Mass media is a big part of our culture and society today, so being literate in this form of communication is essential in order to gain knowledge of what is currently going on in the world. Mass media is all around us and we subconsciously participate in the spread of mass media and particularly mass communication. Our younger generation has no problem becoming media literate due to the fact that they were exposed to mass media and mass communication at such a young age. It is some of our older generation that must learn to become media literate. According to the book The Media of Mass Communication by John Vivian, media literacy is having the competence or knowledge about the mass media. In order to be fully immersed in todays’ society and culture one must strive to become media literate.
To become media literate, one must understand what mass media is. Mass media are the vehicles through which messages are spread to mass audiences. People are exposed to some sort of mass media everyday, whether it is from watching television, surfing the Internet, reading a newspaper or magazine, or listening to the radio. Due to this it is very important to understand all these different forms of communication to learn about current events, trends, topics, etc. The majority of people from this generation are media literate because they were surrounded by all these new forms of public communications that they had no choice but to become literate. The older generation are the ones’ that may not be media literate up to standards now. The older generation was exposed to books, newspapers, magazines, radio, and for some television, but it is the newer forms of technology that they may not all understand. However, just by utilizing and exposing oneself to these new forms of communications one will become fully media literate rather quickly.
Media literacy is very important to gain the knowledge of what is going on in the world today. Majority of people are media literate and subconsciously participate in the spread of mass media everyday. Mass media is all around us, which makes it become second nature to be media literate. Mass media’s importance rose during the 20th century and it’s importance is increasing everyday. Is media literacy that important in current times? Yes it is.
This was a very good description of what media literacy is. I really liked the way you started and concluded your post. Talking about our culture in relation to media literacy was very important, and really proved your point.
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