Media Literacy

Media Literacy

by Marika Dimitriadou

​ What is Media Literacy?

​Media literacy consists of practices that allow people to access, critically evaluate, and create or manipulate media. Media literacy is not restricted to one medium. Media literacy education is intended to promote awareness of media influence and create an active stance towards both consuming and creating media.

​Why become literate in Media?

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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

• helps them develop generative media capability to increase creative skills in making their own media messages.

What does ML have to do with?​

​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.

​Let's go beyond mere definitions...

Whenever we need to evaluate a piece of information we come across, it's good to start by asking the following 5 W's & 1 H questions.

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• • Who was involved?

  • What happened?

  • When did it happen?

  • Where did it happen?

  • Why did it happen?

  • How did it happen?

​Oh, no! Do we really need to get critical again?

​Critical analyses can include identifying author, purpose and point of view, examining construction techniques and genres, examining patterns of media representation, and detecting propaganda, censorship, and bias in news and public affairs programming (and the reasons for these).

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Media literacy education may explore how structural features—such as media ownership, or its funding model—affect the information presented.

​Ok, you come from the Internet. Why should I trust you?

Multiple Select

Critical analyses, in the framework of Media Literacy...

• may examine patterns of media representation

• can teach you how to create fake news effectively

• can help you detect propaganda, censorship, and bias in news

• helps you trust info from the web more easily

​Is it True or is it Fake?

​Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. It often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.

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​And lately, especially during the pandemic period, they seem to be quite abundant....

​Fake News is like a canary in a coal mine...

​The aim of having recipients of the information deceived into believing it is credible and true information, can be achieved in many ways. Moreover, seeking to make money from advertising, false information can also arise from misinformed social media posts by regular people that are seized on and spread through the blogosphere. 

Types Of Fake News

• Satire Sources - These sites generally employ humor, exaggeration or parody to comment on current events. 

• Clickbait Sources - Sensational headlines or images that are designed to attract visitors to visit a page or link with the intent of generating advertising funds.  The information is often credible, but can also be misleading, biased or require clicking several slides or images to reach the actual information.

• Unreliable Sources - These sources cannot usually be accepted at face value and need further verification from other sources to determine if information is credible

• Fake/False Sources - These sources use distorted or false headlines with the goal to infuriate, shock, or offend people on social media to encourage likes, shares, or advertising funds

  • ​

Multiple Choice

Let's see if we've got the big picture.

Pick the answer that you think best completes the sentence.

Media literacy is about....

• faulty products sold on the internet

• learning how to critically evaluate news & info

• learning to read and write on the internet

• another boring school subject

​Can we benefit from ML education?

​Critical thinking has to do with:

• understanding how the media industry works

• how media messages are constructed

• questioning the motivations of content producers in order to make informed choices about content selection and use

• recognizing different types of media content

• evaluating content for truthfulness, reliability and value

• recognizing and managing online security and safety risks.

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​Developing such skills can prove beneficial in one's life and definitely goes far beyond just identifying falsity in news.

​What else is there in Media Literacy?

​Intercultural dialogue, which is a skill promoted through Media Literacy, includes:

• practices of human communication

• empathy

• social interaction, including those that challenge radicalization and hate speech

• ​

By learning to identify these, one can learn how to build skills such as tolerance, understanding, acceptance of the different and inclusion.

​And...some bonus skills developed through

Media Literacy!

​Media skills: the ability to search, find and navigate and use media content and services

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Participation and civic engagement: active participation in the economic, social, creative, cultural aspects of society using media in ways that advance democratic participation and fundamental human rights.

​Summing up...

Think before you....

• believe

• ​click

• ​accept as true

• ​spread

• ​follow advice

• ​

​

​Well, in general, THINK before you act, especially when media is concerned.