hate advertising and I hate how thoroughly it pervades my everyday life. I especially hate advertising when it dresses skanky and gives me a flyer I'm going throw away, or worse, wad-up, throw at a trash can, and leave for someone else to pick up and throw away.
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I saw that video or one very much like it. I found interesting (and frightening) the idea that a few strong opinion leaders could influence an entire generation of teenagers. The two-step flow of information (from journalism and comm theory) would suggest that such influence pervades our culture. Since none of us can know everything, we often depend on someone else (an opinion leader) to keep us informed about other issues. They filter the news or entertainment for us and pass along an abbreviated and, often times, opinionated view of those issues, and we accept their position. In that regard, adults may be little different than teens.
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