Critical Media Literacy is more of an ability someone uses to encode, or decode symbols transmitted through the media. This is also the ability in which we are synthesizing, analyzing, and even producing media messages. Such valuable resource is important because it offers a profound approach in comprehending the media messages people (at various ages) receive, serves as a set of guidelines in order to make well rounded adjustments to our society, and establishes a perfect chance for media monitors, using several forms, to keep the media protected from threats and many flaws. Through their perspectives, women in in Miss Representation, Laurie Penny, Jeff Yang and Jacob Siegel openly speak about the ways, in which they are using critical media …show more content…
A journalist and feminist activist, Laurie Penny, argues that violence of misogynist extremism is dangerous not only to people in real life, but also to the internet, and other forms of media. She believes that several aspects of “our” media is posing a delicate issue. Here, the critical media literacy is utilized as Penny learns that to adults, the media is one thing, while for children it appears to be another. “I didn’t experience violent misogyny … my early years were free of direct experience of … hatred…, except as an abstract concept, the fear that gets taught to all girl-children as soon as they can stand unaided: don’t walk down that street, … that has been expanded to include: don’t go on the internet…. Are there, … who will hurt you.” Depending on various articles such as “Let’s call the Isla Vista killings what they are” along with other written inside The Guardian, or novels like “Unspeakable things,” Penny actually cares about “our” society, especially children. When stating, “in the name of protecting children from a rotten tide or raunchy videos, a terrifying precedent is being set for state control of the digital commons,” she is discreetly concerned about the media and internet media. The use of critical media …show more content…
A CNN contributor and writer, Jeff Yang, assists “us” in perceiving the media with cautious consideration. He analyzed an interesting, yet grotesque case of a young man’s hostility by means of reviewing the person’s manifesto and uniquely disputing the media’s evaluation. “But after seeing him consistently described as fitting the ‘typical mass shooter profile”… A little research exposed what should be obvious. Rodger is biracial… “According to his article, Yang took his inner findings at an advantage to confirm that Mr. Elliot Rodger acquired an intense amount of hatred and rage towards other people. ”I truly didn’t want to read Elliot Rodger’s “manifesto,” …he found himself staring with ever growing resentment…” Using critical media literacy, which he evidently relied on, he uncovered that a mound of racial identity, insecurity and just plain racism have played a dangerously negative role. It is important to have a safe media and personal environment. Clearly, Yang demonstrates that the critical media literacy should remain as a positive and peaceful “assistant” to
In order to identify how the mainstream media perpetuates racism, we must first understand its...
Instead, women are being discriminated and treated as inferior due to the stereotypes that are portrayed in the media. The media creates and reproduces ways of seeing that at a minimum reflect and shape our culture. We can look at the media to understand more about a culture’s values and norms, if we realize the limitations of looking at the media. For example, one may ask, does the news based in the United Sates represent what the American culture is like, or only what stands out from everyday American culture? The answer to that is no. Instead, the media represents what it thinks it will be able to sell and is supported by advertisements. This includes violent acts, the sensationally and inappropriate. Jhally reminds us that “it is this male, heterosexual, pornographic imagination based on the degradation and control of women that has colonized commercial culture in general, although it is more clearly articulated in music videos” (Jhally 2007). Therefore, “media content is a symbolic rather than a literal representation of society and that to be represented in the media is in itself a form of power—social groups that are powerless can be relatively easily ignored, allowing the media to focus on the social groups that ‘really matter’” (Gerbner,
Miss Representation is a documentary based on women in the media and how the media has affected women today. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” This quote is from Alice Walker, a female, who realized that they e...
People use mass media for many different reasons, such as enjoyment, companionship, surveillance, and interpretation. In order for a person to interpret what mass media puts out, media literacy is applied. Media literacy allows the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages in a variety of forms while focusing on being able to interpret media messages and its effects in many different ways. This is done through audiences whom actively receive and process the medias messages. In Adrian Chen’s article, “Unfollow” the effects media technology has on people is brought to light through the story of a previous Westboro Baptist Church member, Megan Phelps-Roper, who became acclimated with Twitter. The unfiltered and controversial
Jones, Gerard. "Violent Media Is Good for Kids." Mother Jones. 27 June 2000. Web. 16 Feb. 2014. Rpt. In Current Issues and Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument, with Readings. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. 195-99. Print.
Torr, James D. Introduction. Violence in the Media. Ed. James D. Torr. San Diego: Greenhaven. 2001. 13-15.
As censorship of the American media has broken down over the years, the amount of violence allowed to be shown in movies, on television, and in video games has skyrocketed. From coast to coast in our nation, this saturation of hostility in our media has caused many contentious debates between scholars, parents, students and government officials alike. In this controversy, the central argument revolves around the effects violent media has on our society. The question that most researchers strive to answer is this: does watching or participating in violent media cause violent or other harmful behaviors? There are those who would say yes, it does promote destructive behavior in real life. On the other hand, there are those who argue no, violent media is simply a reflection of what is already occurring in our society.
Popular, digital, and social media are primary sites for engaging with social and cultural norms and racial, gender, sexual, and class ideologies (Lindsey). More recently, we see evidence of young black people having a sense of empowerment and freely displaying it on social media. Influences in the media have also jumped on board, reflecting their views on racially charged topics within their work. Consequently, social media is notorious for either virally uplifting of condemning society without any sense of tact. With the media spotlighting the recent out lash geared towards people of color, society was finally being exposed to the uncensored struggles of this ethnic group. The violent outbreak of police brutality against black people and racial profiling, agitated people of color in every community. A few of the many tragedies such as Michael Brown, Tamar Rice and Travon Martin, gave us the realization that being black is not safe. This epidemic had triggered uncertainty, that had Americans questioning the credibly of our communities in a long time. With situations like this in the face of the media, the choice to turn a blind eye was no longer an
I will support my main contentions by entering a conversation with two authors. Sherry Turkle, a professor of Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, using her article, “Can You Hear Me Now?” published in Forbes Magazine in 2007; Naomi Rocker- Gladen, a professor and author who specializes in education and media literacy, using her article, “Me Against Media: From the Trenches of a Media Lit Class,” published in AdBusters Magazine in 2007.
Ott, B. L, & Mack, R. L. (2010). Critical media studies: An introduction. Malden, MA: Wiley-
During our second seminar of the fall semester, Mr. Jordi Torrent, who is the Project Manager of the Media and Information Literacy Education at U.N. Alliance of Civilizations, discussed his work at the UN and how it helps the UN establish its aims. His project focuses on the intersectionality of migration, media, education, and youth and he explored with how it was necessary to create within U.N., but to mindful of the project not conflicting with other organizations in the UN. It announced the importance of civilians understanding media in today’s age, due to the commonality of media technologies around the world. He argued that it is important for everyone around the group to be technologically literate. He stated that it is not enough to read or write. It is much more important for people to engage in society by being able to apply critical thinking in media messaging. I thought that this was a very powerful statement because I often take for granted that I am technologically literate and able to develop those skills further due to my privilege of living in a nation like the Unit...
Everyday we encounter the media in some form. It could be waking up to the sound of the radio, or passing billboards in the streets or simply just watching television. They are a lot of different forms of media, for example, verbal or written media, visual media and aural media. Examples of media would include newspapers, magazines, film, radio, television, billboard advertisements as well as the internet. Media studies came about because of the developments in mass communication and it provokes the generation of exigent questions about what we think we know as well how we came about knowing it. There are always changes in the media and the term “media” refers to the many ways of physically forming meanings as well and carrying them. The term “media studies” on the other hand, means different courses priorities different media; different theories and different learning outcomes (Bazalgette, 2000).
If one asked “What is media literacy?” a majority of people would be puzzled. Some would say that it is the ‘written’ part of media that is not usually seen or a written layout of how media should be produced. The bulk of people would say they have no idea what media literacy is. People in today’s society should be informed about media literacy. Society should be informed of what media literacy exactly is and how it applies to the field of communications.
The first argument for media literacy deals with the notion that media plays a dominant role in politics and culture. Media help citizens to understand the complex problems within society. The job of the media is to inform the public; however, it is the job of the public to decipher the messages being sent through the media. T...
Media can present content that seems and is more or less real, however, it is our duty as the viewers to be able to distinguish, and differentiate between “reflections of reality, and constructions of reality”. The prime targets of the media are young people because they so unwittingly believe everything the media tells them, from “how to talk, how to dress, and how to relate to others”. This newspaper article, seeing is not believing by Leslie Fruman is essentially explaining that now “for the first time students will take a mandatory course to help separate fantasy from reality in the media.” The mandatory course is referred to as media literacy, and will teach young people the classifications of reality and fantasy.