Weekly Reflection Post
My first college class in 20 years is complete and I learned a lot of new things! One topic in particular that’s really stayed with me is the topic of Media Literacy and how truly important that skill is.
As we know we live in the information age and never in history has so much information been so readily accessible to the masses. From the palm of our hands we’re able to access news and information from around the world, even as it’s happening. Technology has played a huge role in the evolution of media and its availability. The challenge is that same technology which has helped create the information age also afforded everyday people with the ability to broadcast and develop content on their one. So media and messages we see on a daily basis have become increasingly hard to validate.
It’s for that reason Media Literacy has become critically important and I feel it may be something I took for granted, I was not aware of how many people in our society are not media literate. Without that critical skill they are taking in everything the see, read and watch online as fact!
Unfortunately there is a great deal of misinformation and often sinister motives behind that information which the untrained eye will miss. In our global, digital society, that misinformation can have lasting impacts on government policies, personal decisions and in some cases, national elections. We witnessed the power of this in the form many Russian misinformation bots targeting individuals on social media platforms to persuade their decisions during the 2016 Presidential Election.
Instead of questioning sources, examining the content and analyzing what the goal is behind the message they are reading, many non-media literate people take what the see and read on the internet as fact!
As technology continues to evolve the importance of media literacy is only growing. We’re entering into a time where “Deep Fakes” are beginning show up. Those are a clear challenge to a normal functioning society as they are extremely difficult to spot even for experience media critiques.
This post is not meant to be alarmist. I see a silver lining and it comes in the form of the education of our society. From older generations to lower income populations, there needs to be programs dedicated to growing the media literacy of our society. Without it, the gap will begin to widen similar to the Digital Divide where those who have Media Literacy skills will be well informed while the non-media literate people in society will fall further and further behind with the lack of knowledge and misinformation they are digesting on a daily basis.
Our world is not getting less digital and the information will not slow down. We need to help all citizens understand how to engage, dissect and understand the media that’s presented to them. I feel that is of critical importance for the growth of our society. I have this course to thank for opening my eyes to this critical need in our society.
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