By Keera Lowe
A seminar entitled “What is Media Literacy?” was held on Tuesday, Feb. 15 to help kick off the fourth annual Body Awareness Body Appreciation week, directed by Campus Health Services Health Promotion. The hosts of this seminar were Brittany Blake, a graduate student in college student personnel, and Jenna Williams, a senior anthropology major.
Blake opened the seminar by defining media literacy, which is the theme of this year’s BABA week.
“It is a way of analyzing and critically thinking about the media and what it is promoting versus what items are actually intended for sale or purchase,” said Blake. She said that a person sees, hears, smells, touches or comes across an advertisement an average of 3,000 times per day.
Williams said that ads can have a profound impact on the way individuals think and feel.
“We only think about 8 percent of the ads on a conscious level,” said Williams. “The other 92 percent is subconscious and slowly accumulating over time to influence our thinking. Ads are carefully constructed and intentional.”
The seminar also consisted of facilitated group discussion on five advertisements, portraying ageism, racism, violence against men, objectification of women and sexual violence.
Joshua Hardman, a graduate student in college student personnel, talked about an ad for the video game “Grand Theft Auto.”
“In video games the appeal is violence,” said Hardman. “The message is to convey violence without actually having violence on [the ad].”
Karen Newton, director of Health Promotion, pointed out how subconscious internalization of ads can change a person’s opinion over time.
“None of us are so smart that we can’t be influenced by this stuff,” said Newton.
The week of Feb. 20 – 26 is also National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. Some of the ads discussed in the seminar dealt with this topic and generated discussion on this subject. Specifically, one ad for Nutri-Grain Cereal Bars included a model with cinnamon rolls on her bottom.
“They’re preying on [a woman’s] worst fear,” said Katie Partin, a doctoral student in college student personnel.
The keynote speaker for BABA week, Jean Kilbourne, will be giving a lecture titled “The Naked Truth: What are advertisers really selling us?” Kilbourne is an internationally recognized speaker on the underlying effects of advertisement. Her speech will be held Tuesday, Feb. 22 from 7 – 8:15 p.m. in Bigelow Hall in the Miller Information Technology Building.
