Media Literacy’s Impact
I found this week’s reading to be incredibly eye opening. Beginning this class, I knew what felt like nothing about media literacy, however the reading really helped me realize I know more than I thought.
Jane Tallim’s definition of media literacy as an ability to analyze the messages we see every day whether in the form of entertainment, sales, or information clarified for me that the responsibility is on us as people to carefully decide how we allow media to impact us. The three stages of media literacy by Elizabeth Thoman which are centered around awareness and the learning of specific skills to be a critical viewer lend to and build upon Jane Tallim’s definition. All of the important media literacy scholars included in the What is Media Literacy attachment in someway stated Rick Shepherd’s view that media literacy is an informed and critical understanding of mass media.
For me, the most valuable piece of the The Core Concepts: Fundamental to Media Literacy Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow attachment was the 5 concepts Elizabeth Thoman, the founder of the Center for Media Literacy placed importance on:
- All media messages are “constructed”
- Media messages are constructing using using a creative language with its own rules
- Different people experience the same media message differently
- Media are Primarily businesses driven by a profit motive
- Media have embedded values and points of view
It was valuable to learn about the founders of media literacy; Barry Duncan and Len Masterman and the effect they had on spreading the importance of media literacy around the world. Masterman’s 18 Basic Principles reinforced much of the information from the first reading. My favorite principle is that “Media education carries out its investigations via dialogue rather than discussion.” This is a vitally important distinction.
When looking at the 3 Models of Media Literacy the Protectionist or Discrimination Models strike a similarity with the way I grew up receiving media, I was taught to know the difference between a low quality media like The Simpsons and a high quality media at the time, Sesame Street. Additionally, I grew up before it was common for a toddler to have their own iPad. My parents did not allow a lot of television viewing, I definitely did not fit into the numbers shown on the University of Michigan Health System’s report. The Social Critique and Pleasure attachment made me think about my 11 year old cousin who has grown up similarly to the way I did back in the day. She was telling me about how her friend wanted to see an “R” rated movie and when my cousin told her she wasn’t allowed, her friend said “your mom is holding you back.” I couldn’t believe it! Sternheimer’s Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture: Why Media Is Not the Answer discusses how generationally, economically, politically, etc. children’s experiences are different I believe that often these differences are not thought of when judging ones actions.
In one of my posts, I mentioned that I am interested in the way people with disabilities are portrayed in media. It seems as though we are always the funny best friend, the person viewers should feel sorry for, or someone who receives a miraculous cure. The “Why Media Literacy” reading the statistic “43 million Americans have a disability; but people with disabilities are visible in only 1.5% of prime-time programs (and these are often stigmatized and victimized)” really struck me because I had never seen it stated in numbers that way.
The orthodoxy is interesting. At this point I agree that while media is a powerful force, it cannot fix everything, youth these days are smart and only becoming more and more critical. Sternheimer’s Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture: Why Media Is Not the Answer reinforces this stating “social structure encourages us to look in depth at the big picture to understand what factors may shape people’s choices.”
This reading was an excellent way to broadly familiarize myself with media literacy.
