LEAP 7 LISTICLE!
- What is Media Literacy?
“Media literacy has sometimes been described as putting on a pair of glasses that changes the way you look at media and the world around you.” (Hobbs 1) According to Media Literacy in Action, media literacy can be defined as the set of knowledge, skills, and habits of mind required for full participation in a contemporary media-saturated society. The idea of media literacy is very important for many reasons. There are so many sources that one can get information from that it can be hard to understand the message that is being presented to them. With media literacy, it can help one better identify reliable sources and filter out the noise to be able to reach the truth of the message being presented.
2. Why are Media Important?
To really understand why media is important you should know the definition of media. “Media can be defined as the forms, formats, structures, and interfaces for disseminating symbolic content.” (Hobbs 34) With the work of Denis McQuail, there can be considered five basic functions of media for individuals and society. The first is diversion and entertainment, the second is connecting past, present, and future, the third is sharing knowledge, four is the symbolic power to construct reality and lastly five is mobilization for social action.
3. How Do People Get the News?
It is found that about 70% of American adults claim to be active news consumers, engaging in direct discovery of the news through intentionally reading, listening to, or watching the news coverage. (Hobbs 84) The way people get the news now is very much different from reading the newspaper or watching the news on television. You can get the news from Facebook, Twitter, or other types of social media. Along with social media, one gets the news through the radio. To be exact, more than 29 million people listen to National Public Radio (NPR), and 87% of them report that they discuss topics they have learned about on the radio with friends and family. (Hobbs 85) It is important to put age into perspective on how people get the news. “For example, just 8% of those ages 18–29 often gets news from network TV, compared with 49% of those 65 and older.” (Hobbs 85)
4. What Is the Difference Between Advertising, Public Relations, and Propaganda?
Advertising is known to inform people of what is available on the market and to convince people of the value of a product or service. Advertising is paid advertising on other media such as television, radio, magazines, newspapers, the Internet, and social media. Advertising connects products and services to human needs such as love, acceptance, status, and power. The advertising industry includes all the professionals who work to create and serve ads on behalf of our clients. Public relations can be defined as a practice that influences public opinion on behalf of clients and achieves desirable business goals. Lastly, propaganda is the use of media symbols in systematic attempts to influence attitudes, strengthen or change beliefs, and inspire many to take action. (Hobbs 114)
5. Why Are We Attracted to Characters and Stories?
When we question why we get so attracted to characters and stories, we should think about the 5 critical questions. (1) Who is the author and what is the purpose? (2) What techniques are used to attract and hold attention? (3) What lifestyles, values, and points of view are depicted? (4) How might different people interpret this message? And (5) What is omitted? Thinking about these questions can help one understand the deep connections between characters and stories. It will help them realize what is actually drawing them to a certain character or a certain storyline. It will also show what lifestyles, values, and points that are meaningful to you to help better understand which of those are being shown.
6. Why Do People Prefer Different Kinds of Music, Movies, and TV Shows?
When thinking about why people prefer different kinds of music, movies, and television shows it is important to think about your childhood and how you have been brought up. Depending on how your parents raised you, you can be more likely to gravitate towards a certain type of music, movie, or television show. From personal experience, my parents only played country music when I was younger. Since then, the only type of music I can listen to at the age of 22 is country music. This is a perfect example proving that a good reason why people prefer different kinds of music, movies, and television shows is because of their upbringing.
7. How do memes reinforce, challenge or critique cultural norms?
People can use memes to be able to express their values and disparage those of others in less direct and more acceptable ways than before. (Hobbs 197) A meme can be defined as an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation. Most of the time, memes are represented by pictures intended to elicit humor. Memes are able to reinforce, challenge or critique cultural norms by allowing one to offer critical commentary on the questionable behavior of others. For example, this allows conservatives to make fun of liberals, and middle-class people can comment on the behavior of poor and working-class people. (Hobbs 197)
8. How Do People Decide Who and What to Trust?
Since most of our lives revolve around social media, it is important to have trust in what you are doing. “Among 18–29-year-olds, nearly 50% have used online dating apps and one in ten American adults say they have been in a committed relationship or married someone they met through a dating site or app.” (Hobbs 215) It is also important to have trust when getting a job. Now more than ever applications for jobs are done online. People can easily fake important roles on a resume. This leads to the big question of how people decide who and what to trust.
9. Why Do People Worry about Stereotypes?
“The word stereotype is used in different ways across the humanities and social sciences, including psychology, sociology, philosophy, literature and the arts, and communication and media studies.” (Hobbs 295) People form stereotypes based on inferences about certain groups or certain people. It comes down to that stereotypes are important. They can be considered important to simplify our social work and reduce the amount of processing we have to do when meeting new people. This could work very well, but in most cases, stereotypes bring people down.
10. How Do People Become Media Literate?
After all these important concepts, how people become media literate is the most important of them all. I have become more media literate after taking this course. I am able to learn all these new skills by reading Media Literacy in Action by Renee Hobbs. You may be possibly getting more media literate after reading this listicle!
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Work Cited
Hobbs, Renee. Media Literacy in Action: Questioning the Media. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2021. Accessed 2 May 2022.
