What is Media Literacy

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What is Media Literacy?

• Media Literacy is the ability to access, analyze,
  evaluate and create media in a variety of forms.
• 1992, Aspen Media Literacy Leadership Institute

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Why study about media literacy?10 R E A SON SW
H Y M E D I A E D U C AT I O N MAT T E R S

• The average American watches over 4 hours of
  television per day.
• 56 of children ages 8-16 have a TV in their
  bedroom.
• The average American child sees 200,000 violent
  acts on TV by age 18.
• The average American youth spends 900 hours in
  school 1,023 hours watching TV each year.
• The average American sees 2 million TV
  commercials by age 65.
• 45 of parents say that if they have something
  important to do, they are likely to use the TV to
  occupy their child.
• Children spend a daily average of 4 hours and 40
  minutes in front of a screen 2 1/2 hours of
  which are spent watching television.
• 97 of American children ages 6 under own
  products based on characters from TV shows or
  movies.
• Children ages 2-7 watch television alone and
  unsupervised 81 of the time.

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• Why do we need to study media literacy?
• Influence
• Consumption and Saturation of Images
• Impact on Interpretation
• Importance of Visual Communication
• Information Sources

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Center for Media Literacy (2008)

• Media Literacy is a 21st century approach to
  education. It provides a framework to access,
  analyze, evaluate and create messages in a
  variety of forms from print to video to the
  Internet. Media literacy builds an understanding
  of the role of media in society as well as
  essential skills of inquiry and self-expression
  necessary for citizens of a democracy.

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Why media literacy?

• Protect
• Keep from you--limit
• Empower
• Encourage actionacquire knowledge
• Awarenessdid you know how
• Violent
• Expensive
• Unreal

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What to do when viewing/listening to media?

• Review the message
• Reflect on the implications/values of the message
• React to the message
• Critical Thinker

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CMLs Five Core Concepts

• 1. All media messages are constructed.
• 2. Media messages are constructed using a
  creative language with its own rules.
• 3. Different people experience the same media
  message differently.
• 4. Media have embedded values and points of view.
  
• 5. Most media messages are organized to gain
  profit and/or power.

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Is media just TV?

• Examples of media that influence all of us are

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CMLs Five Key Questions

• Deconstruction
• 1. Who created this message?
• 2. What creative techniques are used to attract
  my attention?
• 3. How might different people understand this
  message differently?
• 4. What values, lifestyles and points of view are
  represented in, or omitted from, this message?
• 5. Why is this message being sent?
• http//www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?displa
  yhome

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CMLs Five Key Words

• Authorship (or constructedness) What is this? How
  is this put together?
• Format What do I see and hear? Smell? Touch or
  taste? What do I like or dislike about this?
• Audience What do I think and feel about this?
  What might other people think and feel about
  this?
• Content (or message) What does this tell me about
  how other people live and believe? Is anything or
  anyone left out?
• Purpose (or motive) Is this trying to sell me
  something? Is this trying to tell me something?