EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State University is hosting a three-day international conference that will examine the roles media and marketing play in promoting the prevention of child abuse and in supporting nurturing environments for children.
The conference, “Consumer Culture and the Ethical Treatment of Children: Theory, Research and Fair Practice,” is Nov. 11 through13 at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center on the MSU campus.
It will feature research by MSU faculty as well as world experts in child-abuse prevention and the effects of marketing aimed at children. Faculty members and graduate students from more than 20 universities worldwide – from as far as Amsterdam to Ankara to Australia – will present research findings at the event.
The conference highlights the research, education and outreach partnership between MSU’s Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing and the Michigan Children’s Trust Fund. The trust fund will conduct its annual training for its grantees concurrently with conference presentations.
“More than 150 child-abuse prevention specialists from every one of the 70 Children’s Trust Fund affiliates across Michigan will participate with local and international researchers in several joint sessions of the conference,” said Richard Cole, chairperson of advertising, public relations and retailing. “This is the first conference we know of that combines international research presentations with statewide practitioner training session.”
Issues to be explored include the effects of media and marketing on children; the identification of effective advertising and other communication efforts to prevent child abuse; regulatory and policy considerations for marketing to children; how children understand media and marketing efforts; and the promotion of fundraising and volunteering activity to support local and statewide efforts to prevent child abuse.
In addition to the Michigan Children’s Trust Fund, sponsors include Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, National Alliance for Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds, MSU New Media Drivers License Seminars, MSU Outreach and Engagement, and Prevent Child Abuse America.
NOTE TO MEDIA: The on-site contact for media is conference co-chair Elizabeth Taylor Quilliam: (517) 420-6364, quilliam@msu.edu.
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