LIDA104 - Why is media literacy important to you?

Let us know why media literacy is important for you. Please share a practical example.

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Media literacy is important to us because it help us to access,analyse,or Create different forms of information. It give us ability to Create self-expression.

As someone who spends a lot of time on the Web, having some basic media literacy skills is fundamental. I understand that the amount of information that I consume today cannot be compared to any other period in history and it feels that way. I can easily understand why people have so much trouble navigating the maze: trying to figure out where to find reliable information, learning to see ideology and interest behind news and articles, following appropriate copyright rules (and creating more open-licensed content!), and a large etc. I am just learning to be a creator myself. This is why media literacy is important to me and to everyone else. We spend too much time on this place to not understand how it works.

Good point - given the amount of time we spend online, we should invest a little effort into improving critical media literacies and associated digital skills.

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I’m a teacher librarian in a secondary school. Part of my job is to teach and encourage critical media literacies. Apart from that, we are overwhelmed with information and news in our lives, and so media literacy is essential. Even if we think we are critical users of information/news, we still have so much to learn. It’s a complex and often confusing area. As educators it’s our responsibility to be informed so we can support our students.

Welcome to OERu and our critical media literacy course. As a secondary school teacher librarian - I’m particularly interested to learn if this course is suitable for secondary school learners. Please let us know!

Literacy is important because most media is one-way, i.e., from producer to consumer, and that is where it ends 99% of the time.

Hi @vwfurlong1

Indeed - considering the influence of the “publisher” on the message is a critical digital skill in today’s wordl. There are also many websites for user-generated content, eg Wikipedia, citizen journalism, social media etc we need to factor into the mix.

Welcome to OERu and look forward to your contributions over the next two weeks!

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Thank you for your welcome. I hope I can find the time to keep up with this course; I’m looking forward to the learning.

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@tsheko

Don’t stress about “keeping up”. Sip and dip into the components you find interesting. As an open course, you will have access to the learning resources long after the course is finished irrespective of the demands on your time.

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Thanks, Wayne. Sounds like a good plan.

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Greetings:

Media Literacy is important to me as an older person because it changes so quickly. It is hard to keep up with trends, news and the latest in social media. My favorite part of the online experience is finding interesting podcasts and blogs. I also enjoy keeping up with the news through an outside the US perspective. Finally I think media literacy is important because if I am going to create digital content of my own, I need to be able to protect my work from plagiarism. I also need to be able to research and cite properly when I create research papers and online content.

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Hi Dunigan, welcome to LiDA104. Interesting thought, your works (expressed in written form or online) are automatically protected by copyright. So interested to know why you feel protection from plagiarism is “more” important for digital than other forms of expression?

Hope you enjoy the course!

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it helps one in gaining in-depth knowledge about the computer, the fastest and easiet way to learn, latest news and happenings around the world. Media is the best tutor for this century.

Media Literacy is important to me because I see many K-12 schools struggling to teach media literacy in the classroom. Kids are not as prepared as they need to be to be critical media consumers. I am in the position of teaching teachers, so that they can integrate media literacy into all of their classrooms.

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Hi Mary,

Greetings from New Zealand and welcome to LiDA104!

I agree. Integrating critical media literacy training within teacher education programmes is key to helping K12 schools in this area. The OER model can help. The Learning in a Digital Age micro-courses are free and open source and therefore available for all teachers who want to improve digital literacies within their teaching. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions on how we could promote these free learning and professional development opportunities for teachers?

Good luck with your learning and I hope you enjoy the course!

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I think critically engaging with media is part of our civic responsibility. To be an active citizen, you have to have some sense of what’s going on around you and how it might be trying to influence you. #lida104

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Excellent point - and totally agree. I think the civic responsibility angle also includes knowing when not to engage - eg “inadvertently” promoting fake news items through boosts and retweets on social media ;-).

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Media Literacy provides “skills of inquiry, self-expression, understanding of the role of media; and an effective and new way of communication or media in a variety”.
Media Literacy is a vital for technology enabled learning, online learning, blended learning etc.

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Media literacy is important to me because I want to make well-informed decisions about how I live my life and participate in democracy. I am currently a cautious media-user - I tend to rely on mainstream, traditional media organisations like the BBC. They are probably good on fact-checking, but they have a narrow perspective on what is worth reporting, so I want to become confident in exploring more widely and critically.

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