2. What is media literacy?
The word "literacy" usually describes the ability
to read and write. Reading literacy and
media literacy have a lot in common. Reading
starts with recognizing letters. Pretty soon,
readers can identify words -- and, most
importantly, understand what those words
mean.
Readers then become writers. With more
experience, readers and writers develop strong
literacy skills.
GWENNETH HIGAYON
3.
4. Education for media literacy often uses an inquiry-based pedagogic model that
encourages people to ask questions about what they watch, hear, and read.
Media literacy moves beyond the traditional formats of written and print text
and moves to examining more
contemporary sources.
Some examples of media literacy include, but are not limited to
* Television,
* video games
*photographs, and
*audio messages.
Media literacy education
provides tools to help people develop receptive media capability to critically
analyze
messages, offers opportunities for learners to broaden their experience of
media, and
helps them develop generative media capability to increase creative skills in
making their
5. Media are powerful forces in the lives of youth.
Music, Tv, video games, magazines and
other media all have a strong influence on how we
see the world, an influence that often
begins in infancy.
To be engaged and critical media consumers, kids
need to develop
skills and habits of media literacy. These skills include
being able to access media on a
basic level, to analyze it in a critical way based on
certain key concepts, to evaluate it
based on that analysis and, finally, to produce media
oneself. This process of learning
media literacy skills is media education.
6. 1. Media literacy encourages young people to question, evaluate,
understand and appreciate
their multimedia culture. It teaches them to become active,
engaged media consumers
and users.
2 . Media education brings the world into the classroom, giving
immediacy and relevance to
traditional subjects such as History, English, Health, Civics and the
Creative Arts. It serves as a perfect bridge for subject integration
and interdisciplinary studies.
Why Teach Media Literacy?
HERE ARE TEN GOOD REASONS:
JAN MARIENE GUHITING
7. 3. Media education embodies and furthers current
pedagogy, which emphasizes student-centred
learning, the recognition of multiple intelligences,
and the analysis and management – rather
than just the simple storing – of information.
4. Media education is grounded in the sound
pedagogical approach of starting learning where
kids are at. The media – music, comics, television,
video games, the Internet and even ads –
are a part of life that all kids enjoy. Media create a
shared environment and are, therefore,
catalysts for learning.
8. 5. Media education encourages young people to use
multimedia tools creatively, a strategy that
contributes to “understanding by doing” and
prepares them for a workforce that increasingly
6. In a society concerned about growing youth
apathy to the political process, media education
engages young people in “real-world” issues. It helps
young people to see themselves as active
citizens and potential contributors to public debate.
9. 7. In a diverse and pluralistic society, the study of media helps
youth understand how media portrayals can influence how we
view different groups in society: it deepens young people’s
understanding of diversity, identity and difference.
8. Media literacy helps young people’s personal growth and
social development by exploring the connections between
popular culture – music, fashion, television programming, movies
and
advertising – and their attitudes, lifestyle choices and self-image.
10. 9. Media literacy helps children critique media representation,
teaching them to distinguish between reality and fantasy as they
compare media violence and real-life violence, media
heroes and real-life heroes, and media role models and real-life
roles and expectations.
10. With most students turning first to the Internet for research,
media education is an essential component of Information
Communications Technology education, assisting young people in
developing critical thinking skills and strategies for optimizing
searches, evaluating and
authenticating information and examining issues of plagiarism
and copyright.
11. Media products are created by individuals who make conscious and unconscious
choices about what to include, what to leave out and how to present what is included.
These decisions are based on the creators’ own point of view, which will have been
shaped by their opinions, assumptions and biases – as well as media they have been
exposed to. As a result of this, media products are never entirely accurate reflections
of the real world – even the most objective documentary filmmaker has to decide what
footage to use and what to cut, as well as where to put the camera – but we
instinctively view many media products as direct representations of what is real.
IRISH HEDI
1. MEDIA ARE CONSTRUCTIONS
12. The meaning of any media product is not created solely
by its producers but is, instead, , a
collaboration between them and the audience – which
means that different audiences can take
away different meanings from the same product. Media
literacy encourages us to understand
how individual factors, such as age, gender, race and
social status affect our interpretations
of media.
2. AUDIENCES NEGOTIATE MEANING
13. Most media production is a business and must, therefore, make a profit.
In addition, media industries belong to a powerful network of
corporations that exert influence on content and distribution. Questions
of ownership and control are central – a relatively small number of
individuals control what we watch, read and hear in the media. Even in
cases where media content is not made for profit – such as YouTube
videos and Facebook posts – the ways in which content is distributed are
nearly always run with profit in mind.
3. MEDIA HAVE COMMERCIAL
IMPLICATIONS
14. 4. MEDIA HAVE SOCIAL AND
POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS
Media convey ideological messages about values, power
and authority. In media literacy, what or who is absent
may be more important than what or who is included.
These messages may be the result of conscious
decisions, but more often they are the result of
unconscious biases
and unquestioned assumptions – and they can have a
significant influence on what we think
and believe.
15. The content of media depends in part on the nature of
the medium. This includes the technical,
commercial and storytelling demands of each medium:
for instance, the interactive nature of
video games leads to different forms of storytelling – and
different demands on media creators
– that are found in film and TV.
5. EACH MEDIUM HAS A UNIQUE
AESTHETIC FORM
17. Media literacy is our awareness regarding our
mediated environment or consumption of mass
communication. It is our ability to responsibly
comprehend, access, and use mass
communication in our personal and professional
lives. Potter states that we should maintain
cognitive, emotional, aesthetic, and moral
awareness as we interact with media. Baran
suggests a number of skills we can develop in
order to be media literate
19. An important skill for media literacy is to
acknowledge just how dominant mass
communication is in our lives and around the
globe.
UNDERSTAND AND RESPECT THE POWER OF MASS
COMMUNICATION MESSAGES.
20. As we learned in Chapter 1, anything that hinders
communication is noise. We often turn ourselves
into passive consumers, not really paying attention
to the messages we receive as we perform other
tasks while consuming media.
UNDERSTAND CONTENT BY PAYING ATTENTION AND FILTERING
OUT NOISE.
21. .
A great deal of mass communication content is
intended to touch us on an emotional level.
Therefore, it’s important to understand our
emotional reactions to mass communication.
UNDERSTAND EMOTIONAL VERSUS REASONED REACTIONS TO
MASS COMMUNICATION CONTENT IN
order to act accordingly
22. Would you consider yourself an informed
consumer of mass communication? Do you
expect a lot from mass communication?
DEVELOP HEIGHTENED EXPECTATIONS OF MASS
COMMUNICATION CONTENT
23. All media have their own unique characteristics
or “certain distinctive, standardized style
elements” that mark them as a category or genre
(Baran 57).
UNDERSTAND GENRE CONVENTIONS AND RECOGNIZE WHEN
THEY ARE BEING MIXED
24. THINK CRITICALLY ABOUT MASS COMMUNICATION MESSAGES,
NO MATTER HOW CREDIBLE THEIR
source
It is essential that we critically consider the source
of all mass communication
messages. Audiences do not always
hold similar perceptions regarding mediated
messages.
25. .
This skill requires us to develop sensitivity
to what is going on in the media. This
means being familiar with the intent or
motivation behind the action or message.
UNDERSTAND THE INTERNAL LANGUAGE OF MASS
COMMUNICATION TO UNDERSTAND ITS EFFECTS, NO
matter how complex.
27. The benefits of media literacy for students are multiple. First
and foremost, media literacy helps students become wiser
consumers of media as well as responsible producers of
their own
media. Along those same lines, teaching media literacy helps
to foster critical thinking in
students. This type of thinking can eventually become
second nature, which will help them in
many areas as they grow older. The focus is more on
strengthening process skills, not content
knowledge.
28. In 1960, communications scholar and theorist Marshall
McLuhan wrote the following: "Without an understanding of
media grammars, we cannot hope to achieve a contemporary
awareness
of the world in which we live" (Carpenter & McLuhan, 1960, p.
xii). His point remains relevant
today, even though the context has changed to a remarkable
extent.
29. Educators in the 21st century are slowly starting to appreciate that we
no longer live solely in a print-centric world; we are surrounded by a
culture filled with visual images and messages, many of which work on
a subconscious level. In the 21st century, "texts" and "literacy" are not
limited to words on the page: they also apply to still and moving
images, such as photographs, television, and film.
Today, being literate also means understanding wikis, blogs, nings,
digital
media, and other new and emerging technologies. Unfortunately, many
K–12 educators have yet to realize the benefits of teaching students
with and about nonprint media, what is today
recognized as an important part of "media literacy."
31. Teaching media literacy provides students with
skills that will help them foremost think critically
about media. It also cultivates other 21st-century
skills like creativity, collaboration, and
communication, as well as increasing digital
literacy skills through interacting with media,
information, and technology. Media literacy
instruction can also help your students develop
into
active consumers of information, determine
credible sources, acknowledge biases in media,
and be responsible creators of media.