Media Literacy involves intelligently analyzing and evaluating media messages and assessing their worth. It is an act of questioning the media swamped world around us and critically thinking about the information provided to us. This type evaluation is very important to everyday life. It allows the public to make informed decisions while keeping them from being mislead by media messages.
Neil Postman goes through this issue over and over again in his best-selling novel “Amusing Ourselves to Death”. He talks about our overwhelming dependence on being entertained, the extreme importance of using more than one source of media for information, and the importance of being truly informed. Postman clearly believes in the art of media literacy education and, as you will see, it’s clear why.
Neil Postman goes through this issue over and over again in his best-selling novel “Amusing Ourselves to Death”. He talks about our overwhelming dependence on being entertained, the extreme importance of using more than one source of media for information, and the importance of being truly informed. Postman clearly believes in the art of media literacy education and, as you will see, it’s clear why.
News
Even the local news isn’t free of misinformation. Because of tight deadlines, reporters may not have time to fully sort through the whole story. It is sad to say but your local newspaper and TV news channel are businesses. They have to make money to survive. This force them to cover what will be the most watched which sometimes means the most entertaining rather than the most important. Your source of news is also constricted by its geographic location. The media outlet is most likely to focus more on stories that affect the area rather than national news. In order for a person to be fully informed they must have a balance of the two, thus forcing them to turn to other sources.
Risk continuum
The likelihood that a person will express a specific behavior due to a negative media message can be determined by using a risk continuum, a scale from 0 to 100 with 0 being the lowest and 100 the highest. Your set point in the scale is determined by a variety of factors from your home life to your media exposure habits. It is important to understand the movement of your “set point” to understand how at risk you or the people around you are to a negative effect from media exposure. These types of tools are essential to developing excellent media literacy skills. Awareness is the first step.
Media ownership
Another important factor of media literacy is being aware of media ownership. On a website from the Columbia Journalism Review one can pick a specific media company and see what other companies it owns. For example, we all know Walt Disney for its creative kid’s movies and theme parks, but did you know that Disney also owns ABC, ESPN, Touchtone Pictures and Miramax films? I certainly didn’t. We need to be careful when television shows promote a product or service because they could be promoting for company’s own good. If Johhny Depp were to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote the New Pirates of the Caribbean movie you could consider it a conflict of interest because Disney owns the hit movie and ABC where Jimmy Kimmel appears.
In a few short weeks I will graduate and will be thrown into the crazy world of Advertising and Public Relations. At this time, Media Literacy will be especially important. I need to beware of what my materials are conveying to my target audience. Now that I am aware of the tricks and traps I will be able to recognize and avoid these potential problems in years to come.
Even the local news isn’t free of misinformation. Because of tight deadlines, reporters may not have time to fully sort through the whole story. It is sad to say but your local newspaper and TV news channel are businesses. They have to make money to survive. This force them to cover what will be the most watched which sometimes means the most entertaining rather than the most important. Your source of news is also constricted by its geographic location. The media outlet is most likely to focus more on stories that affect the area rather than national news. In order for a person to be fully informed they must have a balance of the two, thus forcing them to turn to other sources.
Risk continuum
The likelihood that a person will express a specific behavior due to a negative media message can be determined by using a risk continuum, a scale from 0 to 100 with 0 being the lowest and 100 the highest. Your set point in the scale is determined by a variety of factors from your home life to your media exposure habits. It is important to understand the movement of your “set point” to understand how at risk you or the people around you are to a negative effect from media exposure. These types of tools are essential to developing excellent media literacy skills. Awareness is the first step.
Media ownership
Another important factor of media literacy is being aware of media ownership. On a website from the Columbia Journalism Review one can pick a specific media company and see what other companies it owns. For example, we all know Walt Disney for its creative kid’s movies and theme parks, but did you know that Disney also owns ABC, ESPN, Touchtone Pictures and Miramax films? I certainly didn’t. We need to be careful when television shows promote a product or service because they could be promoting for company’s own good. If Johhny Depp were to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote the New Pirates of the Caribbean movie you could consider it a conflict of interest because Disney owns the hit movie and ABC where Jimmy Kimmel appears.
In a few short weeks I will graduate and will be thrown into the crazy world of Advertising and Public Relations. At this time, Media Literacy will be especially important. I need to beware of what my materials are conveying to my target audience. Now that I am aware of the tricks and traps I will be able to recognize and avoid these potential problems in years to come.
For more information on media literacy visit the Center for Media Literacy
For games to teach media literacy in the classroom click here
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