Media Literacy

 According to Lynch (2018) coined ring the term “media” that refers to all electronic
or digital means and print or artistic visuals used to transmit messages through
reading (print media), seeing (visual media), hearing (audio media), or changing and
playing with (interactive media).
 Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media (Firestone
1993). Media literate youth and adults can understand the complex messages received
from television, radio, internet, newspaper, magazines, books, billboards, video
games, music, and all other forms of media.
 The Ontario Ministry of Education (1989) stressed that media literacy means helping
students develop an informed and critical understanding of the nature of mass media,
the techniques used and their impact.
 Media literacy is the ability to identify different types of media from wide array of
sources and understand the messages they bring (Hobbs, 1997).

Media Literacy Concepts

1. It is the ability to critically assess the accuracy and validity of information transmitted
by the mass media and produce information through various forms.
2. Also known as Media Education, it is the ability to realize that all kinds of media
show a representation of reality.
3. It is the process of accessing, decoding, evaluating, analyzing, and creating both print
and electronic media. (Aufderheide, 1993).
4. It depicts experience of reading texts and designing hypertexts made possible through
technology (Hobbs, 200)
5. It pertains to understanding how to use today’s technology, how to operate equipment,
use various software and explore the internet.
6. As a 21st century approach to education, media literacy builds understanding of the
role of media in society, as well as the essentials skills for inquiry and self-expression
necessary for democratic citizens.
7. It represents response to the complexity of the ever-changing electronic environment
and communication channels.
8. Critical evaluation of media requires the ability to analyze and disseminate various
features to others.
 9. It is about teaching critical media management, strategies, including ICTs in schools
and learning centers.
10. It includes the ability to perform effective internet searches, awareness and respect of
intellectual property and copyright law and the ability to identify truth from fake
news.

Roles of Media Literacy

1. Learn to think critically- When people evaluate media, they decide if the messages
make sense, including the key ideas before being convinced on the information that
they get from it.
2. Become a smart consumer of products and information - Media literacy helps
individuals learn how to determine whether something is credible, especially the
advertising before they can be persuaded with the products on sale.
3. Recognize point of view- Identifying an author’s perspective helps individuals
appreciate different ideas in the context of what they already know.
4. Create media responsibly- Recognizing one’s ideas and appropriately expressing,
ones, thoughts lead to effective communication.
5. Identify the role of media in our culture- Media conveys something, shapes
understanding of the world, and makes an individual to act or think in certain ways.
6. Understand the author’s goal- Understanding and recognizing the type or influence
something has, people can make better choices.

Social Media
Social media is a term that describes websites to connect people and involve user-
generated content, which is the hallmark of a social media site.
Types of Social Media Websites
There are different types of social media websites and the ways of using them reach
the target audience.
1. Social Media News Websites- It entails users to submit links to Web content like
articles, podcasts, videos that they find interesting such as Digg, Reddit and stumble
Upon.
2. Social Media Networking Websites- It depicts ability to upload a personal profile
that usually connects with other people, such as linked in (social networking for
professional) and face book (social networking for everyone).
 3. Social Media Photo and Video Sharing – It allows users to upload photos through
facebook, Instagram and Pinterest while videos through Youtube.
4. Microblogging and Blogging Websites- Sometimes called “presence apps” these
services let users post very short messages like, blogging, and easily keep up with
what their friends are posting.
5. Social Media Review Websites- It shows how social reviews can make or break a
company or an organization, such as Amazon and eBay.
Media and Information Literacy (MIL)
 Media and Information Literacy (MIL) is a combination of knowledge
attitudes, skills, and practices required to access, analyze, evaluate, use and
ethical ways that respect human rights (Moscow Declaration on Media and
Information Literacy, 2012).
 The UNESCO defines it as the set competencies to search, critically evaluate,
use and contribute information and media content wisely; the knowledge of
one’s rihts online, refraining from cyberbullying; understanding related ethical
issues; and engaging with media and ICTs to promote equality, free
expression, intercultural/ interreligious dialog, peace.

Aspects of MIL
 According to Reineck and Lublinski (2015), MIL is the optimal outcome of
media, information and communication technology (ICT) education along
three aspects; technical skills, critical attitudes and facts about media and ICT.
Technical skills involve ability to access and use computers, mobile and other
technical devices that offer media and information content.
 Baacke (1996) included compositional skills in his media competence model
that involves creating new kinds of media content, encouraging self-
determination, and increasing individual’s chances for participation.
 Moeller (2009) summarized the facts of MIL from the user perspective,
emphasizing media consumers in identifying news and understanding media’s
role in reshaping the global issues.
 Norbert Groeben (2002) pointed out the importance of knowledge of the inner
workings (contexts, routines, contents) and the effects.
Seven Dimensions of MIL

Shapiro and Hughes (1996) identified the seven deminsions of media information
literact.

1. Tool Literacy-This is the ability to understand and use practical and conceptual
tools of current information technology, including software, hardware and
multimedia that are relevant to education and the areas of work and professional
life.
2. Resource Literacy- This is the ability to understand the form, format, location,
and access methods of information resources.
3. Social- Structural Literacy- This is knowing how information is socially situated
and produced, fits into the life of groups about the institutions and social
networks.
4. Research Literacy- It is the ability to understand and use IT based tools relevant
to the work of researchers and scholars that include computer software for
quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis and simulation.
5. Publishing Literacy- It is the ability to format and publish research and ideas
electronically, in textual and multimedia forms.
6. Emerging Technology Literacy- It is the ability to adapt to, understand, evaluate
and use emerging innovations in information technology.
7. Critically Literacy- It is the ability to evaluate critically the intellectual, human
and social strengths and weaknesses, potentials and limits, benefits and costs of
information technologies.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Media

Media are powerful tools of communication which entail positive and negative
impacts.

Advantages of Media

1. Media educate people on health matters, environmental conversation and others

through various forms.
2. People get the latest world news in a very short time regardless of distance.
 3. People can bring out their hidden talents in the multimedia and visual arts,
comedy, acting, dancing and inging.
4. Media increase knowledge learned from quiz programs, educational shows and
other information-giving programs.
5. People feel convenient in accessing information through mobile phones.
6. They become a vehicle in promoting products toward increased sales.
7. They serve as good source of entertainment.
8. Television allows electronic duplication of information that reduces mass
education costing.
9. Media lead the diffusion of diverse cultures and cultural practices.
10. They help people around the world understand each other and respect differences.

Disadvantages of Media

1. They lead to individualism. Spending too much time on the internet and watching
television usually impedes socialization with friends, family and others,
2. Some media contents are not suitable for children.
3. A newspaper is geographically selective.
4. The increase in advertisements in television and radio makes them less attractive.
5. The internet can be a possible way for scams, fraud and hacking.
6. Media can be addictive that may result in people’s decreased productivity.
7. They can cause health hazards, such as radiation effects, poor eyesight, hearing
defects, and others.
8. They may introduce drugs and alcohol use.
9. They can lead personal injury by imitating the stunts showcased in media.
10. They can ruin reputation through an anonymous account, malicious scandals, false
accusations and rumors.

Integrating Media literacy in the Curriculum

Lynch (2018) presents six ways to integrate media literacy into the classroom for students to
become media literate while making media education a meaningful and integrated part of
classroom practice.
1. Teach students to evaluate media- Students learn to evaluate what they are viewing
by showing them that media changes depending on who created it, the intended
audience and the biases that may be attributed to the source.
2. Show students where to find digital resources and databases- Teachers should
provide students with reliable and safe media sources and trustworthy content.
3. Compare/contrast various media sources- In the discussions, distinguish various
media and compare elements.
4. Discuss how the media edits and alters- Purposely point out to student’s examples
of media altering photography or stories while teaching them to be critical of what
they see or read at face value.
5. Examine the “truth” in advertisements- Students identify what advertisements are
trying to sell and what promises or ideas are they using to convince them to buy the
product.
6. Have students create media- Students create media appropriate to their levels such
as presentations, videos, or websites.

Media skills

 This a given little emphasis in the classroom, Hobbs and Frost (1994) present the
skills that the students are able to possess with the media they use in class.
1. Reflect on and analyze their own media they use in class.
2. Identify the author, purpose and point of view in films, commercials, television,
and radio programs, magazine and newspaper editorials and advertising;
3. Identify the range of production techniques that are used communicate opinions
and shape, audience response;
4. Identify and evaluate the quality of media’s presentation of the world by
examining patterns, stereotyping, emphasis and omission in print and television
news and other media.
5. Appreciate the economic underpinnings of mass media industries to make
distinctions between those media which sell audiences to advertisers and those
which do not;
6. Understand how media economics shapes message content;
7. Gain familiarity and experience in using mass media tools for personal expression
and communication and for purposes of social and political advocacy.
Approaches to teaching media literacy

Kellner and Share (2007) mentioned three approaches to teaching media literacy that
would utilize media in pedagogical practice.

1. Media Arts Education Approach- It intends to teach students to value to aesthetic

qualities of media and the arts while using their creativity for self-expression
through creating art and media.
2. Media Literacy Movement Approach- It attempts to expand the notion of literacy
to include popular culture and multiple forms of media (music, video, internet,
advertising). While still working within a print literacy tradition.
3. Critical Media Literacy Approach- It focuses on ideology critiquing and analyzing
the politics of representation of crucial dimensions of gender, race, class, and
sexuality.