O Media Literacy, Where Art Thou?

There are times I like to joke that media literacy is dead, a relevant skill that deserves more discussion and appreciation. Online discourse leaves me fatigued since there’s little to no nuance whatsoever. Maybe it’s the circles I run in, but the posts which gain momentum or go viral are also the ones I (personally) believe lack critical thinking and context. Whether it’s a societal issue (women deciding to be childfree and not marry), a quote from literature that’s been misconstrued (Character A was an awful friend to Character B and Character C), or a historical event which is downplayed or ignored in general (for example, race riots), I find myself wondering about how critical thinking continues to be…well…critical.

Although I find Renee Hobbs’ 5 competencies framework intriguing, I agree more with Rheingold’s social media literacies. These consist of attention, participation, collaboration, network awareness, and critical consumption. His arguments are applicable to today’s media environment. With the constant bombardment of information from various places (including Twitter/X, YouTube ads, and satire websites), the author observes how this has a detrimental affect on people, who have to split their focus. They also need to develop ways to combat media fatigue or misinformation; the other four literacies play a major role with their emphasis on teamwork, creating personal and professional networks, and questioning (or filtering out) the information. In my opinion Rheingold’s literacies still tie in with Marshall McLuhan’s “The Medium is the Message” idea, since they both show that media literacy is a skill honed with practice, time, and patience.

Image Source: https://volumes.lib.utk.edu/features/medialitweek/

I also was curious about my own media literacy, so I took this quiz and ended up with 8/9. Some of the questions were tricky for me, but I did appreciate the advice on analyzing news sources (typos may be suspicious, but other details matter far more – such as the source’s reputation and article history, if they’re quick to edit and own up to mistakes, and so forth). As a librarian to be, I do need to recognize different information sources, as well as their reliability or truthiness (or lack thereof!).

I really enjoyed this module and had to fight the urge to write 9182721773 paragraphs about media literacy. There’s really so much to say about it, and I haven’t touched the tip of the iceberg.

Image Source: https://www.moadoph.gov.au/learn/activities-and-resources/exploring-media-literacy (via Medium)