Being media literate is almost like a six sense we all need to have in this day in age. We are constantly being thrown advertisements, social medias, texts, news, etc. How good enough we can interpret these messages we receive helps us see things differently or correctly.
The media is constantly trying to deceive us or sway our opinions to those of the majority. For instance, the knowledge you know about politics is determined a lot by which media news you watch. CNN and FOX news have a targeted audience and an agenda they have for those watchers. A lot of people are easily convinced and too lazy to do further research into a topic they don’t know much about but hear small things on, they form an opinion. This is why it is important if you use media as your main source of information that you are only getting the best news with the best sources.
Media literacy also has to do with knowing when an advertisement is being advertised to a target audience because it’s more suitable to them. For instance, a radio station is not going to play teenage popular songs at 9am in the morning when there’s adults/parents driving to work at that time. That would not be appealing or a smart move for the radio station. The TV stations are going to show commercials for toys around 6pm when they know kids are home from school and watching TV.
Being media literate is very important to know where you stand on issues, being smarter than fake news, not believing or falling for fake news. Imagine if we could not see through some of these bad media messages and what they’re trying to send to us. We would believe the first thing we see and we would be so mixed up on our views.
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