Media Literacy Notes

Critically Analyzing What's True and False

  • People derive pleasure from consuming media, but critical theorists argue this pleasure can create a false consciousness, blinding oppressed groups to the causes of their oppression (Tebaldi & Nygreen, 2022).
  • Intense pleasure from media consumption can coexist with resentment and anxiety when facing depictions of lies, depravity, triviality, and inhumanity.
  • As extreme content becomes more mainstream, it can influence individuals' understanding of their personal, social, and civic identities.

Resisting Distorted Representations

  • Media literacy education aims to help individuals recognize and resist sexism, racism, and misogyny in mass media culture.
  • Analyzing media representations helps people resist distorted portrayals and transform them to reflect a more diverse society (Jenkins & Kelley, 2013: 17).
  • The ability to shape narratives is a significant form of social power, influencing our understanding of reality, especially regarding crime, violence, and law enforcement.
  • We understand the world through:
    • Direct, firsthand experience.
    • Listening to and observing others.
    • Informational, entertaining, and persuasive media representations.
  • Limited life experiences make individuals rely on media for understanding the world.
  • Examining omissions or gaps in media representations can reveal how storytelling distorts understanding of real events and people.

Critically Analyzing Conspiracy Theories

  • Conspiracy theories thrive in times of uncertainty and are a common feature of the media environment.
  • They are rooted in the idea that malevolent secret agents are working to usurp power, violate rights, hoard secrets, or unlawfully alter government institutions (Uscinski & Parent, 2014: 31).

Media Corporations and Cultural Life

  • U.S. media corporations were dominating business and cultural life globally, especially in developing nations (Schiller, 1976).
  • Media conglomerates create a "private ministry of information," narrowing the range of ideas available to the public (Bagdikian et al., 2004).
  • Media ownership influences the form and content of ideas in various media, including publishing, movies, television, music, video games, and social media.
  • Media companies rely on financing from Wall Street banks and investment firms, embracing capitalism and consumer culture.
    • Audience targeting is an expected norm.
  • Cultural studies scholars advocate media literacy education to inform the public about the institutions controlling media messages.
  • Understanding media organizations and economics helps people examine how economic and political factors shape information and ideas.
  • Culture industries create media messages that often reproduce power relations favoring those with economic control.
  • Media products are designed to keep audiences engaged but may also alienate them from cultural production and suppress critical thinking.

The Spectacle

  • Guy Debord argues that spectacle has replaced lived experience, urging resistance against passive spectatorship.
  • Media messages define needs and wants, influencing how people seek fulfillment.
  • The nature of the spectacle is constantly shifting, with appearance becoming a central human value.
  • Even when audiences recognize media spectacle as superficial, they may still enjoy the pleasures of feeling superior or the slick appeal of mass media (Todd Gitlin).

Conspiracy Theories and Institutional Power

  • Conspiracy theories gain traction by seemingly confronting institutional or social power and can fuse together, as seen during the coronavirus pandemic.

  • Example: the QAnon conspiracy theory falsely claimed that former president Trump was facing down a cabal of Democratic pedophiles (Roose, 2021).

  • The 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory, amplified by Russian network RT America, linked 5G networks to various health issues without scientific support (Broad, 2019).

  • This conspiracy theory intensified distrust of public health experts and vaccine hesitancy.

  • Conspiracy theorists falsely claimed technology leaders and public health officials were collaborating to hide information and profit from vaccines.

  • They also promoted the false idea that 5G technology activates nanoparticles, decreases human reproduction, lowers brain function, or changes DNA.

  • The alleged correlation between Covid-19 infection density and 5G tower density was used as evidence, despite lacking scientific basis (Flaherty, Sturm & Farries, 2022: 1).

    • Electromagnetic radiation at such transmission frequencies does not potentiate or transmit viruses, and there is limited evidence of its role in real or perceived health effects

  • Social media posts referencing conspirators with malicious purposes are more likely to be shared and influence public opinion (Himelboim et al., 2023).

  • Conspiracy theories position viewers as part of the story, identifying elites as villains and "common people" as victims.

  • An Oxford survey found that 60% of adults believed the government was misleading the public about the cause of the virus, and 40% believed the spread of the virus was a deliberate attempt by powerful people to gain control (Freeman et al., 2022: 1).

Firehose of Falsehoods

  • Radical social change may involve using a firehose of falsehoods, disseminating partial truths or fictions to confuse and overwhelm audiences (Paul & Matthews, 2016).
  • Critical analysis of conspiracy theories offers opportunities to examine perceptions and assumptions about media messages.

Active Audience Theory

  • Media literacy education embodies the practice of citizenship.
  • The active audience theory views media consumers as making choices and constructing interpretations to meet their needs.
  • Audiences engage in creative and active meaning-making.
  • The study of highly engaged audiences, including fans, is critical to the development of this argument.
  • Media fans interpret, comment, critique, and create media related to the author's life, work, and travels.
  • Media literacy empowers individuals by recognizing culture as something that is produced (Williams, 1960).
  • User-generated content and digital platforms validate this approach (Bulger & Davison, 2018).
  • Educators engage learners by asking them to respond to popular culture through blogging, message boards, and video production.
  • Interest-driven learning promotes lifelong learning skills in youth from diverse backgrounds (Ito et al., 2013).

Civic and Political Participation

  • Media literacy education promotes dialogue and discussion of social, economic, and political challenges.
  • Exposure to media literacy education encourages individuals to seek information on social, cultural, and political issues.
  • Algorithms of smartphone technologies make meaningful community dialogue harder (Mihailidis, 2018b).
  • Media literacy learning cultivates care, imagination, critical consciousness, persistence, and a sense of freedom.
  • Individuals gain skills to evaluate information and engage in dialogue to form coalitions, shifting away from being passive spectators.
  • Some become empowered as activists, using information and communication to make a difference.

Global Media Literacy Community

  • Media literacy advocates exist in over 150 countries, where it is considered a fundamental human right (O'Neill, 2010).
  • Thousands of individuals and organizations have worked to advance media literacy education (RobbGrieco, 2019).
  • Some organizations increase visibility, advocate for policies, or provide curriculum materials and training.
  • Media literacy programs are rooted in creative expression, faith communities, and social justice initiatives.
  • Media literacy entrepreneurs invent new products and services to advance media literacy education.