What is Media Literacy?

It is important that my blog followers are aware of the basic terminology that would be used from time to time on the site. The first major definition that must be dealt with from the get go is "media literacy".

The following wordle contains all the words that come to mind when I think of 'media literacy'.

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“We swim in an ocean of mass communication, exposed 68.8 percent of our waking hours to media messages. So immersed are we in these messages that we often are unmindful of their existence, let alone their influence” (Vivian 3).

Yes! The media is all around us! Take a closer look. Closer, closer, closer – STOP!

Travelling in the maxi taxi home, the radio’s on. Now, look to your left, I can bet my bottom dollar that he is reading the Trinidad Guardian. Obviously, look over your right shoulder, and yes, you saw correct - she is certainly reading a Mills and Boones. Now, peep in front, tell me you see her. Who? The school girl that is reading the teen Cosmo magazine! You just reach home, and you watching Crime Watch with Ian Allen on TV6 already. Instead, of updating your blog or studying for legal communication, you minding people business on Facebook. Tsk Tsk Tsk!!!

What a day!!! Do you believe me now?

We are constantly exposed to media materials on a daily basis. Many times we are unconsciously engaging in media consumption during the 24 hour day. As human beings, living in a media saturated world, it is inevitable that our days would be void of media content. The question here is not whether my life is completely drenched and influenced by the media. The question is how I as an individual can take control of the meanings I receive from these messages.

According to Vivian, “media literacy is possessing the knowledge to be competent in assessing messages carried by mass media.” It is knowing the mass medias' effects on society and culture. Media literacy is about developing awareness to the content, and blatantly refusing to be passive decoders of its text.

SOURCE: Vivian, John. The Media of Mass Communication. 10^th ed. United States: Pearson Education: 2011. Print.