Media Literacy

(www.foothilltech.org)

In today’s world, we are constantly swarmed with messages. The radio, television, newspapers, magazines, music, movies, etc are all filled with advertisements whose main goal is to grab our attention. Advertisements surround our everyday life. It is nearly impossible to go through a whole day without seeing an advertisement. From the minute you turn on the radio, walk in a store, or even walk down the street, messages are everywhere.

That is why we have something called media literacy. With so many ads attacking us each day, media literacy helps us distinguish what is important. It gives us the ability to filter through the messages that are trying to sell us a product and trying to give us information. New public relations and marketing techniques are making it harder and harder to decipher the real messages hidden in the media.

There are so many messages that lay beyond the advertisements that we endure each day. Everything that we see in the media has been put there for a purpose. Media literacy allows us to distinguish the motives that are behind the media and decode the messages that may not always be clearly visible.

Media literacy is particularly important to teach in our schools. Children spend huge amounts of time on the computer, watching television, etc. They must learn how to recognize and evaluate the messages that are being sent to them.

We don’t believe everything that we hear in the media thanks to media literacy. I apply the practices of media literacy to the messages that I am faced with everyday. I know that, even though the news is full of violence and war, I am still relatively safe. When I watch a movie, I can distinguish between what is real and what is fake. I know that when I get an ad on a website that says I have won a free trip, the reality is that I probably have not. Without media literacy, we would believe everything that the media throws at us.

Media literacy is the only thing that can keep us sane in the media filled world we live in.