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What is Media Literacy?

  • Julie Smith defines media literacy as the critical questioning of what media is today.
  • In the reading about digital literacy skills from, Learning for Life In Our Times, the authors explain that media literacy is a “framework to access, analyze, evaluate, and create messages in a variety of media forms” (Trilling & Fadel, 2009, p. 69). 
  • To me, media literacy enables online users to make assumptions and judgments of online information and other users because we all interpret information differently. This makes all users vulnerable and no guarantee that what is posted will be seen how the author intends.

Why is Media Literacy important in PLNs?

  • It is hard to 100% decipher how people intend to sound in what they post online which can spread miscommunication (Hirst, 2018). For example, if someone were to send a message with a period at the end, some people could see this as normal communication but some could see this as the person being angry. 
  • Media literacy can spread “fake news” because of misunderstanding what is being said and shared. 
  • Online communication tends to promote non-personal, short and non-detailed ways of communication so this could leave readers confused, misinformed, and with short-term connections.
  • It is important to make sure that the information you are giving and receiving is credible, reliable and factual. To make sure of this, you can generate information from peer viewed and scholarly journals and articles, news articles and documentaries. 
  • It is also worth your time to double check facts using a variety of sources so you are not just relying on one and can get a mixture of views. This can increase your reliability even more!

I found this video on Media Literacy pretty interesting and informative:

The Importance of Media Literacy (2 minutes)

References

Media Literacy – Facts Matter – Course YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/57r3-aEnci0

Trilling, B., Fadel, C., Partnership for 21st Century Skills, & Books24x7, I. (2009). 21st century skills: Learning for life in our times (1st ed.). Jossey-Bass. https://go.exlibris.link/B5rkkLw7.