Media literacy can be explained as “a framework to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a variety of forms, build an understanding of the role of media in society, as well as [develop] the essential skills of inquiry and self-expression.” (Trilling, B & Fadel, C 2012). In the other words, media literacy provides people platforms such as video, website, audio, pictures to help them to learn the full view of the medias in the society from different perspectives. Meanwhile, as people could gradually understand the significance of social medias’ existences, they also could develop the abilities to collect the data, judge the information, develop personal thoughts, express individual opinions, and finally connect with the society more closely. As Jesse and Smith Julie mention that literacy is not limited only by the paperwork, such as reading books, but also could be displayed by medias because “the media have their own text also they have their own language”(8:20). For example, scientific or educational YouTube channels belong to video medias which provide people with knowledge that may not be seen on the books. Therefore, medias in society provide diverse ways for people to receive timely information about the world and learn new knowledge which may not be included in books. Media literacy is an opportunity for people to touch and connect with the social environment by watching and accepting the changes of the world from medias. If the medias are not exist to spread information and build the image of the society, people may be derailed from society because they cannot know how the world is changing. Meanwhile, without understanding the develop trends of the society, people would lose their senses of stability and belong because of the unknown future. However, at present, medias in society are more likely to be considered as entertainment. People could get relaxation from entertainment, but at the same time addictions would occur. Focusing too much on entertainment information would occupy people time and energy of studying; also, because entertainment information are not serious or scientific, so everyone has the right to publish any legal entertainment information on the internet. Therefore, entertainment information could be unverified resources which misguide people to believe in them. In addition, not only the entertainment information, but also some seemingly scientific knowledge resources are actually fake information. These fake information are easier to be instilled in people’s brain and spread to others because they are “scientific”. These are the reasons that why the media literacy would be dismissed. Actually, most time we could find that people’s PLNs are more likely to include varied views but no the factual consensus. I think this is because people are more likely to leave their footprints in the topics they are interested with no matter the information are truth or not. As I mentioned before that medias in society would be considered as entertainment in most time, so people access these topics may just because interests rather than learning knowledge. Therefore, personal PLN would include more varied views instead of the factual consensus that they need to learn or accept as knowledge. As Smith Julie mentions that in the large amounts of information in social medias, “it is impossible to figure out what is real” (4:20), so the open dialogues about media literacy and factual information would create conflicts. For example, the makeup blogger may promote the cosmetics could improve the skin conditions, but this is not all true actually. If a person has really bad skin condition, he/she had better not to do makeup for a short period because some cosmetics would clog the pores and result in worse skin conditions. The most parts of blogger’s audience would be the people who must do makeup everyday, they could get some comforts after listening and believing with the blogger’s speeches no matter the speech is true or not. Therefore, people are more likely to seek and believe in the speeches in media literacy that they prefer to accept even the speeches are not factual information. When standing at the bystanders’ perspective, other people could feel the speeches in open dialogues are conflicted with factual information. Therefore, having a PLN that values media literacy would be important. Valuing on media literacy means that everyone needs to focus on improving the media environment, such as improving the authenticity of information resources. All citizens need to ensure that they publish and spread factual information on their PLNs. As the accuracy of information increased, people would be more likely to trust in the medias in society, and less people would be misguided by the false information.
References:
Smith Julie. “EDCI 338 A01- SMITH, JULIE” YouTube, uploaded by Miller, Nov 2, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_T9RghwJlI
Trilling, B & Fadel, C (2012). Digital Literacy Skills . Media Literacy Chapter 4 pp.66. https://learning-oreilly-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/library/view/21st-century-skills/9780470475386/fade_9780470475386_oeb_c04_r1.html
rachellevanr March 22, 2021
Hi Angel!
Great thoughts this week.
I think that social media is succeeding at creating access to content that is written in a plain and simplistic way that many are generally able to understand. The problem indeed seems to lie in a large portion of society lacking media literacy and critical thinking skills. Anyone can post to the internet, and as you mentioned even sources that seem legitimate are not always well researched or correct. As far as I’m aware, there are no regulatory bodies or legislation around the sharing of misinformation. An attempt to regulate what is shared or posted may indeed be unconstitutional, hence why instead it is so important that we learn critical thinking and media literacy skills in school.
I found it interesting that you brought up that “fake information [is] easier to be instilled in people’s brain[s]”. I read not too long ago that a 2018 study at MIT demonstrated that false news does spread more rapidly on social networks than real news (source: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/mit-sloan-research-about-social-media-misinformation-and-elections). I have read that this is mostly because according to the article above, misinformation is spread much more rapidly than real news, and the language that is used in such posts is typically more accessible than more credible sources. For this reason I think it is also important that scientists make an effort to write using language that is more accessible to the general public. The scientific community has actually been working towards this goal for a very long time now, and I think that we are starting to see the results of this for example in the way that British Columbia has been handling press releases about COVID-19.
I also found it interested that you mentioned “people’s PLNs are more likely to include varied views but no the factual consensus”. This has not been my experience, but I think it is because when I see content that I disagree with that is not from a credible source, I tend to dismiss the information immediately. I think it is healthy in the beginning stages of any type of inquiry process to not have factual consensus, however it is important that we strive to obtain some ‘most plausible’ truth in order to establish factual consensus for governmental, organizational and personal decision making processes.
zimengl March 22, 2021
Hi Angel,
I quit agree with the example of a makeup blogger you gave. In most cases, people only want to believe what they are willing to believe. Some widely circulated financial reports on the Internet can be regarded as the traffic responsible for a lot of information, but it is not difficult to find that throughout the report, there are similar words such as “reported by news” and “reported by media”, However, no one is going to investigate which media these media are, and they cannot provide a strong guarantee for the authenticity of the information. Therefore, cultivating media literacy is particularly important in a complex network environment.
asha March 24, 2021
Hi Angel,
Thank you for sharing your blog. I really liked your comment “e, as people could gradually understand the significance of social media’ existences, they also could develop the abilities to collect the data, judge the information, develop personal thoughts, express individual opinions, and finally connect with the society more closely.” I have noticed this skill is developing even early with kids in grades 1 and 2 they are able to navigate social media and sort through an overload of information to find what they want to see or interact with such as games or funny videos of dogs.
Media literacy is something that many children will be introduced to at a young age to be smart social media users
Thank you for a great blog.
if you have a chance I would love to hear your thoughts on mine https://ashablog.opened.ca/9-why-media-literacy-matters-in-your-pln/