Media Literacy

Media Literacy is the ability to translate and understand the direct and hidden messages that can be picked apart from the plethora of mass media out there. There are many types of media that these messages can be derived from including television, radio, internet, advertisements, magazines, billboards and so on. Everyone who owns a television or a computer should have some sort of media literacy so that they can decipher the more hidden messages derived from these visual and audio queues.

The average American is used to being told how to think and how to look through media and most people don't even realize it. I've noticed that a lot of advertisements focused towards women bother me because these ads can make many women feel self conscious. I even found examples of this in shampoo commercials. I think people need to increase their media literacy because a lot of news is biased. Since some people don't understand this, it can create a lot of mislead opinions.

We are all exposed to thousands of pieces of media everyday. Some things we filter out and some things we are genuinely interested in will catch our attention. However, even the media we choose to ignore can send messages that will resurface later on. This is why media is one of the most powerful tools on earth.