Truth or Money

Level: Grades 6 to 9

Overview

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In this lesson, students explore how advertising leverage can lead to censorship of information about public health issues. They discuss the types of interest groups that seek to influence public opinion about smoking, as well as the strategies used by each group. Students then discuss the ways in which the tobacco industry has censored magazine messages about the health risks associated with smoking. To give students a chance to experience a smoking-related moral dilemma, they are placed in the role of a journalist whose article has been rejected because it could antagonize the magazine's cigarette advertisers. They must then decide how to respond to the editor.

Learning Outcomes

Students will demonstrate:

an awareness of the potential influence of advertisers on magazine content
an understanding of the role tobacco advertisers may play in censoring information about public health issues in magazines
an awareness of possible connections between tobacco companies and companies that, on the surface, are not connected to tobacco products

Preparation and Materials

Photocopy the following:

Procedure

Class Discussion: 15 min

Which interest groups might want to influence public opinion about smoking? (Write answers on the board. Examples may include: the tobacco industry, government officials, health agencies, concerned citizens, educators, ex-smokers, relatives of cancer patients.)
What is the position of each of these groups?
How can these groups get their messages across?
- through education
- through the media, using ads, articles, "subvertisements," "advertorials," or letters to editors
- through statistics or persuasive language that appeals to cherished values such as freedom, individuality, and sophistication
Which interest group would be likely to:
- Call a smoker a "nicotine addict?"
- Refer to bronchitis, cancer, and emphysema as "alleged health hazards?"
- Describe nicotine as a "killer drug?"
- Talk about health advocacy groups as "anti-smoking fanatics?"
Besides stating their message in words, how else can interest groups influence public opinion? (Through images in ads, or "spoof ads," or by controlling the media through economic influence.)

Distribute Censorship in the Media. Discuss the notion of censorship, and how it can be politically or economically driven.

Ask students, "Why is omission of information just as bad as biased information?"

Activity

Have students complete the assignment described in The Dilemma individually, or in small groups.

Extension Activity

Copy and distribute Kiss My Ash.

Discuss journalistic terms: editor-publisher, alternative weekly, contributing editor, regular columnist, advertorial (advertising disguised as an article), masthead, local tidbits roundup, letters to the editor, freelance writer. Or read the article to the class, pausing to discuss these and other terms. Ask students what Kowinski lost by writing his "final column," and what he gained.
Tell students to put themselves in Kowinski's shoes and write his final column ("Mr. Butts is Back") as well as the letter to the editor-publisher that he refers to. Discuss the effectiveness of Kowinski's article, and the appropriateness of his language (words such as "Tobacco Slime"). Discuss what changes might be made if the article were written for a more conservative audience.

Evaluation

Completed The Dilemma assignment
"Mr. Butts is Back" column