By Michelle Doshi, Adult Services Librarian
You may have heard of a topic called media literacy, or even seen quizzes online testing your ability to tell real from fake. Media literacy is a set of skills you can learn and use and share that can help.
Definitions to know
The official definition of Media Literacy from the National Association for Media Literacy Education, or NAMLE, is “Media Literacy is the ability to Access, Analyze, Evaluate, Create and ACT using all forms of communication… Media literacy is a the ability to encode and decode the symbols transmitted via media and the ability to synthesize, analyze and produce mediated messages.”
To really understand what Media Literacy is and what that definition means, we need to also understand what that definition means by “Media”, and what exactly the difference is between “media” as NAMLE defines it and the commonly used term named “the media”.
NAMLE defines “media” as “all electronic or digital means and print or artistic visuals used to transmit messages”. So, everything written, including blogs, receipts, tickets, magazines, books, everything digital, including websites, and newspapers, TV, podcasts, advertisements, and more, everything conveyed through artistic means and expression such as photography, paintings, drawings, ceramics, and more, and other forms of expression, such as movies and music. This encapsulation of media draws from everything that nurtures our culture.
Compare the definition of “media” with the definition of “The Media”. “The Media” as a term refers to mass media specifically, such as mass media companies or channels, or social media and other medium with the ability to broadcast their messages, including radio. When people use this term, they are often referring to the broadcasting channels themselves.
Breaking down the definitions
Now that we understand some basic definitions behind media literacy, let’s start breaking down the official broad definition of media literacy from NAMLE, which uses five verbs: access, analyze, evaluate, create and act.
ACCESS
If you are reading this blog, congratulations! You probably are someone with access to the internet. You also probably have access to a smartphone or computer to view it on. Accessing this video took the skill and knowledge required to use your device, download an app, and navigate both to get to the library’s page, and more specifically, this specific piece of media. So, you have already learned some media literacy skills! However, not everyone has access to the same technology you do or may not have Wi-Fi.
Having access is an advantage when developing media literacy skills because practice makes perfect. If you cannot practice something, you will not be able to master it. This leaves a gap between people with access to technology and those without access to technology, and both groups’ media literacy skillset.
Analyze
All media is created with a purpose and a point of view. So, ask yourself these questions:
- Who created this message and what is its purpose?
- What techniques does it use to attract and hold attention?
- What lifestyles, values and point of view does it depict?
- How might different people interpret this message?
- What is omitted or left out?
Let’s try these questions on this example article from the New York Times, which announces a media literacy contest initiative involving students. Ask yourself the questions above.
Evaluate
- Relevance – does the media serve its purpose and how well?
- Accuracy – how factual are the claims? Are they backed up with other sources?
- Bias – is the author of the media slanting the message toward a certain perspective
- Reliability – how trustworthy is the publisher, based on the entirety of their published work?
Okay, back to our example article. Ask yourself the evaluating questions above. And then consider, is this article a piece of media that you can trust?
Create
Creating media, such as an Instagram live video or a blog, is a perfect way to practice all these steps in the opposite direction. When you create media, you use techniques to attract attention to it, in the media (such as colors and music) and outside of the media, such as tagging and search engine optimization, to draw people to the messages you contain in your media. You may create media that reflects where you come from, your lifestyle, your culture. People who consume your media will interpret it differently and respond to it, potentially in ways you did not expect. Consider what responsibility you have to the people who consume the media you create. Finally, think about what you may have left out of your media, and why.
Act
The last verb in the NAMLE media literacy definition refers to what you do with the media you have consumed.
- How will you interpret the media?
- How does the media affect you?
- What does it make you feel?
- How will you respond?
- What will you do with it?
Encoding and Decoding Messages
The terms “encoding” and “decoding” might sound a little academic or scientific, but I am sure that you are already doing this every time you communicate with anyone about anything. Encoding is considered the process of creating a message. Decoding is the process in which that message is interpreted. All content created is steeped in context and culture. Encoding and decoding, taken together, is the process of communication and understanding.
The other part of the definition of media literacy from NAMLE I mentioned above was “Media literacy is the ability to encode and decode the symbols transmitted via media and the ability to synthesize, analyze and produce mediated messages”.
Here is that definition of media, again, too: “Media refers to all electronic or digital means and print or artistic visuals used to transmit messages”.
This definition of “media” encapsulates all of us. Communication requires consumers of media to decode it when they take in media, and the creators of media to encode their communication when sending or sharing. We are all a part of it in one way or another.
Messages a piece of media sends is separate from the effects of the message the media sent. This gap is where miscommunications fall. Both the media message sent and the effects the media produces are layered in this encoding and decoding process that we do automatically all day every day, which includes its context and meaning and the cultural significance we attach to it. Consider for a moment a method of communication that does not use words: emojis. How do you use emojis to send messages and how others interpret the messages to understand their meaning?
Through the knowledge, skillset, and process of media literacy, and an understanding of encoding and decoding, you are able to both ask and answer, “what information can I trust?”
Ending with a call to action
Next time you consume a piece of media, view it through the lens of the media literacy skillset I have outlined above. Practice analyzing it and evaluating it. Practice these skills every time you consume a piece of media. Soon enough, you will realize that you are practicing media literacy automatically.
To learn more about media literacy, visit NAMLE at https://namle.net/ or the Center for Media Literacy at http://www.medialit.org/media-literacy-definition-and-more.
To learn about a similar topic, news literacy, and the journalistic process, please visit https://www.schooljournalism.org/news-literacy-training/, watch the lecture and take the quiz.
And, of course, your Lake Forest librarians are here to help you. Click the green icon in the bottom right corner to ask a question via chat. Email a librarian at reference@lakeforestlibrary.org. Or, call the library at 847-234-0636 and leave a message for reference and a staff member will call you back.