Understanding Media Literacy

When trying to understand media literacy, it is important to comprehend the concept of what is going on and to ask the right questions in an attempt understand what is actually happening.   It’s not always good enough just to know what the commercial or ad is trying to tell the audience.  It is also important to understand why and how!  There are five major concepts to understand when thinking about media literacy.  The one I feel is most important is that all media messages are “constructed.”  When you think about that statement heavily for a moment, you start to realize how all of us have been somewhat brainwashed over the course of our lives.  How many things are emphasized as important to us because of something that has been visually conjoured-up to our sex or age group.  It’s actually quite scary to think about, because some of the stuff that teenagers are being subjected to are inappropriate.  In order to have the ability to cognitively be aware of what is going on, it is important to ask the right questions when something is presented to you.  For example, you can ask yourself who created this message, or what is used to attract my attention.  If you can analyze why something is appealing to you, it might help you understand media literacy a lot better.   Ultimately, this is important to me personally because we should on our own be the determining factor on what is important to us, not the tube!

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