Advertising: Issues and Debates

Advertising: Issues and Debates

1. Reductionism

   • Only considers social influences on children's tendency to lean towards gendered products, although could also link to cognitive approaches

2. Situational Explanation

   • Studies how children's behaviour and conformity to traditional gender expectations is influenced by the portrayals which they are shown in advertising

3. Conducting Socially Sensitive Research

   • Carrying out research which could lead to advertisers pulling children's adverts may harm economies/capitalism

4. Ethical Issues

   • Johnson and Young's study used content analysis rather than real participants, therefore avoiding ethical implications

5. Determinism

   • Studies into the influence of advertising on children understands that children are likely to pursue gendered consumer goods, and have little freewill due to often not understanding when they are being sold something

6. Usefulness of Research

   • Research has had useful applications, such as discussions over banning advertising to children (which has been influenced by such research)

7. Nurture

   • Research indicates that gender identity is socially constructed and influenced by media advertising

8. Reliability

   • Conducting content analysis on media products in a consistent way means that qualitative data can be objectively quantified with study repeats