Media Literacy: Our Little Group Project
By: Bobbie Wright
the love hate relationship between media and literacy
From the moment you read your first book, your media literacy journey was born. Little you was unstoppable. You used your newfound skill to dive into countless stories; guided by the author’s words, you found your way to the story’s overall message time and time again. Sometimes that message was hidden behind slow tortoises or a Wimpy Kid. Maybe even under bridges to a magical land called Terabithia. Too soon?
Regardless, your little brain was constantly asking one question: what does this mean?
Now, you’re a pro. You find yourself decoding media instinctively. You always ask yourself, who created said media and why? On top of that, you consistently analyze, decipher, and unmask the truth behind a piece of media, even if the source has previously been deemed “trustworthy.” So, when you encounter moments in time where someone is so clearly not doing the same (discarding their critical thinking cap with every scroll), you find yourself asking, what went wrong?
Well, the truth is: So much can easily go wrong. Not just on an individual level, but on a grander scale, too. Think of media literacy as the ability to access, analyze, and evaluate media with critical thinking skills. The lack of media literacy means entire communities (on and offline) can be scammed into believing the same mistruth—even just from one carefully placed piece of media. We can all be sent down the same rabbit hole, directionless and confused. Luckily, many of us find our way out, arming ourself with critical thinking skills and a passion for being informed. But should we then leave those without the same skill wandering aimlessly in the dark? Probably not.
We’re living in a digital era where blind consumption of media can impact us on a global scale, sometimes appearing as blind hatred, ill-informed politics, and the policing of women’s bodies. Media can be consumed in a thousand different ways: books, DVDs, music, podcasts, digital ads. And in a time where marketing teams sniff out our every interest online, the lackluster media literacy skills we built as kids just won't cut it. Plus, what happens when some of us forget to hone that skill beyond books and movies?
In the MIT Press, K.E. Stanovich of the American Psychology Association (APA) summarized an interesting phenomenon derived from such behaviors, saying, “What our society is really suffering from is myside bias: we evaluate evidence, generate evidence, and test hypotheses in a manner biased toward our own prior beliefs, opinions, and attitudes. We are not living in a post-truth society—we are living in a myside society. Our political peril stems from our inability to converge on commonly accepted facts and truth, not from our inability to value or respect facts and truth.”
Sound scarily familiar? In that light, we are all responsible for the digital habits of the communities we are members of. With this modern phenomenon in mind, we should ditch the individualistic approach to media literacy. And we can do this by maintaining our own media decoding skills. We can drop into our local libraries and check out primary sources on the topic. From there, we can share proven methods with those around us, raising global media comprehension one person at a time! Of course, no one can get it right all of the time. We can all fall victim to manipulative media. Still, our efforts to fight back will award us the last laugh.
Media literacy as a shareable crash course
As the modern world continually produces new ways for us to consume, we have to fight back with new ways of comprehension. But don’t stress. Research by The Association for Media Literacy has shown that some simple essential frameworks will make us pros at navigating madness.
Tips for exercising media literacy like a pro
Pro Tips
Critically ignore
Train yourself to sniff out misinformation/fake media, then know when to disengage and filter out low-quality, manipulative content. Block accounts that feature click-bait, reduce your time doomscrolling, ask yourself how engaging will harm you and benefit the creator. If you’re doing this daily, you’re already ahead of the curve!
Think open-mindedly
Practice your ability to consider alternative opinions when interacting with a piece of media. Our modern world requires us to constantly deconstruct media, reflecting on the ideologies being presented to us. This can mean taking a beat before we react and being humble about the opinions we already hold. That way we can constantly approach media from a flexible mindset.
Read laterally
Don’t count on a piece of media to present you with its flaws. Open a new tab and use credible sources to investigate what you’re digesting. Then, encourage your peers to do the same!
Create media consciously
Do your research and analyze your own biases before spreading media/information you haven't triple checked. Don’t fall victim to the “myside” mindset and encourage those in your circle to do the same.
The truth is, we can all shape the future in small, meaningful ways. We are like micro influencers to our friends and loved ones. So, next time someone in your life falls victim to misinformation, try a different approach. Give them the tools to stay vigilant against fake news and watch your influence have a major impact on their media literacy.