13 Jul 2004
edited 19 Sep 2004

The CAMRA Act: Who will use the results of this 5-year study, and for what?

------------------
"WASHINGTON - Senators Lieberman, Brownback & Clinton today unveiled legislation authorizing a $90 million federal grant program to support research into the effects of viewing and using all types of media, on children’s physical and psychological development. The Children and Media Research Advancement (CAMRA) Act would establish a program within the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development aimed at energizing research into the role of all forms of digital, analog and print media on the cognitive, social, emotional, physical and behavioral development of children from infants through adolescents." (Abbreviated from Sen. Joe Lieberman's web page)
19 May 2004
------------------

At first glance, the CAMRA Act seems a waste of money. $90 million is a lot to pay to confirm that children should be watching less television or none at all. However, if the studies make full use of the five-year allotment to do long-term analysis of actual test subjects (i.e., children), they will likely reveal far more detailed patterns of persuasion and human response than are now used by TV advertisers.

Advertisers and the U.S. Government already have too much information on the power and effect of television. Television is the dominant ad medium for destination products (items that are bought periodically by type, e.g., soda, beer, cars, dog food), and not seldom used to sell houses, gifts, and novelties. Television is also dominant in the selling of political candidates and ideas, as often by innuendo during regular programming as by recognizable commercials. Very successful and apparently deliberate campaigns were carried out against Nixon, Dan Quayle and Newt Gingrich using mostly dumb jokes on TV sit-coms and talk shows. President Bush is routinely mentioned on television as being stupid,which seems a bit inconsistent with repeated suggestions that he stole the 2000 election.

The CAMRA Act (pdf) will provide $90 million over five years. Likely recipients of the funds are the four universities which, through the Children's Digital Media Center at Georgtown University, helped assemble this bill. The act will require only a single report at the end, but this won't prevent insiders from using new persuasion techniques if and as such techniques are discovered. The public, however, is unlikely to learn much from a single report after the studies are complete. In effect, the taxpayers will pay for a program that will likely be used against them before they are ever told of the findings.

The public can extract something positive from this exercise by demanding frequent reporting and high visibility of the research. Advertising, news shows, and even prime-time shows are all forms of education, or mis-education if you prefer, in that each presents ideas to be accepted by the viewer. A five-year study could add useful understanding of the processes we call "education."

- Andrew Hadley

The bill is also available, with current status, at Thomas Locator. Search on "S. 2447" or on "CAMRA"

© 2004 Halway Systems

BACK