Consumer Reports Lesson Plan 7: Consumer Issues

An issues article is generally a report with an introductory statement of the problem, supporting details (facts and viewpoints), and a conclusion. Key elements include a description and background of the problem, an explanation of how the problem affects consumers, statistics, expert opinions, and tips on what consumers can do.

Issues articles provide opportunities for developing critical-thinking skills. They also allow students to examine their own values, opinions, and priorities.

  

• To identify how current issues affect consumers and the marketplace.
• To use a consumer magazine to become informed about consumer issues.
• To gain familiarity with the range of opinions on particular issues and to analyze and evaluate the arguments of others.
• To form opinions about issues that affect consumers and determine how consumers can respond.
• To learn how to find out more information about the issues.
• To understand the role consumer and other public-interest groups can and do play in representing the consumer's interest on key issues.

  

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advocate/advocacy bias interest group

issue lobby objectivity

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KEY CONCEPTS Many problems and issues --health care, the environment, economic justice, commercial clutter, invasions of privacy, food safety and quality, product safety, etc.-- are of direct concern to consumers. Problems and issues are complex and solutions are not easy. Because they involve conflicting interests and often could have major financial impact, they can drag on for years. Consumers and businesses often have different viewpoints on issues. Solving a problem can be expensive. Often those who expect to have to pay the bill will fight to shift the cost elsewhere or to reduce the scope of the proposed solution. Many issues have an ethical dimension. People often disagree about what's the "right" approach to an issue. Groups such as CU serve as consumer advocates on many issues. Advocacy groups work to protect consumers at many levels --local, state, national, and international. Direct and indirect action by consumers can affect how issues are resolved. Consumers can contribute by becoming informed and then supporting legislation and other measures to resolve issues. They can write letters, stage boycotts, hold rallies, speak out at public meetings, and apply other forms of pressure.

TEACHING STRATEGIES

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  BEFORE READING

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Look for a hook that relates the issue to the students' own lives. Encourage students to share anecdotes or vignettes related to the issue in their own or their families' lives.

  

Clarify the issue..

• Why is this issue a problem? How does it affect consumers? The marketplace? The entire community? The nation?
  
  
• Why is the subject of interest at this time?
  
  
• How do marketing strategies, including advertising, affect this issue?
  
  
• What consumer or other citizen groups, if any, are involved, or might become involved?
  
  
• Who stands to lose or gain from the solution to this problem? How? What are the economic undercurrents of this issue?
  
  
• How does this issue affect consumers? Business people? People of various economic classes? People living in urban, suburban, or rural areas?
  
  

Explore the political ramifications of the issue..

• What is an "interest group"? Are any interest groups actively lobbying for solutions to this issue? What do the groups want? Is the consumer interest being represented? Explain.
  
  
• Are any national priorities or values at stake? Does resolving the issue require reconciling two or more conflicting priorities? Explain.
  
  
• What government bodies might have a role in addressing this issue? Do any interest groups have influence with those agencies? Does the issue involve any laws? Has legislation been proposed? At what level?
  
  
• What have politicians had to say about the issue? Are the politicians linked to any special interests? Explain.
  
  
• Does the issue affect your community directly? If so, how? Is anything being done on the local or state level to address the issue? Explain.
  
  

Discuss the history of the issue.

• How did the issue or problem originate?
  
  
• Does the issue involve ethics-- questions of right and wrong? Do the ethical issues seem clear or muddy? Explain.
  
  
• Have there been any previous attempts to solve the issue? To what extent did those attempts succeed? To what extent did they create new complications?
  
  
• Is there cause for alarm? What's the worst possible scenario? The best?
  
  

Discuss recommendations and opinions.

• Does CONSUMER REPORTS have an opinion about this issue? If so, what is it?
  
  
• What is the strongest point to support the opinion? What is the weakest point?
  
  
• What experts, if any, are quoted in the article? Do the experts support a specific side of the issue? Would you consider any of these experts an unbiased source for information on this issue? Why or why not?
  
  
• What statistics does the article use? What source, if any, is cited for the statistics? What points are the statistics intended to clarify? How can consumers use these statistics to become better informed?
  
  

Discuss possible solutions.

• What solutions have been proposed? Would these solutions really work? How costly would they be? Who would pay?
  
  
• What does CONSUMER REPORTS recommend? Do you agree or disagree? Why? Who stands to gain if the issue is resolved as CONSUMER REPORTS recommends? Who stands to lose?
  
  
• What is the most effective way for consumers to become involved in solving this issue?
  
  

  

Student Activity 7-A1: Analyze Problems and Solutions

ACTIVITY OBJECTIVES To become informed about consumer problems and how to solve them. To draw conclusions about consumer issues based on your analysis. To form opinions about the solutions to consumer problems.   ACTIVITY PLAN Discuss the issues article in CONSUMER REPORTS. Elicit students' opinions and their experiences with this problem. How has this issue affected your life? Your community? Why is it important to identify and solve this problem? Discuss areas of difference. Do you agree with the solution proposed by CONSUMER REPORTS? Why or why not? Have students present reasons in support of their opinions.    ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES Analyze opposing arguments. Have students list arguments on opposing sides of the issue. Who made the arguments? What is their stake in the issue? Does anyone have a "hidden agenda"? Have the students analyze the arguments to determine which are valid and which are merely self-serving. Analyze the impact of an issue. Working in small groups, have students brainstorm the ways in which the issue concerns them as consumers; the marketplace in general; their community, state, and nation. Compare lists compiled by different groups. Debate the issue. Divide the class into two or more groups. Assign one side of the issue to each group. Then stage a class debate. Create a cartoon. Challenge students to create cartoons that make a trenchant point about the issue. Analyze advertisements. Have students keep a media log of advertisements pertaining to the issue. In their logs, students should briefly summarize the ad content of a variety of media advertisements: television commercials; print ads; radio ads; and promotional flyers. Have students discuss their findings in small groups. Focus discussion on the difference in content and focus of these ad formats. What groups is each ad targeting? How does each ad "present" its message? Create an ad campaign. Divide the class into sides. Have each side create its own print, television, or radio ads presenting one side of the issue. Compare ads for opposing sides. Which is more convincing? Why? Alternative. Have students develop a public-service campaign around the issue.

Student Activity 7-A2: Questions and Answers

ACTIVITY OBJECTIVES To develop previewing skills to determine the probable content of an article. To determine what one knows and doesn't know about a subject reported on in CONSUMER REPORTS. To develop questions that are likely to be answered by a CONSUMER REPORTS article and to find answers to those questions in the article.   ACTIVITY PLAN Before assigning the article, give students an opportunity to skim through it. Have students discuss what they already know about the issue and what questions they still have that the article is likely to answer. Have students list questions they hope the article will answer. Have students read the article and answer their own questions. Encourage students to share their thoughts and opinions.    ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES Keep abreast of the issue. Encourage students to keep informed about the issue by tracking it in the media and analyzing how it affects consumers, the business community, government, and the community in general. Follow up. Have students prepare brief news segments about the subject for a class news program. Different students can take the roles of producer, writers, reporters, directors, as well as acting out the roles of interview subjects, such as consumers, government officials, and "experts."