What is Media Literacy?

In our book, The Media of Mass Communication, media literacy is defined as the “competence or knowledge about mass media”. However, this definition is very broad. Media literacy is a combination of many more definitions.

In order to understand mass media, one must have the ability to understand messages. This means that one must decipher the media and then asses the way that media’s message was carried. This could be the most difficult part, because the media could be sending mixed messages to the audience.

Another big factor of media literacy is the awareness of media. As technology has advanced, our awareness of the media has decreased. This is because media can appear in many different forms at once. Most of the time, it is just simple background noise, and people do not even realize that the media is even a factor. Whether you are listening to the radio while driving a car or watching the television while cooking a meal, the media is still present around us. If a person has media literacy, they are able to realize all types of media present around them at every given second. These people are able to realize how this media effects their decisions and daily life.

These two points give media literacy a more descriptive definition. This helps to give media literacy a correct definition.