{"id":44,"date":"2017-05-16T19:46:25","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T19:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-massmedia\/chapter\/1-8-media-literacy\/"},"modified":"2017-05-16T19:46:25","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T19:46:25","slug":"1-8-media-literacy","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-massmedia\/chapter\/1-8-media-literacy\/","title":{"raw":"1.8 Media Literacy","rendered":"1.8 Media Literacy"},"content":{"raw":"
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Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n
  1. Define media literacy.<\/li>\n
  2. Describe the role of individual responsibility and accountability when responding to pop culture.<\/li>\n
  3. List the five key considerations about any media message.<\/li>\n <\/ol><\/div>\n

    In Gutenberg\u2019s age and the subsequent modern era, literacy\u2014the ability to read and write\u2014was a concern not only of educators, but also of politicians, social reformers, and philosophers. A literate population, many reasoned, would be able to seek out information, stay informed about the news of the day, communicate effectively, and make informed decisions in many spheres of life. Because of this, literate people made better citizens, parents, and workers. Several centuries later, as global literacy rates continued to grow, there was a new sense that merely being able to read and write was not enough. In a media-saturated world, individuals needed to be able to sort through and analyze the information they were bombarded with every day. In the second half of the 20th century, the skill of being able to decode and process the messages and symbols transmitted via media was named media literacy<\/a><\/span>. According to the nonprofit National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), a person who is media literate can access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information. Put another way by John Culkin, a pioneering advocate for media literacy education, \u201cThe new mass media\u2014film, radio, TV\u2014are new languages, their grammar as yet unknown (Moody, 1993).\u201d Media literacy seeks to give media consumers the ability to understand this new language. The following are questions asked by those that are media literate:<\/p>\n

    1. Who created the message?<\/li>\n
    2. What are the author\u2019s credentials?<\/li>\n
    3. Why was the message created?<\/li>\n
    4. Is the message trying to get me to act or think in a certain way?<\/li>\n
    5. Is someone making money for creating this message?<\/li>\n
    6. Who is the intended audience?<\/li>\n
    7. How do I know this information is accurate?<\/li>\n <\/ol>
      \n

      Why Be Media Literate?<\/h2>\n

      Culkin called the pervasiveness of media \u201cthe unnoticed fact of our present,\u201d noting that media information was as omnipresent and easy to overlook as the air we breathe (and, he noted, \u201csome would add that it is just as polluted\u201d) (Moody, 1993). Our exposure to media starts early\u2014a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 68 percent of children ages 2 and younger spend an average of 2 hours in front of a screen (either computer or television) each day, while children under 6 spend as much time in front of a screen as they do playing outside (Lewin). U.S. teenagers are spending an average of 7.5 hours with media daily, nearly as long as they spend in school. Media literacy isn\u2019t merely a skill for young people, however. Today\u2019s Americans get much of their information from various media sources\u2014but not all that information is created equal. One crucial role of media literacy education is to enable us to skeptically examine the often-conflicting media messages we receive every day.<\/p>\n

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      Advertising<\/h2>\n

      Many of the hours people spend with media are with commercial-sponsored content. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimated that each child aged 2 to 11 saw, on average, 25,629 television commercials in 2004 alone, or more than 10,700 minutes of ads. Each adult saw, on average, 52,469 ads, or about 15.5 days\u2019 worth of television advertising (Holt, 2007). Children (and adults) are bombarded with contradictory messages\u2014newspaper articles about the obesity epidemic run side by side with ads touting soda, candy, and fast food. The American Academy of Pediatrics maintains that advertising directed to children under 8 is \u201cinherently deceptive\u201d and exploitative because young children can\u2019t tell the difference between programs and commercials (Shifrin, 2005). Advertising often uses techniques of psychological pressure to influence decision making. Ads may appeal to vanity, insecurity, prejudice, fear, or the desire for adventure. This is not always done to sell a product\u2014antismoking public service announcements may rely on disgusting images of blackened lungs to shock viewers. Nonetheless, media literacy involves teaching people to be guarded consumers and to evaluate claims with a critical eye.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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      Bias, Spin, and Misinformation<\/h2>\n

      Advertisements may have the explicit goal of selling a product or idea, but they\u2019re not the only kind of media message with an agenda. A politician may hope to persuade potential voters that he has their best interests at heart. An ostensibly objective journalist may allow her political leanings to subtly slant her articles. Magazine writers might avoid criticizing companies that advertise heavily in their pages. News reporters may sensationalize stories to boost ratings\u2014and advertising rates.<\/p>\n

      Mass-communication messages are created by individuals, and each individual has his or her own set of values, assumptions, and priorities. Accepting media messages at face value could lead to confusion because of all the contradictory information available. For example, in 2010, a highly contested governor\u2019s race in New Mexico led to conflicting ads from both candidates, Diane Denish and Susana Martinez, each claiming that the other agreed to policies that benefited sex offenders. According to media watchdog site FactCheck.org<\/a>, the Denish team\u2019s ad \u201cshows a preteen girl\u2014seemingly about 9 years old\u2014going down a playground slide in slow-motion, while ominous music plays in the background and an announcer discusses two sex crime cases. It ends with an empty swing, as the announcer says: \u2018Today we don\u2019t know where these sex offenders are lurking, because Susana Martinez didn\u2019t do her job.\u2019\u201d The opposing ad proclaims that \u201ca department in Denish\u2019s cabinet gave sanctuary to criminal illegals, like child molester Juan Gonzalez (Robertson & Kiely, 2010).\u201d Both claims are highly inflammatory, play on fear, and distort the reality behind each situation. Media literacy involves educating people to look critically at these and other media messages and to sift through various messages and make sense of the conflicting information we face every day.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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      New Skills for a New World<\/h2>\n

      In the past, one goal of education was to provide students with the information deemed necessary to successfully engage with the world. Students memorized multiplication tables, state capitals, famous poems, and notable dates. Today, however, vast amounts of information are available at the click of a mouse. Even before the advent of the Internet, noted communications scholar David Berlo foresaw the consequences of expanding information technology: \u201cMost of what we have called formal education has been intended to imprint on the human mind all of the information that we might need for a lifetime.\u201d Changes in technology necessitate changes in how we learn, Berlo noted, and these days \u201ceducation needs to be geared toward the handling of data rather than the accumulation of data (Shaw, 2003).\u201d<\/p>\n

      Wikipedia<\/em>, a hugely popular Internet encyclopedia, is at the forefront of the debate on the proper use of online sources. In 2007, Middlebury College banned the use of Wikipedia<\/em> as a source in history papers and exams. One of the school\u2019s librarians noted that the online encyclopedia \u201csymbolizes the best and worst of the Internet. It\u2019s the best because everyone gets his\/her say and can state their views. It\u2019s the worst because people who use it uncritically take for truth what is only opinion (Byers, 2007).\u201d Or, as comedian and satirist Stephen Colbert put it, \u201cAny user can change any entry, and if enough other users agree with them, it becomes true (Colbert, 2006).\u201d A computer registered to the U.S. Democratic Party changed the Wikipedia<\/em> page for Rush Limbaugh to proclaim that he was \u201cracist\u201d and a \u201cbigot,\u201d and a person working for the electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold was found to have erased paragraphs connecting the company to Republican campaign funds (Fildes, 2007). Media literacy teaches today\u2019s students how to sort through the Internet\u2019s cloud of data, locate reliable sources, and identify bias and unreliable sources.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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      Individual Accountability and Popular Culture<\/h2>\n

      Ultimately, media literacy involves teaching that images are constructed with various aims in mind and that it falls to the individual to evaluate and interpret these media messages. Mass communication may be created and disseminated by individuals, businesses, governments, or organizations, but it is always received by an individual. Education, life experience, and a host of other factors make each person interpret constructed media in different ways; there is no correct way to interpret a media message. But on the whole, better media literacy skills help us function better in our media-rich environment, enabling us to be better democratic citizens, smarter shoppers, and more skeptical media consumers. When analyzing media messages, consider the following:\n<\/p>\n

      1. \nAuthor:<\/strong> Consider who is presenting the information. Is it a news organization, a corporation, or an individual? What links do they have to the information they are providing? A news station might be owned by the company it is reporting on; likewise, an individual might have financial reasons for supporting a certain message.<\/li>\n
      2. \nFormat:<\/strong> Television and print media often use images to grab people\u2019s attention. Do the visuals only present one side of the story? Is the footage overly graphic or designed to provoke a specific reaction? Which celebrities or professionals are endorsing this message?<\/li>\n
      3. \nAudience:<\/strong> Imagine yourself in another\u2019s shoes. Would someone of the opposite gender feel the same way as you do about this message? How might someone of a different race or nationality feel about it? How might an older or younger person interpret this information differently? Was this message made to appeal to a specific audience?<\/li>\n
      4. \nContent:<\/strong> Even content providers that try to present information objectively can have an unconscious slant. Analyze who is presenting this message. Does he or she have any clear political affiliations? Is he or she being paid to speak or write this information? What unconscious influences might be at work?<\/li>\n
      5. \nPurpose:<\/strong> Nothing is communicated by mass media without a reason. What reaction is the message trying to provoke? Are you being told to feel or act a certain way? Examine the information closely and look for possible hidden agendas.<\/li>\n<\/ol>

        With these considerations as a jumping-off place, we can ensure that we\u2019re staying informed about where our information comes from and why it is being sent\u2014important steps in any media literacy education (Center for Media Literacy).<\/p>\n

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        Key Takeaways<\/h3>\n