Media literacy is a set of skills that anyone can learn. Just as literacy is the ability to read and write, media literacy refers to the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media messages of all kinds.
These are essential skills in today′s world. Today, many people get most of their information through complex combinations of text, images and sounds. We need to be able to navigate this complex media environment, to make sense of the media messages that bombard us every day, and to express ourselves using a variety of media tools and technologies.
Media literate youth and adults are better able to decipher the complex messages we receive from television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, billboards, signs, packaging, marketing materials, video games, recorded music, the Internet and other forms of media. They can understand how these media messages are constructed, and discover how they create meaning – usually in ways hidden beneath the surface. People who are media literate can also create their own media, becoming active participants in our media culture.
Media literacy skills can help children, youth and adults:
Understand how media messages create meaning
Identify who created a particular media message
Recognize what the media maker wants us to believe or do
Name the "tools of persuasion" used
Recognize bias, spin, misinformation and lies
Discover the part of the story that′s not being told
Evaluate media messages based on our own experiences, beliefs and values
Create and distribute our own media messages
Become advocates for change in our media system
Media literacy education helps to develop critical thinking and active participation in our media culture. The goal is to give youth and adults greater freedom by empowering them to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media.
In schools: Educational standards in many states -- in language arts, social studies, health and other subjects -- include the skills of accessing, analyzing and evaluating information found in media. These are media literacy skills, though the standards may not use that term. Teachers know that students like to examine and talk about their own media, and they′ve found that media literacy is an engaging way to explore a wide array of topics and issues.
In the community: Researchers and practitioners recognize that media literacy education is an important tool in addressing alcohol, tobacco and other drug use; obesity and eating disorders; bullying and violence; gender identity and sexuality; racism and other forms of discrimination and oppression; and life skills. Media literacy skills can empower people and communities usually shut out of the media system to tell their own stories, share their perspectives, and work for justice.
In public life: Media literacy helps us understand how media create cultures, and how the "media monopoly" - the handful of giant corporations that control most of our media - affects our politics and our society. Media literacy encourages and empowers youth and adults to change our media system, and to create new, more just and more accessible media networks.
To download kits exploring media literacy concepts and skills:
> Explore the “media literacy” section of the Toolbox
For more information and resources on media literacy:
> Visit www.nmmlp.org
> All Toolbox Tips
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