According to the textbook The Media of Mass Communication, Media Literacy can be explained as the “competence or knowledge about the mass media.” [6] It is an ability to understand the messages media delivers to its audience. Having grown up in an age of technology it is hard to imagine life without media literacy, or mass media in general. The book made an interesting example when envisioning the innocently confused reaction Thomas Jefferson would have if he were to hear a radio for the first time. This example depicts another important aspect of media literacy; how today’s media is accustomed to our society as a whole and the general understanding of how mass media works, whether it is through television, radio or print form.
Understanding how the media works and being literate is an acquired skill among viewers and strengthens over maturity and experience. It was entertaining to read the many parts of media awareness like the “message vs. messenger” aspect of media literacy and how it, “(Media literacy) requires distinguishing between messages and the messenger” by the example of blaming a news reporter for reporting an unpleasant story. [7] It was almost funny to imagine being media illiterate and legitimately faulting a meteorologist for a poor Forecast. I had no idea of the many existing components within the media, such as media literacy, before I read this chapter.
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