If providing a two page spread cut and paste from the Nike website is your idea of giving local young people an effective VOICE (09/02/09) in local media then they are probably better off without it.

Perhaps a review of the new documentary “Behind the Swoosh: Sweatshops and Social Justice” (www.educatingforjustice.org) would have provided a more accurate picture of the suffering and devastation that the Nike brand and similar companies rely upon to maintain share value and dividend payouts.

Young people are saturated with enough commercial messages already – I thought journalism was supposed to provide a perspective other than corporate marketing.

In my experience young people appreciate it when a little bit of information and analysis is provided that reveals just how much money is spent on manipulating their values, beliefs and spending habits for the profit of a few rich shareholders.

I wonder if our new Minister of Education is interested in ensuring young people have access to both media literacy and financial literacy education? Skills, knowledge and confidence in these two areas would make a substantial and sustained difference to the way adolescents see themselves and navigate the social and economic landscapes they are growing up in today.