Shifting Media Literacy Standards in Our Digital Society

Throughout the history of media, there has been a need for the public to be able to understand, assess, and mindfully disseminate messaging, “media literacy is a story of people’s organized efforts to develop and practice the knowledge and skills of media communication necessary to participate and claim power in societies where media play increasingly important roles” (RobbGrieco, 2014, p. 3). Media literacy is essential for the general public to effectively evaluate and engage with information spread through these outlets. 

Since the Digital Revolution, the concept of media information has transformed beyond traditional media outlets, "the shift from mass media for information and entertainment towards digital communication media has increased the numbers of media producers … All people are potentially in a position to use digital tools to produce media artifacts and publish them or—to phrase this differently—to use media to express themselves publicly” (Knaus, 2020, p.8). 

We now live in an era where information is not spread through verified means only. Most news is now consumed and shared through social media, where anyone can publish anything. This, of course, explains how fake news and misinformation so easily spread in recent years. Social media users are not held to any ethical standards as journalists and other media professionals are, therefore it is necessary that those who consume media through social channels increase their media literacy skills. 

But, the concept of media literacy must also shift. Thomas Knaus (2020), a researcher of media education and digital literacy, asserts that audiences cannot achieve media literacy as we have historically known it, we must now also educate ourselves about the intricacies of the digital platforms we consume information through:

“Media literacy must move forward from its elementary task of advancing the principles of autonomous and self-determined media use – in its reflexive, ethical, and analytical dimensions – and become something more all-encompassing ... Digital media enable us not only to interact with our environment—we can also use them to create our own realities. But whilst socialization research has made solid progress in understanding what the media are doing to us, it has yet to devote sufficient attention to what we are doing with digital media. The still relatively new social function of digital media means that they are developing from a mere data interchange interface into a communicative interlocutor. They are becoming the catalyst for formative subjective and social construction processes. Their increasing relevance means that media criticism should not be restricted to the medium itself—the ‘outer shell’ of technology. The analysis of their interaction must penetrate deeper, giving a rise to a criticism of technology, media artifacts, like videos and computer code, and information processes, like data, algorithms, and machine learning.” (p. 12 – 13)

While I'm not sure all audiences need to be experts in coding and artificial intelligence, I do agree that it is essential for media consumers to be informed of how these devices affect media distribution. Better comprehension of data mining practices, algorithms, and machine learning will arm media consumers with the ability to not only assess what they are ready, but why and how a specific article may be appearing in their newsfeed. By understanding the platform, audiences will increase their ability capacity to quickly identify what messages may contain bias, misleading information, or fake news.

References 

Knaus, T. (2020). Technology criticism and data literacy: The case for an augmented understanding of media literacy. Journal of media literacy education, 12(3), 6 – 16. https://doi.org/10.23860/JMLE-2020-12-3-2 

RobbGrieco, M. (2014). Why history matters for media literacy education. Journal of media literacy education 6(3), 3 – 22. https://doi.org/10.23860/jmle-6-2-2 

UnitoneVector. (2019). Cartoon man watching online course on laptop [Image]. Getty Image. https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/financial-literacy-target-marketing-video-tutorial-gm1169111797-323049712?phrase=media%20literacy%20