To illustrate why this topic in particular is important to me I chose this photograph of Michael Wolf’s 2004 installation art project from Hong Kong called “The Real Toy Story” (Which incidentally is the name of the 2007 book by Eric Clark which really drew me into this topic.) You can read all about that project by clicking the picture, but the important fact to take away is that toys are a multi-billion dollar industry, yet the vast majority of toys are manufactured at extremely low-cost in China, often by children and young women in “legal” but slave-like conditions. While this fact will probably not be a driving factor of my dissertation, as it is just one of a number of socially-interesting facets to this topic, in analysing the moral values promoted by a company through their product we must be mindful of the actual values they practice.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
The Real Toy Story (Uni Blog 1#)
For my dissertation I tried to think of a topic that could incorporate aspects from both sides of my Media/Philosophy joint degree. My conclusion was to examine how some notion of morality is portrayed in popular culture. I’ve always been interested in the relationship between children and media, especially the toy industry, and how such products promote certain attitudes to the world and discourage others. I may look at the evolution of one particular company or a selection of important brands across time.
To illustrate why this topic in particular is important to me I chose this photograph of Michael Wolf’s 2004 installation art project from Hong Kong called “The Real Toy Story” (Which incidentally is the name of the 2007 book by Eric Clark which really drew me into this topic.) You can read all about that project by clicking the picture, but the important fact to take away is that toys are a multi-billion dollar industry, yet the vast majority of toys are manufactured at extremely low-cost in China, often by children and young women in “legal” but slave-like conditions. While this fact will probably not be a driving factor of my dissertation, as it is just one of a number of socially-interesting facets to this topic, in analysing the moral values promoted by a company through their product we must be mindful of the actual values they practice.
To illustrate why this topic in particular is important to me I chose this photograph of Michael Wolf’s 2004 installation art project from Hong Kong called “The Real Toy Story” (Which incidentally is the name of the 2007 book by Eric Clark which really drew me into this topic.) You can read all about that project by clicking the picture, but the important fact to take away is that toys are a multi-billion dollar industry, yet the vast majority of toys are manufactured at extremely low-cost in China, often by children and young women in “legal” but slave-like conditions. While this fact will probably not be a driving factor of my dissertation, as it is just one of a number of socially-interesting facets to this topic, in analysing the moral values promoted by a company through their product we must be mindful of the actual values they practice.
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