Media Literacy and Its Importance: Essay
The only thing that is guaranteed in life is change. Whenever people begin to fear change and feel like they are powerless, this can lead to some serious issues. People need to be open to move forward and remain open-minded. Some of the faulty ideas that are associated with media and media literacy are that it is harmful, it requires memorizing facts, it destroys the fun, it is a special skill, and it requires too much effort. To begin, the media is not harmful. While there are certain risks that are associated with an excessive amount of exposure to the media, it encourages more creative and personal writing. Media serves as an outlet for people to share their knowledge and get information out quickly. The focus of the media is not on memorizing facts. Having the skill to turn facts into knowledge is a valuable skill to have and can help people become successful. Media does not require any special skills. However, it helps us build and strengthen the skills that we already possess. Finally, media literacy should not be viewed as something that requires too much effort. Instead, it should be viewed as a way to improve yourself in small ways and see changes in the way that you live your life.
Media literacy is the way that we display our ideas and beliefs to the world for others to interpret. Society has to become more willing to listen to others. There are three critical building blocks of media literacy. First, personal locus ensures that you are aware of your goals. This component helps you make conscious decisions. Second, knowledge structures keep information secured in your memory. They are carefully formed and form patterns that help people to obtain vital information. There are five core parts of knowledge structures: media industries, media audiences, media content, media effects, and the real world. Each of these sections of knowledge structures allows humans to see the bigger picture in situations and have a better understanding of important issues. Finally, skills are the final major component of media literacy. Some of the skills that are important in media literacy include analysis, evaluation, grouping, induction, deduction, synthesis, and abstracting. Using these skills, people are able to take pieces of information and put them together to draw a final conclusion.
The Media Literacy Workshop gives information about the impact of media on our culture. One of the topics discussed in this workshop was ‘post-truth’. This is the idea that whoever has the ‘loudest voice in the room’ or whoever gives the most convincing argument is assumed to be giving the correct information. However, this can be dangerous and result in fake news. This is a term that is used a lot by the news, but most people incorrectly use it to describe information that they do not agree with. Real examples of fake news are satire, slick delivery, sensationalism, and confirmation bias. Sensationalism is whenever there is a breaking news story, and news outlets rush to be the first to report the news. This can lead to misinformation because there is a lack of evidence. They are not aware of all of the facts and details of the event. Another example of fake news is confirmation bias. Humans like to think that they are right about everything. Whenever we see the information that supports what we want to be true, we assume that is it correct without looking at evidence or confirming the truth.
It is crucial that people can understand the advertisements and media that are presented to them. This is a crucial lesson to teach to children at a young age. When kids learn to decode the messages that they see every day, they will have a better understanding of the world. Also, this will give children the ability to strengthen their critical thinking skills and look for evidence. The more educated are citizens are, the better they are at deconstructing the news that are presented to them.
The seven skills of media literacy are analysis, evaluation, grouping, induction, deduction, synthesis, and abstraction. The advantage of having these skills and developing a higher degree of media literacy is that you are more aware of the advertisements presented to you. If you have the ability to decode the news and information that you see every day, your critical thinking skills will improve. In addition, you will be able to turn facts into knowledge and stay informed.