What is media literacy?

The general public still takes a more relaxed and correct attitude towards watching TV and using the media, and is very unfamiliar with the so-called “media literacy.” In fact, just as people receive a large amount of written and language training in listening, speaking, reading and writing in traditional education, they also need to learn to use the media. The media we come into contact with every day is a Pandora’s box that contains rich meaning and diverse information. Without learning and education, people can easily be confused by the colorful and distorted media information without knowing it. The purpose of media education is to learn how to “watch”, “listen” and “think” the messages conveyed by the media by understanding and analyzing the operation and operation of various media such as television, radio or the Internet, and how to What impact does the community in which we live in.

Nowadays, the media can be said to be ubiquitous, and all kinds of information edited and screened by them are also conveyed to us invisibly. Although they have important responsibilities such as reflecting society, transparent politics, and weather reporting, they are ultimately caused by subjective. People can’t completely avoid the direction guidance of biased consciousness to deal with and publish them. If they don’t have the ability to perceive and speculate on media information, they will easily become ignorant.

In the case, media literacy has become very important! After we understand the true content of the media message, the first thing we must do is not to fully accept it, but to think about the reorganized and reproduced information, reflect on the meaning of the reader, choose the good and discard the evil, and analyze the nature of the media and position, whether there are any bad biases and reporting habits, so that we can filter and choose good media to extract information. By influencing the market usage rate of media, we can also indirectly monitor and promote the elimination or improvement of low-quality media, positively affirm the good media, and achieve the purpose of promoting media reform.

In short, as D. Kellner said, in such an information age and postmodern world where information is developed or even flooded, people of all ages (including adults) must have the literacy of media and computer technology in order to find their own meaning in this world filled with various media images (Kellner, 1999).

 

Kellner, Douglas. “Media literacies and critical pedagogy in a multicultural society.” Retrieved January 31 (1997): 2006.