The paper Subliminal Messaging in Children’s Media is written by Mylinh Pham. The introduction is written in a proper way. The attention of the reader is attracted by the first sentence where the author writes about the television and its impact on the people. He writes about advertising that it is everywhere. “Whether it’s the Disney channel or Saturday morning cartoons, kids are being bombarded with advertising messages everywhere and in every direction. In addition to the traditional TV, print, and radio ads, a great majority of the media uses a type of advertisement called subliminal messaging”. The subject of the research is the influence of ads on the children’s point of view. The opening is relevant to the paper’s subject matter. There is a sufficient amount of information that connects the opening to the paper’s main focus. “Before the topic of subliminal messaging can be addressed, subliminal perception must be first understood. What is subliminal perception?”. And the author provides the explanation of the main concept of the work. The arguable claim/thesis in the introduction is stated clearly. Are children becoming the target of today’s “big business?”. After I have read the introduction, I can clearly say in my own words what the paper will be about and what it will argue. However, there is no an argumentative/persuasive element. I would add some information about the parents who give their children the opportunity to watch every channel. The information in the paper lacks some facts about the ability of the parents to reduce the amount of programs their children can watch.
The definitions are interesting and relevant to the paper. “The word “subliminal” literally means “below the threshold” (Ralph Merikle). The threshold is the level at which people are aware of a stimuli, so if something is below the threshold, or subliminal, people are not consciously aware of it (Gary Radford). Therefore, consumers may be receiving messages and obeying them without even realizing it!”. Good academic argument always considered the validity of other points of view. In this paper we see the strong support of different points of view. “There is still some controversy over whether or not subliminal messaging works. The debate comes from scrutiny on if subliminal advertising works or not. It’s hard not to notice the non-stop flood of commercials that are aimed directly at children. What needs to be asked first is whether or not it is even possible that the content of the messages influence children’s behavior. If this were not the case, advertising would be an irrelevant concept as it would not matter what types of content or messages are relayed, as consumers would not buy into the product. Subliminal messaging is one of many advertising techniques; however its main point of difference lies in the inability to pinpoint the ads directly (Jeffery Goldstein)”. The organization of the body is very correct and the sources are properly set up and cited.
Conclusion refers to the paper’s opening. “Subliminal advertising is a much debated …