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Erica Morrissette, Simon Pierpont, Riley Murray, Julie Nagel, and David Muite
Media literacy is a crucial skill all media consumers must have. There are many factors that can change how we interpret media, and how media affects us, and there are a few main skills that can aid consumers in being more media literate like willingness to try, and having an ability to distinguish reactions. Understanding the differences between mediated and non-mediated media and their implications is also important to media literacy.
Defining Media Literacy
Media literacy is the method of dissecting media content in order to critically analyze it. To do this, it is essential to look at media content’s underlying messages, its ownership and regulation, as well as how it is presented. This is not an easy process, and has no stopping point. It is necessary to always question what is shown in mediated communications (Pavlik and McIntosh, 46). We often are passive in our roles in mass communications. We forget to question what our responsibilities are as consumers (Baran, 21). We look at violent televisions shows and criticize how they promote and romanticize violent behaviors, but we never miss an episode, telling producers we support the content. Culture is created through media (Baran, 21), and if we continue to tune in, we are allowing issues within our culture to persist. By being subject to passive consumption or Stanley Baran’s “third-person effect”, we release all control we have over culture.
Stanley Baran, in the Introduction to Mass Communication, speaks of a term he calls “third-person effect”. This encompasses the idea that as consumers we believe media affects others but not ourselves (24). Being media literate allows us to see that this is untrue and media does in fact have underlying messages that affect us. By understanding those messages, we can change how it affects us. Media literacy is so important to consumers because it can help us to control our actions in response to media, and allow it to have less control over our views (Pavlik and McIntosh, 46). By asking questions like, “Who paid for this?”, “What point are they trying to make”, or even things like “What are they getting out of this?” consumers are able to get a better picture of the subliminal messages, and their influence (Rosenwald, 97).
There are many factors that frame media content including political factors, social factors and economic factors (Pavlik and McIntosh, 47). It’s important to become a critic when it comes to media forms; we must question all aspects of its production, and presentation to fully grasp its repercussions. By developing media literacy skills consumers can better assess the content they are receiving.
Media Literacy Skills
Today, we are living in what is known as the Digital Age and the only constant is that it will continue to develop and expand for future generations. It is important for everyone to develop and expand along with the media, in order to properl