What is Media Literacy?

Intended as a tool for advocates, the video introduces the concept of media literacy as a key that unlocks meaning behind the messages that we see, and allows us to be more thoughtful and deliberate as we create our own messages – such as those we create and share on social media.

TRANSCRIPT

There is no doubt that people, children especially, learn from all the media that they see, hear and experience. And we are surrounded by media - TV, apps, websites, video games, magazines, news sites, signs, digital billboards, packaging, radio, social media, and all kinds of advertising.

The average kindergartner sees about 70 media messages every day. By the time they are in high-school, teens are spending more than one-third of their day using media.

Few of us fully understand how the media we interact with affects us and our society.

But how do we sort through the noise?

The key to the solution is Media Literacy.

Media literacy is a set of skills that helps people, not just youth, analyze the content of media messages that they receive and that they send.

To apply media literacy skills, we can ask 5 Key Questions
“Who created this message?”

What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

How might different people understand this message differently?
What lifestyles, values and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?

Why is this message being sent?

This powerful key unlocks a world that empowers all of us to be better digital citizens as we consume media, produce, and share our own stories.
What would it feel like to live in this world? Perhaps we’d have less fear, more empathy, and make better decisions. So how do we create this world?

We each have a role to play.

First things first: every child needs media literacy skills. We can all advocate for media literacy education with teachers, administrators, parents, librarians, and government.

If each of us make a practice of using the 5 Key Questions for media literacy in all our activities and with all the people we encounter, we'll all move closer to the more positive and well informed civic engagement that we want and deserve.

[neiufifam]

Who's here from online home work 😩

[merpderpyerp]

I think this is so important! The only thing I am coming to learn in this digital age is that there is a large group of older citizens that have been left behind. We have media literacy throughout schools and universities, but this landscape has evolved so rapidly. I think there should be resources for older groups, but I don't know how many of them actually want this education and understand its value.

[gzgsgagbagafdgwh]

Thank god this video exists or last minute homework at 1 am would be existing

[MicahRdr]

Media literacy is when you agree 100 percent with the author and have 0 deviations

[raksimachandrakulsiri]

Amazing video! Thankyou for making this. I spend almost 8 hours a day on the media. This helped me have to tool to decide what should I believe and what should I not believe. I think this is so beneficial for children too. Since they cannot appropriately decide for them selves yet.

[thenativebrookie]

I took an elective on this in high school and I still use the knowledge I learned from them now. Especially because now I studied marketing in college.

[camelamanfredi]

I took this class in college. (Critical Media Literacy) One of the most valuable classes I have ever taken! Thank you Professor!

[unervian]

Gotta watch this for my Language Arts homework.. 😩

[sohatedddi]

POV: you cane from online class to cheat and re watch the video

[Artemis-geve]

Good work, appreciate the video and your solution towards a more digital literate global citizens!

[mynoseisblind]

I have this class this semester (in highschool) and I’m very excited to see what it has for me.

[williamsmith]

I really wish they didn't pretend this was something that kids need to learn and not adults. many adults need media literacy education, arguably moreso than the digital native kids. The boomers I worry most about.

[undrgrnd]

that moment when you take online classes and you start seeing the other students who are also dying watching these pointless videos.

[lin]

Who is here not for school but to grow as a person?

[SKGupta-hoos]

This is a good channel to refer if you are a student and want to learn about media literacy

[NeluThatsKid]

It's good to see something like this, seriously, no lie. Even though I honestly don't mean to offend anyone reading this, but Peggy Charren, the late founder and president of Action for (Quality) Children's Television had really tried to implement a badge for media literacy through the Boy and Girl Scouts. They already have this in schools in Japan (where they also have cartoons and TV shows more violent and more graphic than the US side-by-side period dramas geared at kids and families) and Western Europe. Even in England, not only do they have pay extra taxes on health care, education, and the visual and performing arts, but they DO have to pay extra taxes on their TV sets for what's called a "children's educational TV tax" while maintaining a healthy freedom of speech. Is this "Orwellian"? NO WAY, TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY ABSOLUTELY NO WAY.

[eyamcherie]

watching because I need to write an evaluation paper from this :))

[peak]

My math teacher is making me watch this

[patrickgrieco]

...the idea is reasonable...the questions are fairly intuitive. However, the most obvious question anyone should start with is, where does the funding come from? Because THAT will drive the supporting educational materials that are developed. Those materials ultimately drive how people go about answering those questions.

[adonhoppie]

Thank you for this.. Need to this write an argument for English A..