{"id":46,"date":"2015-03-24T20:41:57","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T20:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/accintrotomedia\/chapter\/1-8-media-literacy\/"},"modified":"2022-01-17T01:06:16","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T01:06:16","slug":"1-8-media-literacy","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/accintrotomedia\/chapter\/1-8-media-literacy\/","title":{"raw":"1.8 Media Literacy","rendered":"1.8 Media Literacy"},"content":{"raw":"
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Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. Define media literacy.<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Describe the role of individual responsibility and accountability when responding to pop culture.<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. List the five key considerations about any media message.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

    In Gutenberg\u2019s age and the subsequent modern era, literacy\u2014the ability to read and write\u2014was a concern not only of educators, but also of politicians, social reformers, and philosophers. A literate population, many reasoned, would be able to seek out information, stay informed about the news of the day, communicate effectively, and make informed decisions in many spheres of life. Because of this, literate people made better citizens, parents, and workers. Several centuries later, as global literacy rates continued to grow, there was a new sense that merely being able to read and write was not enough. In a media-saturated world, individuals needed to be able to sort through and analyze the information they were bombarded with every day. In the second half of the 20th century, the skill of being able to decode and process the messages and symbols transmitted via media was named media literacy<\/a><\/span>. According to the nonprofit National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), a person who is media literate can access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information. Put another way by John Culkin, a pioneering advocate for media literacy education, \u201cThe new mass media\u2014film, radio, TV\u2014are new languages, their grammar as yet unknown (Moody, 1993).\u201d Media literacy seeks to give media consumers the ability to understand this new language. The following are questions asked by those that are media literate:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

      \r\n \t
    1. Who created the message?<\/li>\r\n \t
    2. What are the author\u2019s credentials?<\/li>\r\n \t
    3. Why was the message created?<\/li>\r\n \t
    4. Is the message trying to get me to act or think in a certain way?<\/li>\r\n \t
    5. Is someone making money for creating this message?<\/li>\r\n \t
    6. Who is the intended audience?<\/li>\r\n \t
    7. How do I know this information is accurate?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n
      \r\n

      Why Be Media Literate?<\/h2>\r\n

      Culkin called the pervasiveness of media \u201cthe unnoticed fact of our present,\u201d noting that media information was as omnipresent and easy to overlook as the air we breathe (and, he noted, \u201csome would add that it is just as polluted\u201d) (Moody, 1993). While parents are often worried about how much screen time is healthy for children and teens are criticized for spending too much time on screens, excessive screen time is a serious problem for people of all ages living in America. The COVID pandemic, with lockdowns and health concerns causing people to stay home and stay connected online, has caused these concerns to intensify. According to a Pew Research Center survey<\/a> published in March 2021,\u00a031% of U.S. adults now report that they go online \u201calmost constantly,\u201d up from 21% in 2015.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_464\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"505\"]\"Adult<\/a> Graph from Pew Research Center.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nOf course, the numbers also shift depending on demographics of class, race, income, education level, and more.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_465\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"376\"]\"Demographics<\/a> From the Pew Research Center.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe Pew Research Center also looked into the different types of media young children are consuming, along with the time amount.\r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nFor teens, COVID also caused an increase in screen time. In a study published in November 2021 from JAMA<\/a>, a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association, the pandemic caused an increase of four hours per day in screen time for teens for a total of eight hours a day.\r\n

      Media literacy isn\u2019t merely a skill for young people, however. Today\u2019s Americans get much of their information from various media sources\u2014but not all that information is created equal. One crucial role of media literacy education is to enable us to skeptically examine the often-conflicting media messages we receive every day.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

      \r\n

      Advertising<\/h2>\r\n

      Many of the hours people spend with media are with commercial-sponsored content. Advertising has evolved and expanded just as much as any other mass media subfield. Advertising went from a huge revenue source for newspapers and magazines in the 1800s and early 1900s, then added radio and TV sponsorships and commercials, as well as billboards and ads in public spaces. Today, advertisements remain in those venues, but also have expanded online and now companies' advertising dollars are fueling tech giants like Google and Facebook. According to PPC Connect<\/a>, a company that helps advertisers maximize their ads, \"although there are no official figures, the average person is now estimated to encounter between 6,000 to 10,000 ads every single day.\" <\/strong><\/p>\r\n

      In the past, with fewer channels to communicate through, it was easier to measure ad exposure. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimated that each child aged 2 to 11 saw, on average, 25,629 television commercials in 2004 alone, or more than 10,700 minutes of ads. Each adult saw, on average, 52,469 ads, or about 15.5 days\u2019 worth of television advertising (Holt, 2007). Children (and adults) are bombarded with contradictory messages\u2014newspaper articles about the obesity epidemic run side by side with ads touting soda, candy, and fast food. The American Academy of Pediatrics maintains that advertising directed to children under 8 is \u201cinherently deceptive\u201d and exploitative because young children can\u2019t tell the difference between programs and commercials (Shifrin, 2005). This crisis has only been amplified by YouTube's young audiences and money-makers<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

      Advertising often uses techniques of psychological pressure to influence decision making. Ads may appeal to vanity, insecurity, prejudice, fear, or the desire for adventure. This is not always done to sell a product\u2014antismoking public service announcements may rely on disgusting images of blackened lungs to shock viewers. Nonetheless, media literacy involves teaching people to be guarded consumers and to evaluate claims with a critical eye.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

      \r\n

      Bias, Spin, and Misinformation<\/h2>\r\n

      Advertisements may have the explicit goal of selling a product or idea, but they\u2019re not the only kind of media message with an agenda. A politician may hope to persuade potential voters that he has their best interests at heart. An ostensibly objective journalist may allow her political leanings to subtly slant her articles. Magazine writers might avoid criticizing companies that advertise heavily in their pages. News reporters may sensationalize stories to boost ratings\u2014and advertising rates.<\/p>\r\n

      Mass-communication messages are created by individuals, and each individual has his or her own set of values, assumptions, and priorities. Accepting media messages at face value could lead to confusion because of all the contradictory information available. Media literacy involves educating people to look critically at these and other media messages and to sift through various messages and make sense of the conflicting information we face every day.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n

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      Media Literacy in a Confusing World<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n

      Authors<\/span><\/h3>\r\n
      \r\n
      \r\n\r\n\"\"<\/a>\r\n\r\nMichael J. O'Brien<\/span><\/a>\r\n

      Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Texas A&M-San Antonio<\/p>\r\n\"\"<\/a>\r\n\r\nIzzat Alsmadi<\/span><\/a>\r\n

      Associate Professor of Computing and Cybersecurity, Texas A&M-San Antonio<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>

      \r\n

      Disclosure statement: The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n

      Misinformation, disinformation and hoaxes: What\u2019s the difference? from TheConversation.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nSorting through the vast amount of information created and shared online is challenging, even for the experts.\r\n\r\nJust talking about this ever-shifting landscape is confusing, with terms like \u201cmisinformation,\u201d \u201cdisinformation\u201d and \u201choax\u201d getting mixed up with buzzwords like \u201cfake news.\u201d\r\n\r\nMisinformation is perhaps the most innocent of the terms \u2013 it\u2019s misleading information created or shared without the intent to manipulate people. An example would be sharing a rumor that a celebrity died, before finding out it\u2019s false.\r\n\r\nDisinformation, by contrast, refers to deliberate attempts to confuse or manipulate people with dishonest information. These campaigns, at times orchestrated by groups outside the U.S., such as the\u00a0Internet Research Agency, a well-known Russian troll factory<\/a>, can be coordinated across multiple social media accounts and may also use\u00a0automated systems, called bots<\/a>, to post and share information online. Disinformation can turn into misinformation when spread by unwitting readers who believe the material.\r\n\r\nHoaxes, similar to disinformation, are created to persuade people that things that are unsupported by facts are true. For example, the person responsible for the celebrity-death story has created a hoax.\r\n\r\nThough many people are just paying attention to these problems now, they are not new \u2013 and they even date back to ancient Rome. Around 31 B.C., Octavian, a Roman military official, launched a smear campaign against his political enemy, Mark Antony. This effort used, as one writer put it, \u201cshort, sharp slogans written on coins in the style of archaic Tweets<\/a>.\u201d His campaign was built around the point that Antony was a soldier gone awry: a philanderer, a womanizer and a drunk not fit to hold office. It worked. Octavian, not Antony, became the first Roman emperor, taking the name Augustus Caesar.\r\n
      \r\n
      \"A<\/div>\r\n
      <\/div>\r\n
      There are several subcategories of misinformation and disinformation.<\/span>\u00a0Groundviews<\/a>,\u00a0CC BY-ND<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

      The University of Missouri example<\/h2>\r\nIn the 21st century, new technology makes manipulation and fabrication of information simple. Social networks make it easy for uncritical readers to dramatically amplify falsehoods peddled by governments, populist politicians and dishonest businesses.\r\n\r\nOur research focuses specifically on how\u00a0certain types of disinformation<\/a>\u00a0can turn what might otherwise be normal developments in society into major disruptions.\r\n\r\nOne sobering example we\u2019ve reviewed in detail is a situation you might remember: racial tensions at the University of Missouri in 2015, in the wake of\u00a0Michael Brown\u2019s death in Ferguson, Missouri<\/a>. One of us, Michael O'Brien, was dean of the university\u2019s College of Arts and Science at the time and saw firsthand the protests and their aftermath.\r\n\r\nBlack students at the university, just over 100 miles to the west of Ferguson, raised concerns about their safety, civil rights and racial equity in society and on campus. Unhappy with the university\u2019s responses, they\u00a0began to protest<\/a>.\r\n\r\nThe incident that got the most national attention involved a white professor in the communication department pushing student journalists away from an area where Black students had congregated in the center of campus, yelling, \u201cI need some muscle over here!<\/a>\u201d in an effort to keep reporters at bay.\r\n\r\nOther events didn\u2019t get as much national coverage, including a\u00a0hunger strike by a Black student and the resignations of university leaders<\/a>. But there was enough publicity about racial tensions for\u00a0Russian information warriors to take notice<\/a>.\r\n\r\nSoon, the hashtag #PrayforMizzou, created by Russian hackers using the university\u2019s nickname, began trending on Twitter, warning residents that the\u00a0Ku Klux Klan was in town and had joined the local police to hunt down Black students<\/a>. A photo surfaced on Facebook purporting to show a large white cross burning on the lawn of the university\u2019s library.\r\n\r\nA Twitter user claimed the police were marching with the KKK, tweeting: \u201cThey beat up my little brother! Watch out!\u201d and a picture of a black child with a severely bruised face. This user was later found to be\u00a0a Russian troll who went on to spread rumors about Syrian refugees<\/a>.\r\n\r\nThese were a rich mix of different types of false information. The photos of the burning cross and the bruised child were hoaxes \u2013 the photos were legitimate, but their context was fabricated. A Google search for \u201cbruised black child,\u201d for example, revealed that it was a\u00a0year-old picture from a disturbance in Ohio<\/a>.\r\n\r\nThe rumor about the KKK on campus started as\u00a0disinformation by Russian hackers<\/a>\u00a0and then spread as misinformation, even\u00a0ensnaring the student-body president<\/a>, a young Black man who posted a warning on Facebook. When it became clear the information was false, he deleted the post.\r\n

      The fallout<\/h2>\r\nUndoubtedly, not all of the fallout from the Mizzou protests was the direct result of disinformation and hoaxes. But the disruptions were factors in big changes in student numbers.\r\n\r\nIn the two years following the protests, the university saw a\u00a035% drop in freshman enrollment and an overall enrollment drop of 14%<\/a>. That caused campus university officials to cut about\u00a012% \u2013 or US$55 million<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 from the university\u2019s budget, including significant layoffs of faculty and staff. Even today, the campus is not yet back to what it was before the protests, financially, socially or politically.\r\n\r\nThe take-home message is clear: the world is a dangerous place, made all the more so by malevolent intent, especially in the online age. Learning to recognize misinformation, disinformation and hoaxes helps people stay better informed about what\u2019s really happening.\r\n\r\n<\/section>\r\n

      <\/p>\r\n\r\n

      \r\n
      \r\n

      Key Takeaways<\/h3>\r\n