There was a time when the media had such a strong impact on people that it used to define how they saw the world and established their expectations. Today, however, the media does not wield the same level of power since people are more aware of how the media works, how media material is created, and who owns the media, reducing the media’s impact on their lives. This is referred to as media literacy.
Two articles have already been written about media literacy –click here if you want to check the first one out – and today, we will continue where we stopped last time.
Why Does Media Literacy Matter?
In the second article, we’ve talked a lot about how a media literate nation can combat fake news, stereotypes, discrimination and ethnocentrism. Today, we’ll focus on another importance of media lit.
The Use and Gratification model, for example, illustrates how a media literate audience chooses to consume media content. When people already have an extensive knowledge of what forces influence media content and how this content can affect them, they seek to read, view and listen to specific content that will satisfy their specific needs.
However, the question that is raised is whether media literacy has been effective in protecting people from the pressures of media content. Digitalism and new technologies have made it possible for a person to have access to news and information in a matter of seconds. However, this has also created an information overload. When you are drowning in a deluge of information, your ability to distinguish between what is important or what is true information and what is not is gradually eroded. The line between meaningful media content and meaningless information is blurred and the skills you’ve acquired to critically analyze and evaluate media content fail to be productive. It is essential to understand that when there is an overflow of information, people cannot use their skills to interpret media messages. As a result, active and media literate individuals transform into passive and lazy receivers.
One of the risks people face in this contemporary era is that even if they are media literate and have the skills to decode and analyze media messages , the dependence they have on the media is widening more and more. And, this dependence immerses people deeper in media content. According to Gerbner, “the media has grown so powerful and pervasive in global societies that people are more likely to be drawn into the fantasy world of media’s creation.” For example, the influence of the Pizzagate theory on social media platforms was so strong that a man took a gun and went to the pizza place to free the captive children. This clearly shows that media content can break the boundaries set by media literate people.
Gerbner once suggested that “the continual repetition of media patterns can serve to define the world.” When a person is media literate, he/she has critical thinking skills that help them to understand and filter media messages. However, when that particular person is repeatedly exposed to a specific media message, the person may end up accepting the media content as reality. Prolonged exposure to media content can violate the norms set by media literacy, change your mindset and trigger a specific behavior in you. This notion was somehow demonstrated by Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment, where persistent exposure to violent clips resulted in violent behaviors in children.
Conclusion
Therefore, media literacy is a weapon that can help you distinguish between what’s factual and fictional. It can enhance your understanding of the media and how it works. However, it doesn’t certify that you will never be swayed by media content or that it will ever cultivate any new attitudes and perceptions in you.
