What is Media Literacy

"When Time magazine recognized You as its Person of the Year for 2006, acknowledging the accelerating success of online collaboration and interaction by millions of users around the world, it cited Wikipedia as one of several examples of Web 2.0 services, along with YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook. Some noted the importance of Wikipedia not only as an encyclopedic reference but also as a frequently updated news resource because of how quickly articles about recent events appear. Students have been assigned to write Wikipedia articles as an exercise in clearly and succinctly explaining difficult concepts to an uninitiated audience."
     --From Wikipedia's article about Wikipedia  (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia)


For most of human history "truth", the information that the majority of people accept as factual and real, has been defined by authorities.  The kings of old wielded their power deftly and absolutely; If by royal decree you, a peasent, were forced to move because the king declared your farm infertile, no protest would save you.  What the king says trumps what you say, you would be forced off your land no matter who's opinion was closer to reality because the king's was excepted and acted upon as "truth".  With the brief emergence of democracy and republicanism in antiquity, and its resurgence in the 17th and later centuries cultures saw a different type of "truth", the world defined by a few.  Though many societies were democratic, they were still hierarchal, and not every voice was heard.  Scholors, writers, inventors, doctors, and politicians held an aura of authority beyond the layman.  Also, it took money, time, and resources to create media such as newspaper and organize rallies and events.  The chasm between the layman and authority seemed only to grow with the invention of television and mass media.  In the U.S. the ogliopoly of NBC, CBS, and ABC served to create a soapbox of unprecedented porportions, yet the flow of information was in the hands of these few corporations, their trustees, emplyees, and owners.  While not neccesarily insidious, no organization that is not composed in entirety of the people can serve to voice their needs and opinions.  With the innovations and opening of the internet to the public in the 90's this changed.  In two decades a single person, armed with a voice and an internet connection can reach billions with his/her message.  With the dissolution of traditional media authorities (especially newsprint in the U.S.) we in the digital age have reached the logical conclusion of post-modern thought, "truth" as defined by the many.  It is against this backdrop that I cast the questions, "What is Media Literacy, and what can we do to become more Media Literate?"


Dr. David Considine of Appalachian State University defines Media Literacy as "The ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information in a variety of formats, including print and nonprint(sic)."  (http://www.ced.appstate.edu/departments/ci/programs/edmedia/medialit/article.html#What%20is%20Media%20Literacy)  This means a Media Literate person can find information, determine what it is saying, assess the accuracy and validity of the source, and communicate what was learned. to this definition I add the concept of comparing: finding what other people have interpreted and contrasting this with your own interpretation.  In analyzation and evaluation an individual begins to form an opinion, but it is in communication and comparing that the individual (and public view) is finalized.


The Center for Media Literacy in Santa Monica, California created five concepts of media literacy:

• All media messages are constructed.
• Media messages are constructed using creative language using its own rules.
• Different people experience the same media message differently.
• Media have embedded values and points of view.
• Most media messages are constructed to gain profit/and or value.(http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Media_literacy)

 The wiki article then goes on to list a question that corresponds to each concept and that I have summerized here: Who made this message? What are they communicating and why are they doing it in this manner? How might other people interpret this? What biases are behind this message? What is this trying to sell me?