New Research Paper Topic

The Effects of Advertising on Children

1. Identify the issue or problem that you plan to focus on in your research project.

Sould restrictions be placed on advertising aimed at children?
Does advertising have a negative impact on children?

2. What is your personal connection to and interest in this topic?

I am interested in studying business, and advertising/marketing is a big part of business. I also work with young children 35 hours a week during the summer, teach a pre-school Sunday school class, and lead a 3rd-5th grade youth group at my church.

3. What opinions do you already hold about this topic?

There should be some restrictions put on advertising towards children because children are not able to recognize advertising until they reach a certian point in their development therefore they believe everything they see to be true and factual.

4. What knowledge do you already have about this topic? What are your main questions about this topic? What are you most curious about?

I don't know a whole lot about the subject other than businesses are targeting young children who lack the ability to understand the difference between a TV show and a commercial. Businesses take advantage of these children and manipulate them. I'd like to know more about this topic, specifically what negative facts advertising has on today's youth. I'd also be interested in seeing some statistics.

6. Within what scholarly discipline (such as history, biology, psychology) do you expect to do most of your research? How does this discipline approach or study this topic?

I would probably look at the topic from the business/advertising/marketing point of view so that would go under business. I'd probably also look at the topic from a psychology point of view in terms of what children can and can't understand and how these advertisements are effecting them. I would also look at the ethics of targeting young children when advertising.

7. How could you research this topic outside the library (for example, through interviews and/or observations)?

I could observe young children and see how they are influenced by advertising.

Part II: Focusing
Write an initial claim, or an open-ended question, to guide your research on this topic. Make it specific but exploratory. Remember that a good claim opens up an area of inquiry about a topic; a claim should invite evidence, support, and debate.

Advertising is everywhere. We can't avoid it no matter how hard we try. How is today's youth being impacted by advertising?


Search Terms:
"effects of advertising on children"
"advertising and children"
"advertising and kids"

A few websites that looked good so far:
http://www.apa.org/releases/childrenads.html
http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_tobacco.shtml
http://www.youngmedia.org.au/mediachildren/03_advertising.htm
http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun04/protecting.html
http://www.preventioninstitute.org/CHI_food_advertising.html
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/6/2563
http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html
http://www.jstor.org/view/00222437/sp040049/04x1187q/0
http://www.focusonyourchild.com/entertain/art1/A0000228.html
http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/advertisingtricks/
http://media.www.newsrecord.org/media/storage/paper693/news/2005/04/14/Opinion/Column.Cookie.Monster.Forced.To.Cut.Down.On.Cookies-923345.shtml
Google Scholar Sources:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2005-03-30-sesame-street-healthy_x.htm
http://www.jstor.org/view/00935301/di007486/00p0404k/0
http://www.jstor.org/view/00935301/di007469/00p0163q/0
http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/1/1/3
http://www.jstor.org/view/00935301/di007453/00p0004g/0
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JCR/journal/issues/v29n1/290101/290101.text.html
http://www.jstor.org/view/00222437/sp040108/04x2782z/0
http://www.jstor.org/view/00935301/di007466/00p0129k/0
http://www.jrsm.org/cgi/content/full/97/2/51
http://www.jstor.org/view/00222437/sp040049/04x1187q/0
http://www.jstor.org/view/00935301/di007476/00p0253s/0
http://www.jstor.org/view/00935301/di007496/00p0012l/0
http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov00/advertising.html