MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY (MIL)

Media is the main means of mass communication using platforms such as

broadcasting, publishing, and the internet. In its simplest form, media is a means of
communication, as radio and television, newspapers, magazines, and the internet,
that reach or influence people widely.

Information is the giving or receiving of knowledge or intelligence, it is also the

knowledge obtained from investigation, study, or instruction.

Literacy is defined as the ability to read, write, speak and listen in a way that lets us
communicate effectively and make sense of the world.

Lynch (2018) coined the term “media” that refers to all electronic or digital means
and print or artistic visuals used to transmit messages through reading (print media),
seeing (visual media), hearing (audio media), or changing and playing with
(interactive media), or some combinations of each.

Social Media
Is a term that describes websites to connect people and involve user-generated
content, which is the hallmark of a social media site. It is sometimes called Web 2.0,
which is currently a huge opportunity to reach target audience and increase online
sales (Go, 2019)

Hallmark means a guarantee (assurance) of an independent body or authority that

the content is as marked; (accurate, truthful, and corresponds to the label or
description it has been given.) could apply to ensuring that the content posted by
users (like posts, ads, or influencer endorsements) aligns with what is being claimed
or promoted. Therefore, social media is often considered a "hallmark" because it
serves as a platform for people to share positive, curated (Organized) moments of
their lives.

Web 1.0 was primarily for browsing content,

while 2.0 is more interactive and social. e.g. Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia,
and blogs.

Types of Social Media Websites

●​ Social Media News Websites
It entails users to submit links to Web content like articles, podcasts, videos , etc.
that they find interesting, such as Digg, Reddit and Stumble Upon.
●​ Social Media Networking Websites
It depicts the ability to upload a personal profile that usually connects with other
people, such as LinkedIn (Social networking for professionals) and Facebook (social
networking for everyone). These sites serve as an avenue for meeting people and
developing relationships that can lead to joint-venture partnerships, career
opportunities, and research.
●​ Social Media Photo and Video Sharing
It allows users to upload photos through facebook, instagram, and pinterest while
videos through youtube.
●​ Microblogging and Blogging Websites
Sometimes called “presence apps”, these services let users post very short
messages like blogging, and easily keep up with what their friends are posting.
Twitter is the most popular microblogging service that limits to 280 characters per
post and allows users to follow a set of users from one dashboard. Another popular
social media app is Snapchat, which is Video-based.
●​ Social Media Review Websites
It shows how social reviews can make or break a company or an organization, such
as Amazon and eBay.

Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media
(Firestone, 1993).
"Ang pagiging MEDIA LITERATE ay ang kakayahang mag-isip ng kritikal tungkol sa
impormasyong kinokonsumo sa pamamagitan ng media at partikular na ito ang ating
kakayahang mag-apply ng kritikal na pag-iisip upang mapanatili ang isang
obhetibong pananaw.”

Media

-​ Powerful tools of communication.

-​ Positive side and the downside.

Advantages of Media L

1.​ Educate people

2.​ Latest world news
3.​ People can bring out their hidden talents
4.​ Increase knowledge learned
5.​ Convenient in accessing information
6.​ Promoting products toward increased sales
7.​ Good source of entertainment
8.​ Reduces mass education costing
9.​ Diffusion (Spread) of diverse cultures and cultural practices
10.​ Understand each other and respect differences

Disadvantages of Media

1.​ They lead to individualism

2.​ Some media contents are not suitable for children
3.​ A newspaper is geographically selective
4.​ Ads in television and radio makes them less attractive
5.​ Can be a possible way for scams, fraud and hacking
6.​ Can be addictive that may result in people’s decreased productivity
 7.​ Can caused health hazards
8.​ May induce drugs and alcohol use
9.​ Can lead to personal injury
10.​ Can ruin someone’s reputation

Roles of Media Literacy

1.​ Learn to think critically

-​ When people evaluate media, they decide if the messages make
sense, including the key ideas before being convinced on the
information that they get from it.
2.​ Become a smart consumer of products and information
-​ Media literacy helps individuals learn how to determine whether
something is credible, especially the advertising before they can be
persuaded with the products on sale.
3.​ Recognize point of view
-​ Identifying an author's perspective helps individuals appreciate different
ideas in the context of what they already know.
4.​ Create media responsibly
-​ Recognizing one's ideas and appropriately expressing one's thoughts
lead to effective communication.
5.​ Identify the role of media in our culture
-​ Media conveys something, shapes understanding of the world, and
makes an individual act or think certain ways.
-​ Media plays a significant role in our culture by acting as a primary
source of information, shaping public opinion, influencing social norms,
providing a platform for public discourse, and reflecting societal values
6.​ Understand the author’s goal
-​ Understanding and recognizing the type of influence something has,
people can make better choices.

What Media Literacy is NOT (Media Illiterate)

●​ Criticizing the media is not, in and of itself, media literacy. However, being
media literate sometimes requires that one indeed criticize what one sees and
hears.
●​ Merely producing media is not media literacy. Although part of being
media literate is the ability to produce media
●​ Teaching with media (Videos, Presentations, etc.) does not equal media
literacy. An education in media literacy must also include teaching about
media.
●​ Viewing media and analyzing it from a single perspective is not media
literacy. True media literacy Requires both the ability and willingness to view
and analyze media from multiple positions and perspectives.
●​ Media Literacy does not simply mean knowing what and not to watch; it
does mean “Watch carefully, think critically.”
Digital literacy

-​ Can defined as the ability to locate, evaluate, create, and communicate

information on various digital platforms.
-​ To identify if a person is digitally literate, look for their ability to confidently
navigate various digital platforms, find and evaluate information online, create
and share digital content, practice safe online habits, and understand basic
digital concepts like cybersecurity and privacy settings; essentially, they
should be able to use technology effectively and critically in everyday life.

Information literacy

-​ Is knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to
evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner.
-​ Being information literate is having the ability to define an information need,
to gather data or information, to select and organize it into useful knowledge.
This skill of finding, evaluating, and synthesizing information may be used in
any area of study throughout one's life.

Media and Information Literacy is a combination of knowledge, attitudes, skills,

and practices required to access, analyze, evaluate, use, produce, and communicate
information and knowledge in creative, legal and ethical ways that respect human
rights (Moscow Declaration on Media and information literacy. (2012)

Ang media literacy and information literacy ay interconnected. Gumagamit ng iba't

ibang tools in a critical, ethical, and effective way, in order to participate and engage
in personal, professional and societal activities.

Article 19 of the universal declaration of human rights - Everyone has the right
to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through
any media and regardless of frontiers.

UNESCO 2016 - set of competencies to search, critically evaluate, use and

contribute information and media content wisely; the knowledge of one's right online,
refraining from cyber bullying, understanding related ethical issues, and engaging
with media and ICT's to promote quality, free expression, intercultural, interreligious
dialog, peace.

Media and Information Literate Individuals are able to distinguish between

reliable sources of information, determine the role of media in culture and be
responsible for his/her understanding of the influence of mass communication, while
switching between different media platforms.

Approaches to teaching media literacy

●​ Media Arts Education Approach

-​ It intends to teach students to value the aesthetic qualities of media
and the arts while using their creativity for self-expression through
creating art and media.
 -​ Media Arts is the study of human communication through film,
photography, video, audio, computer/digital arts, and interactive media.
Creatively, students employ the elements of space, time, light, motion,
color, and sound to express their perspectives, feelings, and ideas.
●​ Media Literacy Movement Approach
-​ It attempts to expand the notion of literacy to include popular culture
and multiple forms of media (music, video, internet, advertising, etc.)
while still working within a print literary tradition.
-​ Students should, at minimum, understand how media is used within
their discipline contexts (in all forms), how to access relevant media
resources, how to analyze information in multiple forms and evaluate
its authority.
-​ As an instructor, you can encourage students to develop foundational
media literacy skill sets by encouraging a diverse use of sources,
challenging students to consider the information being conveyed
regardless of form ("read" images, sound), and to always consider the
authority of a source within course and discipline contexts.
-​ Pagpapagawa ng infographics sa mga bata.
●​ Critical Media Literacy Approach
-​ IMPROVES STUDENTS COMPETENCIES
-​ It focuses (focuses on both the content of the media) ideology
critiquing and analyzing the politics of representation of crucial
dimensions of gender, race, class, and sexuality; incorporating
alternative media production; and expanding the textual analysis to
include issues of social context, control, resistance, and pleasure.
-​ A critical media literacy approach also expands literacy to include
information literacy, technical literacy, multimodal literacy(Linguistic,
Spatial, Gestural, Oral, Visual), and other attempts to broaden print
literacy concepts to include different tools and modes of
communicating

Seven Dimensions of MIL

1.​ Tool literacy

-​ Ability to understand and use practical and conceptual tools of current
information technology, including software, hardware and multimedia
that are relevant to education and the areas of work and professional
life.
2.​ Resource Literacy
-​ Ability to understand the form, format, location and access methods of
information resources.
3.​ Social-Structural Literacy
-​ the ability to understand how information is created and used in
society. It's a part of information literacy.
-​ Understanding how societal structures influence the creation,
dissemination, and access to information
 -​ Knowing how information fits into groups - This includes
understanding how information fits into the lives of groups, such as
communities, corporations, and government agencies.
4.​ Research Literacy
-​ Ability to understand and use IT-based tools relevant to the work of
researchers and scholars that include computer software for
quantitative (Numbers) analysis, qualitative (Words) analysis and
simulation.
5.​ Publishing Literacy
-​ Ability to format and publish research and ideas electronically, in
textual and multimedia forms.
6.​ Emerging Technology Literacy
-​ Ability to adapt to, understand, evaluate and use emerging innovations
in information technology.
7.​ Critical Literacy
-​ Ability to evaluate critically the intellectual, human and social strengths
and weaknesses, potentials and limits, benefits and costs of
information technologies.

Integrating Media Literacy in the Curriculum

1.​ Teach students to evaluate media
-​ Students learn to evaluate what they are viewing by showing them that
media changes depending on who created it, the intended audience
and the biases that may be attributed to the source.
2.​ Show students where to find digital resources and databases
-​ Teachers should provide students with reliable and safe media sources
and trustworthy content.
3.​ Compare/Contrast various media resources
-​ In the discussions, distinguish various media sources and compare
elements.
4.​ Discuss how the media edits and alters
-​ Purposely point out to students examples of media altering
photographs or stories, while teaching them to be critical of what they
see or read at face value.
5.​ Examine the “truth” in advertisements
-​ Let students identify what advertisements are trying to sell and what
promises or ideas they are using to convince them to buy the product.
-​ Let the students watch some behind the scenes of advertisement
videos.
6.​ Have students create media
-​ Let students create media appropriate to their levels such as
presentations, videos or websites.

ASSESSING AND EVALUATING MEDIA LITERACY WORK

●​ By using a rubric to assess the work of students.
 ●​ By framing the expectations within the rubric in terms of key concepts of
media literacy.

Media Skills
-​ Hobbs and Frost 1994, present the skills that students are able to possess
with the media they use in class.

• Reflect and analyze their own consumption habits.

• Identify the author, purpose and point of view in films, commercials, television etc.

• Identify the range of production techniques that are used to communicate opinions
and shape audience response

• Identify and evaluate the quality of medias' representation of the world by

examining patterns, stereotyping, emphasis and omission in print and television
news and other media.

• Appreciate the economic underpinnings of mass meda industries to make

distinction between those media which sell audiences to advertisers and those which
do not.

• Understand how media economics shapes media content.

• Gain familiarity and experience in using mass media tools for personal expression
and communication and for purposes of social and political advocacy