Media Literacy

We recently discussed "media literacy" and if it should be taught to students. My short answer to this is, yes, we do need to teach media literacy to students.

What does the term "media literacy" mean? That term can mean many things to many people. Does it mean I can understand (read, hear, see) the content coming from the media? Sure. That's the literal meaning. Real media literacy is understanding what the message is intending to say, what its message

Source: LouisKennedy.wordpress.com

and purpose is, and then asking "Do I believe this? Do I agree with this? Is there another side of the

story I need to pay attention to? Can I choose to see something else?" In many cases, those, along with an infinite number of other questions, should come up. At the heart of teaching media literacy is really teaching critical thinking skills.

Media has been around forever, as long as there has been advertising, newspapers, music, theater, opinion polls, editorials, political cartoons, etc. Media literacy needs to be top of mind now due to the exponential increase in production and consumption of digital media. With this explosion come messages from sources that may not have been encountered before and covering topics previously never discussed. How to identify media itself is an important part of media literacy.

Having spent my undergrad studying marketing and then working in sales and marketing, I have a keen eye for media literacy. Of course that ad is showing those images - that's the point! "Buy this product and the image you are looking at will be you!"

Source: simplydevise.com

Like many, I enjoy the Superbowl commercials because they can be very entertaining. It does give me some solace that I really don't remember many of the actual products the funny (or annoying) commercials were selling. But this is media literacy at its simplest. I think most people, once they understand the purpose of advertising get this. To be fair, advertising is not a bad thing. It's a necessary part of doing business.

A bit more complicated is that media can't be discussed without marketing. We must realize that everything is marketed, and not all intentionally. Like it or not, we are all in marketing. We market ourselves everyday by how we perform our jobs, how we dress, where we spend our time. And, yes, what we say, but we all know actions speak louder than words. Marketing is getting a message out.

In a sense, we are a form of media. Being aware of this may not change a thing about ourselves ... or will it?

Source: VeryBestQuotes.com