Navigating the World of Information: Media Literacy
In the present time, technology is already playing a big role in our society. From the small details and months of delivering messages, we are now in the era where we can already send and receive messages in a second. Within importance of media and information literacy essay this topic will be discussed. And yes, it is indeed true that our world is slowly becoming a robotic world where we cannot determine what is true and what is right. However, we are being told to think before we click, to ask before we comment, and to search before we share. Shortly, we are being told to become literates in media. But according to Balaban, being a media literate means that we must know how to critically analyze informations from our sources. Meanwhile, Davis, Fidler, & Gorbis also defined it as being able to critically assess and develop information. But as we all know, we can search for many things but there are still things that we don't know but we must know but are hidden from us. That is because they are scared of what we might think and that is called manipulation. Yet, we do not ask and just let the media do what it wants to do with us. And that is our biggest mistake.
As students, we are tasked to search in the internet for informations regarding our assignment. We also watch the news, read newspapers, read books, and listen to audiobooks. And yes, we are most of the time able to gather the information that we need. But one thing about us is that we are not that literate to analyze our sources. All we do is copy and paste what we have searched because we think that all those are reliable. Sometimes, situations like talking to other people and believing everything they say are what we do. We do not think how reliable the sender is or how reliable the message is. All we think is that we need the information and that it does not matter whether the info is true or not. Maybe it is because students are not really taught of how to be literate. Or maybe we are not given enough materials to read, hear, or watch for us to become used to analyzing informations. Somehow, I agree to the fact that we should not be like that.
Apparently, literacy is something that not just students should have, but also the people who are giving informations. Because being a literate person does not just mean that you know how to analyze informations but to deliver these informations reliably. An example of this situation is when a teacher is teaching in class.If he or she is not literate enough, his or her students will not efficiently learn. Because what if he or she searched for something that is not sure to be true, his or her students might think of that information as true for their whole life. And what if the teacher searched for something reliable but is not able to understand the source, he or she might discuss it differently. The students may not understand the teacher. It will somehow create a thought that the teacher is not that good to be a teacher because of how she communicates. Additionally, not being literate enough will create too much noise in the communication process. Like what will happen if there is a misunderstanding between the dicussion.
Besides that, we can find other examples in our daily life that will prove the importance of media and information literacy in our life. One of those is when we text our loved ones but we did not use any quotation marks to show what we really mean. They might actually think differently from what we really want to say. If we just wanted to ask a question then we purposively put a exclamation point, then, they might think that we are angry because of how the message was delivered. Another example is when we mistook the “capitalized letters” as a sign of being angry when they just do not know what is the use of capitalizing letters. In some instances, the smiley face emoji is mistaken as a sign of being sarcastic or not really happy. There are also times when the letter “K” as the shorter term for “okay” is mistaken as a sign of being angry. It also happens when we watch the television and the tone of the speaker in the show is not appropriate for what he or she is saying, we interpret the message in a different way. Meanwhile, because of the differences in the tone of our voices and the other countries and in addition of the lack of literacy, we often misunderstand what each other means. However, no matter how often these things are happening because of the lack of literacy in media and information, there are still things that we could do to be able to avoid these situations.
Therefore, to avoid these, we should look carefully to our sources. We should also search for more sources that would prove a source’s reliability. If we did not understand something, let us ask them twice before proceeding into doing something that we will regret. We should also think many times before assuming a meaning of something a person have done or have said. We must also be aware of what they are saying or what we are searching in the media. In addition, we should think critically before we share some informations that we are not sure of. Because doing this or being a media literate will really help us big time. It will somehow help us how the media manipulates people. Also, it will encourage us more to dig deeply and give different interpretations regarding something. Moreover, it will make us more of a citizen who can basically participate in the dicussions regarding our country. And lastly, it will help us not get swayed or manipulated by the informations that are badly shaping our thinking into believing things that we should not. Furthermore, we must remember this saying by Germany Kent, “Think before you click. If people do not know you personally and if they cannot see you as you type, what you post online can be taken out of context if you are not careful in the way your message is delivered.”
