media and information literacy essay conclusion

Essay on Media And Information Literacy

Students are often asked to write an essay on Media And Information Literacy in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Media And Information Literacy

Understanding media and information literacy.

Media and Information Literacy (MIL) is knowing how to smartly handle and use information from different sources like TV, internet, and books. It’s like learning to swim in a sea of endless news, pictures, and videos.

The Importance of MIL

It’s crucial because it helps you tell what’s true from what’s not. With MIL, you can make better choices about what to read, watch, and share. It’s like having a map in the world of media.

Learning to Check Facts

A big part of MIL is learning to check if something is correct. Before believing a story, see if trusted places also report it. It’s like double-checking your answers in a test.

Using Media Wisely

MIL teaches you to use media in a good way. It means not spending too much time on screens and knowing that not everything online is good for you. It’s about making smart media choices.

Sharing Responsibly

With MIL, you learn to think before you share something online. Ask yourself if it’s helpful, true, and kind. It’s about being a good friend in the digital world.

250 Words Essay on Media And Information Literacy

Media and Information Literacy, or MIL, is knowing how to smartly use the internet, newspapers, books, and other ways we get information. It’s like learning how to fish in a huge sea of news and facts. With MIL, you can tell which fish are good to eat and which might make you sick.

Why MIL is Important

Today, we get bombarded with tons of messages and pictures through our phones, TVs, and computers. Some of these are true, but others are not. MIL helps you sort out the truth from the lies. It’s like having a special tool that helps you know which friend is telling the truth and which is just making up stories.

One part of MIL is checking if something is true or not. Before you believe a story, ask yourself: Who wrote this? Why did they write it? Is there proof? It’s like being a detective, looking for clues to solve a mystery.

MIL also teaches you to use media in a good way. It means spending the right amount of time watching TV or playing games and also using the internet to learn new things. Think of it as a diet for your brain—you need a mix of fun, learning, and rest.

Sharing the Right Information

Lastly, MIL helps you share information the right way. Before you send a message or a picture to others, think: Is it kind? Is it necessary? Is it true? By doing this, you can be a hero who helps stop lies and spread kindness.

500 Words Essay on Media And Information Literacy

Media and information literacy is like learning how to read a map in a world full of signs and messages. It teaches us how to understand and use the information we get from television, the internet, books, and other sources. Just like knowing how to read and write helps us in school, media literacy helps us make sense of the news, advertisements, and even social media posts we see every day.

The Need for Media Literacy

We live in a time when we are surrounded by a sea of information. From the moment we wake up to the time we go to bed, we are bombarded with messages from our phones, TVs, and computers. With so much information coming at us, it’s important to know what is true and what isn’t. This is where media literacy comes in. It helps us tell the difference between facts and opinions, and it teaches us to ask questions about what we see and hear.

Spotting Fake News

One of the biggest challenges today is fake news. This is information that is made to look real but is actually made up to fool people. Media literacy gives us the tools to spot fake news by checking where the information comes from, who is sharing it, and whether other reliable sources are reporting the same thing. By being careful and checking the facts, we can avoid being tricked by false information.

Using Information Wisely

Information isn’t just about news. It’s also about understanding how to use the internet safely and responsibly. Media literacy teaches us to protect our private information online, to be respectful to others, and to understand how our clicks and shares can spread information quickly, for better or for worse. It’s like learning the rules of the road before driving a car.

Advertising and Persuasion

Advertisements are everywhere, trying to persuade us to buy things or think a certain way. Media literacy helps us see the tricks advertisers use to grab our attention and make us want something. By understanding these tricks, we can make better choices about what we buy and believe.

Creating Media

Media literacy is not just about what we take in; it’s also about what we put out into the world. With smartphones and the internet, anyone can be a creator. Media literacy teaches us how to share our own stories and ideas in a clear and honest way, and how to respect other people’s rights and feelings when we do.

In conclusion, media and information literacy is an important skill for everyone, especially students. It helps us navigate through the vast amount of information we encounter every day and use it in a smart and ethical way. By being media literate, we can be better students, smarter consumers, and more responsible citizens in our digital world.

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Review of the Seven Pillars

At the beginning of this text, you learned about the Seven Pillars of Information Literacy and how each of these pillars represents a set of understandings and abilities that will help you become a better researcher and a more savvy citizen of the information world we live in. We have also covered Visual Literacy and Science Literacy to further enhance your knowledge.

When you first started reading this book, you may have already been skilled in some of these areas while other concepts may have been totally new to you. Developing these skills is not necessarily a linear process that starts in one place and ends in another. The process also won’t end after you’ve finished reading this book. You will continue to grow as a researcher as you take on more challenging research projects. These skills will serve you not only in your academic life, but also in your professional and everyday life.

Here is a quick review of the main points from each of the chapters.

Identifying your need for information is a crucial first step in your research process. Navigating the current information environment requires critical thinking, and the ability to investigate what is available and whether it is presented in a clear and straightforward manner. Properly identifying your information needs makes the search process more productive and improves the quality of your results. Defining your research question is a key step in the process and may require several topic revisions depending on your investigation. The Identify chapter contains useful exercises for you to practice.

Determining the scope of your research entails not only knowing what you need to know about your topic, but also knowing what information is available and which forms of that information will be most relevant to you. Information exists in a variety of formats, including books, articles, and government documents, and it can be found using tools that are both basic and specialized.

Planning your research step by step is vital to a success of your project, whether you’re trying to find information for your personal use or working on a class assignment. You can ensure success by closely following several steps. Self-reflection at the beginning stage of the planning process helps you reassess your own attitudes toward the research process and identify the areas unknown to you. The selection of appropriate research tools, whether library catalogs, databases, or authoritative web sources, will help to save time. Another time-saving trick is consulting an expert, such as a librarian. The final step in this process is determining the best search concepts and keywords for your research. Once you determine your search concepts and keywords you will soon begin to see results.

Gather helps you with the actual process of collecting information after you’ve mastered your skills within the Identify, Plan, and Scope pillars. The Gather phase concentrates on the importance of understanding that there are different types of information and distinguishing between them. It also emphasizes the importance of critical evaluation. The Gather chapter includes tips on searching library catalogs and databases as well as advice on understanding the Library of Congress classification system. The chapter also reviews another important skill for a college student: being able to write a proper citation in the publication style required by a professor, whether it is MLA, APA, or another style.

In the process of gathering your sources, it’s important to evaluate them on criteria such as how relevant they are to your topic, the quality of the information in the source, the author’s credentials for writing on the topic, and other characteristics that may be relevant to your research. Different types of sources play different roles in the research process and may need to be evaluated in different ways. Knowing when to stop searching for and evaluating sources in order to meet deadlines and avoid becoming overwhelmed is also an important part of this pillar.

Managing information is concerned with being able to organize information both ethically and professionally. Much of the information that is out there is someone’s intellectual property, which means when you use the information, you have a responsibility to acknowledge that person’s contribution, usually through citation. Citation helps to avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism is the intentional or unintentional use of someone else’s ideas without giving proper credit; examples of plagiarism are not limited to the academic world. Style manuals for each of the most common citation styles (APA, MLA, and Chicago) are likely to be available at your library. You can also use a citation generator as a reference or ask for help from a librarian.

Presenting the results of your research is important as it sums up the long journey during your information quest. An early step for presenting the information you have found is to decide who your audience is, whether it’s your friends, family members, classmates, instructors, or an even wider audience. Your research can be presented in a wide variety of ways, including written, verbal, or visual formats. Examples include written materials such as research papers or blog posts, verbal modes such as presentations or songs, and visual methods such as photographs or flowcharts. It is important to keep your intended audience in mind.

Visual Literacy

This chapter addresses the application of information literacy to visual materials. It begins with an historical overview and definition of visual literacy and then looks at each of the Seven Pillars in relation to this. Particular attention is given to the difficulty of finding and accessing images, evaluating these images for accuracy and resolution, and the citation of visual materials. The Present pillar is discussed at length, with multiple examples of tools and approaches given for creating and sharing your work. This chapter concludes with a series of relevant quotations and additional resources relating to visual literacy.

Science Literacy

Science literacy is related to one’s ability to understand basic concepts and laws of science and to use this knowledge in everyday life. There are several types of science literacy: civic, cultural, practical, consumer, and aesthetic. The chapter presents an overview of each of these types and provides an overview of other science-related concepts and movements that are all related to information. The chapter also addresses creating and disseminating scientific information, the open access movement, citizen science, and lifelong learning as an important component of science information literacy. Keeping up with the latest scientific discoveries after graduating from college will help you remain scientifically literate. Case studies and exercises emphasize a practical approach to science literacy.

Further Reading

As you continue to develop your research skills and knowledge, you may wish to do further reading on information literacy. These resources may not use the Seven Pillars of Information Literacy as a lens, but they will all help you become a more knowledgeable researcher. The following items can be purchased through online retailers or borrowed from your library.

Badke, William.B. Research Strategies: Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog . Bloomington, IN.: IUniverse, Inc., 2011.

Chernow, Barbara.A. Beyond the Internet: Successful Research Strategies. Lanham, MD.: Bernan Press, 2007.

Fulton, Crystal. Information Pathways: A Problem-Solving Approach to Information Literacy . Lanham, MD.: Scarecrow Press, 2010.

Stebbins, L.F. Student guide to research in the digital age . Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006.

The Information Literacy User’s Guide: An Open, Online Textbook Copyright © 2014 by Deborah Bernnard, Greg Bobish, Jenna Hecker, Irina Holden, Allison Hosier, Trudi Jacobson, Tor Loney, and Daryl Bullis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Chapter 9: Media and Information Literacy

Oreva had nearly two dozen tabs up, showing various websites, videos, and journal articles on her research topic. At first, she was excited by all the information she was findings on the Mali Empire, a Western African Kingdom that flourished from about 1200 to 1600 ADE, that she wanted to present her informative speech on for class. However, as the night deepened, and it dawned on her that she might be pulling an all-nighter at the library, she became more and more despondent. Now, she just listlessly clicked from tab to tab, unable to concentrate on any source for long because there was just so much to read on the topic. A hand on her should startled her out of her reverie: “Hey, are you okay,” said a woman with glasses and brown hair, standing behind her and looking over her shoulder. “Wow, it looks like you have quite a lot of work ahead!” “ Tsh -yeah,” Oreva grumped. “I’m going to be here all night at this rate.” “Do you know how you’re going to organize all of those sources? Do you have some system?” “If you mean, ‘Do I have enough coffee to stay awake all night reading’ then yes,” Orevea joked. “Nah, I mean an actual system , ” the woman laughed. “Do you mind if I gave you some tips? ” “ Sure , but why are you being so helpful? To I look that clueless? ” Oreva asked. “ Oh goodness, no , ” the person reassured . “ I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself. My name’s Rebecca and I’m a research librarian. I’m here to help!”

Have you faced the same trouble as Oreva when looking for credible information? On the surface, it seems like it has never been easier to find material on any topic, whether on politics, fashion, science, relationships, or culture. To get this information, most people turn to search engines. Google search is the most used search engine on the internet, constituting nearly 92% of search engine market and processing nearly 9 billion requests per day (Mohsin, 2023). Although Google is an amazingly efficient search engine, as we talked about in Chapter Eight, it is a webcrawler program —meaning it picks up anything on the web that it detects is similar to your search keywords as well as other considerations such as advertisements and traffic. As such, search engines such as Google , Bing , Yahoo , or DuckDuckGo do not, and cannot, evaluate whether the information your search gets is necessarily factual, reliable, or credible, only what is related or paid for.

Another way that many people get their information from is their preferred social media platform. As Walker and Matsa (2021) found, Facebook still has the largest share of U.S. Americans who get their news from that platform (31%). However, for adults between 18-29, the preferred platforms are Snapchat (63%), TikTok (52%), Reddit (44%), and Instagram (44%) (Walker & Matsa, 2021). Collectively, approximately 79% of U.S. Americans reported getting news through social media websites. Much like the Google search engine, these searches may lead you to what is viral, popular, or trending, but not necessarily what is factual. Social media platforms also inhabit a grey area in media laws—on one hand they are not content producers of the news and have little legal obligation to ensure what is shown on their platform is credible information. On the other hand, they have enormous influence on how people interact with the news because it is the primary way people do engage with media content. Some social media companies have tried to—with varying degrees of success and effort—to combat misinformation , but since their revenue is advertisement generated, they have a monetary incentive to push information that promotes engagement (no matter the reason) not facts.

Unfortunately, there are many bad actors who take advantage of this weakness in search engines or social media platforms. For example, China’s “ Great Fire Wall ” serves to keep out content produced outside of their country while its 50 Cent Army (or wǔmáodǎng) amplifies pro-China propaganda abroad. Russia’s Internet Research Agency is a well-known troll-farm, spreading disinformation and propaganda in an effort to increase tensions, unrest, and dysfunction within enemy countries (including the United States) (Craig Silverman, 2023) while cracking down on Western internet traffic as it pursues its unjust war against Ukraine (Bandurski, 2022). Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter , has cut down on Twitter’s infrastructure to identify, track, and remove untrue, malicious, and unsubstantiated content (Drapkin, 2023) while Facebook has banned university professors studying the spread of disinformation on its platform (Bond, 2021). Entire platforms, such as The Parlor , Truth Social , 4Chan , and 8Kun pride themselves on having little or no content moderation, allowing users to spread everything from targeted hate campaigns to weird or malicious conspiracy theories such as QAnon .

Social media influencers use their vast networks to sell their products, generate advertisement revenue, and run morally and legally dubious operations, such as Stephen Crowder, Gwyneth Paltrow, or Andrew Tate. All of these problems, and more, are even more frightening in the context of research that has found that the top false news traveled through social networks faster and reach approximately 100 times more people than true news (Vosoughi et al., 2018). Your responsibility, as a content consumer and producer, is to make sure that you can identify, avoid, and create information that is rigorously made and vetted. In a democratic society, people make decisions, and their decisions can only be as good as the information they have to inform them. Spreading or consuming bad information (whether intentionally or not) makes it impossible to come to the best decisions for laws or policies for our communities.

Vetting Sources

The challenge of today is not finding information—it’s finding good information. Unfortunately, most people do not develop their information literacy skills and, instead, rely on mental shortcuts to make their decisions. For example, McGeough and Rudick (2018) found that students in public speaking classes made appeals to authority (e.g., “I found it in the library so it must be credible”), appeals to form/style (e.g., “The article was professionally formatted and in a print newspaper so I thought it was reliable”), appeals to popularity (e.g., “A lot of people use this source so it must be good”), and appeals to their own beliefs (e.g., “I am pro-guns and 2 nd Amendment, so I searched for information on ‘problems with gun control’”) when making their presentations. There are many reasons people rely on these shortcuts—lack of formal education, time constraints, stress, or unwillingness to develop ideas that are contrary to their important social groups (e.g., their religion or family). These shortcuts can influence how you vet, read, and use information for your presentations. Many times, students make decisions to choose their information sources because they have limited time (e.g., waiting until the night before an assignment is due) and cognitive bandwidth (e.g., they are stressed due to other class’s demands on time and attention). However, now is the time to develop these skills. If you do not know how to identify or create factual content, then you are more likely to make information choices based on convenience instead of rigor.

In this section, we offer one way that you can start to develop a stronger set of information literacy skills. We wish to be clear—this is not the only way to vet information, nor should this be the end of your journey on being a better information consumer or producer. You will need to routinely practice, revise, and update your skills. Doing so is especially important because internet trolls, online scammers, predatory corporations, and malicious governments are constantly updating their strategies for spreading misinformation and disinformation. Here, we’ll use the information literacy program SIFT to offer some guidance on vetting your sources (Caufield, 2017), informed by the best practices of the Association of College and Research Libraries .

The SIFT method has been found to an excellent way for students to begin learning information literacy skills because it encourages lateral reading (Brodsky et al., 2021). SIFT includes four moves: stop, investigate the source, find trusted coverage, and trace back to the original.

Before you even begin searching the Internet for information, STOP. What is your research purpose (e.g., to persuade, inform, or motivate)? What are you trying to do with the information you are looking at? Are you being open to competing or opposing viewpoints or have you searched using keywords that will automatically limit what kind of information you are going to get? Often, novice searchers have a vague idea of what they are looking for and then land on the first source that seems to connect to their topic. If you search this way, you are likely to land on information that has a particular viewpoint and then find yourself over focusing on it and excluding other information. Worst case scenario, you may find yourself in an echo chamber regardless of the credibility of information. Next, once you have found a source or a series of sources, STOP. Do you already think this source is credible, and if so, why? Relying on it because it is the first result of a search or because it agrees with your beliefs are poor reasons for relying on it. If you don’t know if it is credible or not, what criteria will you use to ascertain whether the source is worthwhile? Here, you should look at the reputation of the outlet (e.g., the news media corporation, academic journal, social media content producer, or individual expert or witness). Do they have a history of truth telling? Or, maybe they only have a history of reporting information that already affirms your beliefs or discounts/ignores competing views. If you don’t know if the source has a history of disseminating credible information, then you need to execute the next moves to ascertain its reliability.

Investigate the Source

If you have encountered a source that you never have before and/or if you don’t know if it is reputable or not, then you need to do some research on the outlet and/or author. What is their expertise and agenda? For example, many non-profit policy organizations such as the Heartland Institute , Heritage Institute , Cato Institute , Americans for Tax Reform , and the Family Research Council receive millions of dollars in donations from tobacco, oil, and gas industries or conservative religious groups. As result, a great deal of their policy downplays the harms of smoking cigarettes, hydraulic fracturing (i.e., fracking), climate change, and/or attacks LGBTQ rights and families. Many people might believe these are reputable sources because they are .org sites instead of .com sites, but .org simply means that it is an organization—there is no obligation on the part of that organization to give better information due to its .org status. This is not to say you should never visit these sources. There might be a need to know what a problem is or why it hasn’t been solved yet, and going to sources that promulgate bad information is a way to trace how untrue, harmful, or hateful content can negatively affect decision-making about a variety of issues. However, sources that are biased because of politics, faith, money, advertisement, or personal relationships must be approached with caution. By figuring out not just what a source says, but why it says it and who benefits from its advocacy, you can be a better content producer and consumer for your community.

Find Trusted Coverage

Next, is their advocacy in line with other outlets and, if not, why? That is, you should go to websites that offer information on the same topic to see if there is broad consensus or disagreement about the topic. For example, maybe the source you are using is older than a more recent source, indicating that knowledge in this field has changed. Or, the author has a fringe or minority view within a field that has broad consensus about an issue. To be clear, we are not saying that information that is generally agreed upon is always correct. However, when there is broad agreement on a topic then it requires a greater burden of proof for those who advocate against the established position. For example, NASA reports that approximately 97 percent of scientists agree that climate change is occurring, is affected by human pollution, and will negatively affect people around the world. But, don’t just take NASA’s word for it— The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , the United Nations , World Health Organization , and hundreds of other governmental, corporate, non-profit, and academic sources agree on these propositions. To disagree with this, a person would need to demonstrate climate change is not occurring, that if it is occurring humans aren’t the cause for it, and/or that climate change will not harm people— an extremely high burden of proof given the number of sources that agree these things will occur or are occurring. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and refuting generally agreed on propositions is considered an extraordinary claim. All-too-often, people promote misinformation or disinformation by claiming to have insider knowledge that “they” (i.e., Big Government , Big Pharma , the Illuminati , the Lizard People , etc.) don’t want you to have. This type of discourse is especially useful on U.S. Americans because, culturally, most of our media and history is shaped by the idea that brave truth-tellers, patriots, or morally clear-eyed individuals are often a lone voice against a throng of the evil and ignorant. However, it is important to remember that real-life decisions should be based on facts and facts are something that can and should be agreed to and recognized by the majority of experts on a given topic (no, your uncle posting bad memes information from FreedomEagle.net/ patriotsforcoal is not an expert!). Those who cannot meet this burden of evidence only use this cultural idea to hide the fact that they simply cannot meet the evidential burden of their position and do not want you to draw on other sources that might disagree with their analysis.

Trace the Original

Finding the original source of information is more and more important as it becomes easier to share content and information across the Internet and social media. For example, in response to a medical study, news outlets reported: “Silent, not deadly; how farts cure diseases” (Burnett, 2018), “Sniffing your partners’ farts could help ward off disease” (Sun, 2017), and “Scientists say sniffing farts could prevent cancer” (UPI, 2014). However, tracing their claims to the original study reveals a much different picture. The study (Le Trionnaire, 2014) showed how hydrogen sulfide, compound associated with (among other things) the disgusting smell of rotten eggs or human flatulence, may be delivered to the mitochondria of cells to as a way to fight disease and cancer. The study did not say farts cured disease or cancer or even that the compound hydrogen sulfide did; rather, the report made the more limited claim that the compound may be used as a tool in fighting disease and cancer and its efficacy is promising. Pictures, video clips, tweets, reactions, and even (as we see in this example) full medical studies can be condensed into clickbait titles that are meant to provoke anger, frustration, laughter, or sadness—because in the world of social media algorithms all of those emotions translate into engagement which means more advertisement dollars. You must be able to trace information to its original source and then evaluate whether the information that you have read is accurately reported and credible. Otherwise, you may find yourself sniffing farts for no reason!

It is important to remember that no one, single study, article, podcast, or YouTube video proves or disproves anything. Rather, it is only in reading laterally multiple sources or studies published over years that a clearer picture of credible information emerges. Using SIFT, you can begin to develop the skills that allow you to see information claims as part of a wider network of efforts moving from ignorance to knowledge. For example, the non-profit group Center for Scientific Integrity that tracks retracted academic articles (i.e., articles that have been published but later removed because of research misconduct or fabrication) shows how some scholars have abused their responsibilities as researchers. In one case, Yoshitaka Fuji, a Japanese researcher in anesthesiology and ophthalmology, was forced to retract 183 published papers (Stromberg, 2015)!

On one hand, it is chilling to know how long Fuji was able to elude detection. On the other hand, catching errors (whether intentionally made or not) is exactly why scholars engage in lateral reading. Researchers may review the findings of a study against other studies to see if their findings agree with past work or conduct the same tests to see if they get approximately the same result. If they don’t, then it raises questions about the surety of the previous study’s claims, inviting scrutiny and changing knowledge claims as more evidence supports or doesn’t the original study—which is ultimately how Fuji’s research was found to be fraudulent.

All of this is to say, there is no magic bullet, no one good type of source that will ensure that you have good information. It is a constant practice and one that encourages you to not take mental shortcuts. Working to make sure you are informed, demanding that your sources provide factual information, and informing others with high quality information are the only ways that all of us live in a healthy information ecosystem. As the old saying warns, “Garbage in, garbage out,” or, when you consume bad information, you’ll likely produce bad decisions or conclusions. So, don’t settle for garbage!

Reading Journal Articles

You’ve found a variety of sources, used SIFT to test them, and feel confident that they offer a clear picture of the side or sides of an issue. Great! But, as you begin trying to read the journal articles, you find them to be incredibly dense and difficult to get through. Don’t worry—this is a common problem experienced by novice researchers. We find that one of the challenges of reading research articles is that novice researchers try to read the entire article from start to finish to ascertain if it is worth using or vetting. We wish to be clear—not all journal articles follow the format guidelines we explain here. Some articles are opinion pieces, reviews of books, arguments with fellow researchers, or creative pieces that aren’t easily captured in the type of organization we outline here. Therefore, we implore you to go beyond the advice we give here and develop a wide set of tools for reading a variety of research articles.

However, we do believe this approach to reading articles a great place to start and can provide the foundation for being a good researcher. Therefore, we encourage you to follow this order of reading your articles as you begin researching so you can reduce your time searching for articles, increase your comprehension, and utilize the most valuable knowledge in the manuscript. As you develop as a researcher in your area of study, you will most likely need to develop new skills until you reach mastery in your subject.

Title/Abstract

The title of a research article will contain the major concepts, ideas, theories, method of analysis, or insights from the study. For example, the study “ Highlighting the intersectional experiences of students of color: A mixed methods examination of instructor (mis)behavior ” by Vallade et al. (2023) describes the research participants (i.e., students of color), major concepts (i.e., intersectional experiences and instructor (mis)behaviors), and research methodology (i.e., mix-methods or a combination of quantitative and qualitative research). You should also read the study’s abstract, which appears on the first page of the article. The abstract is usually a 100–300-word outline of the study’s purpose, relevant literature, research method/design, major findings, and implications. By reading the title/abstract, you can get a good idea on whether the article connects to the topic you are studying or not. If not, go onto the next article and read its title and abstract. If so, then you need to proceed to the next step.

Introduction

The introduction of the article is usually not notated or labeled as such. Rather, it is simply the first part of the article, which proceeds from the very start to the first major section heading of the article. The introduction of the article should detail the research purpose, which usually contains two elements. The first is the ‘practical’ issue or the actual challenge, issue, or topic the article responds to. This information lets the reader know what problems they will be able to solve or mitigate by finding out what the researchers found. The second, is the ‘theoretical’ issue, which details the academic questions or gaps that the study tries to address. This content shows the reader how the researchers are building on past scholarship in this area and justifying the need for the present study.

Literature Review

The final section you should read is the literature review. Sometimes the literature review is named ‘Literature Review,’ but often it is not explicitly named. Instead, it is understood that the first major section heading after the introduction is the beginning of the literature review. The purpose of the literature review is to provide a summarization of all the past research that has been conducted in the past about the topic. The literature review should also show how the current research is meaningfully building on that information and should end with the hypotheses or research questions that the study will address. Remember, you should rarely, if ever, cite work from the literature review. Rather, when you find any important information you find in this section, you should find the literature being cited in the reference section and go read that particular study or source.

The method section will describe who (e.g., the participants and their demographic information) or what (e.g., the documents, speeches, or content) they got data from. It will also detail what procedures were used to gather data (e.g., surveys or interviews) or texts (e.g., documents, speeches, or content). For example, in a statistical report, it will show what survey instruments were used and how reliable they have been in past studies as a way to justifying their use in the present study. Finally, the section will detail how the researchers analyzed the data in order to come up with new insights. This could be the author or author team’s explication of their statistical procedures used to test a hypothesis. The method section is important to examine because even if the results and discussion are important, if the method section shows a poorly designed research project, then those insights showed be read with extreme caution.

Results/ Discussion

Now you are going to skip everything between the introduction and the section labeled ‘Results’ or ‘Findings’ and ‘Discussion’ or ‘Implications’ in the article. Novice researchers often think that the whole research article is something that can be cited from. However, information in the introduction, literature review, or method sections is often a summary of past research or information on the topic. In other words, it a secondary source, since you are relying on the author of the present article to understand and convey the information from past studies to you. The information in the results section should be the statistical tests, interview excerpts, or other information that is produced through the application of the research method. The discussion section should summarize what the findings or results of the research article were as well as detail (or, discuss) the implications of the study for the production of knowledge on the topic. Much like the introduction, the discussion will most likely explain the ‘practical’ and ‘theoretical’ implications of the study. In other words, it will describe how the knowledge produced through the research should inform peoples’ actions as they try to address the problems the research responds to (practical) as well as make a case for how it extends or challenges the existing research in that area for future researchers to build on in their own work (theoretical). The information in the article that is new, or is a primary source, is the information in the results and discussion. Therefore, if you find something in the literature review that is helpful, important, or worth noting, you should go to the reference list, find the source, and read the original source so you can cite it in your own work. If you don’t, and you cite information from the literature review in your own work, this is a form of academic dishonesty because you never actually read the original source.

We admit, sometimes research writing is needlessly difficult to read. We remember the first time we read an article that stated, “Due to the established lacunae in the field…” and were intimidated by the word “lacunae.” What does it mean? How important is it? It sounds so daunting! Lacunae, however, just means “gaps” or “holes.” The author, in establishing that there are missing answers to questions that were important to their field of study, used a word that immediately caused consternation and confusion from their audience. This word choice is an example bad writing because it needlessly confuses their audience, which should always be avoided! However, sometimes, technical jargon is necessary. The difference between a vein or artery, mitochondrion or ribosomes, verb or adjective, or discourse and rhetoric are important distinctions within their respective fields of study.

Often, we find that novice researchers, when encountering a new or unfamiliar word, just pass over the word in their reading and don’t use dictionaries to look it up because they: A) aren’t motivated to; or B) they feel like doing so is an admission of ignorance. However, if you wish to be able to consume and vet knowledge from a source, you will need to be able to understand what is written and that burden, ultimately, falls on you (the reader) to do the work to figure it out. Passing over a word, whether due to laziness or anxiety, robs you of a chance to grow your knowledge on a subject and eliminates the possibility that you can use or refute the information in a meaningful way.

Verbal and In-Text Ways to Cite Sources

After you have found a wide range of sources on the topic, winnowed them down to the ones that are the most reliable and credible, and mined them for information regarding your topic, it is time to put them in your speech or writing. We find that citing information can be some of the most anxiety producing work that students do. Often, they report getting incomplete, conflicting, or erroneous information about citing sources. As a result, many students put little effort into their citation practices because they think, “I’m going to get it wrong anyway, so why try?”

Conversely, some students rely solely on computer apps, such as EasyBib , BibTex , or Bib I t Now to do their citations for them. Relying on apps doesn’t build your information literacy skills. Doing so means you never bothered to learn how to do it correctly since there was an app that you thought would do it for you and, therefore, you won’t be able to tell if the program is producing a correct citation or not. As we’ll see later, these programs often incorrectly cite work. In short, you need to learn how to properly cite materials and practice those skills.

We cannot stress enough that properly citing your sources is an incredibly important practice in your work. Not only does it ensure that you are sharing information with others in a responsible way by letting them know where you got your information from, it also increases your credibility with your audience because they recognize your effort to keep them fully informed. Citation guides provide standardized system for reporting your sources so that your listeners or readers know exactly how and where to find your sources. There are a variety of ways to cite your information for your audience, but in this chapter, we’ll focus on the two most common styles: the American Psychological Association (APA) style guide and the Modern Language Society (MLA) handbook.

Verbal Citation

When giving a presentation, you need to verbally cite your sources so your audience can ascertain the quality of your sources. Failing to do so can make your audience to doubt or disagree with the content of your speech even if your information is correct. To avoid this, you need to verbally cite your sources in a way that supports your work while not being overly cumbersome to your speech and interrupting your flow. We suggest you use three pieces of information every time you cite something verbally: Name of Source , Credibility Statement of Source , Year of Publication . Here are a few examples of what you might say:

Dr. McGeough, who is a leading researcher in ancient Greek rhetorical philosophy, argued in a 2023 research article that…

In 2022, the World Health Organization, an internationally renowned inter-governmental body that studies health and medicine, reported…

In a research study spanning from 2015 to 2020, the internationally recognized data scientists at the Pew Research Center tracked voting habits of various groups and found…

Do you see the Name of Source , Credibility Statement of Source , Year of Publication in each of the examples? Although you can report the information in a variety of ways, each contains the information. Typically, you don’t have to give more information than this because doing so makes your speech awkward and filled with a lot of extraneous information. If your audience wants more specific information about your sources, they can ask for your written citations. You should have a “References” (APA) or “Works Cited” (MLA) paper or (if using a slideshow app such as PowerPoint or Google Slides) on the final slide. In those case, make sure to write out the reference information based on our advice below.

In- T ext Citation

There are two primary ways that you can cite information in text, or in the body of your writing. The first is called summary or synopsis . Luckily, we cite and report information the same whether it is a summary or synopsis. Let’s take the following passage that we might find in an academic journal article (sometimes called a periodical ): “After surveying 200 participants, the study found that people like dogs more than cats, hamburgers more than hotdogs, and cake more than pie.” Now, we’ll create a summary in both APA and MLA:

McGeough and Golsan (2023) discovered that people like dogs more than cats.

Researchers have discovered that people like dogs more than cats (McGeough & Golsan, 2023).

McGeough and Golsan discovered that people like dogs more than cats (1).

Researchers have discovered that people like dogs more than cats (McGeough and Golsan 1).

The sentences can be written either way, but both contain information that is specific to their citation style. Notice how in APA, the in-text citation shows the authors’ last names, the year of publication, and uses the ampersand symbol (“&”) whereas the authors last names, the page number the information was found on, and the word “and” was needed in MLA (we made up the year of publication and page number for the sake of the example). Also, notice how the summary focuses on one finding, even though the research found peoples’ preferences on three different things. If we had reported on all three findings, in our own words, then it would have been a synopsis. We can also write a direct quote if we cite it properly. For example:

Past research has found that “people like dogs more than cats, hamburgers more than hotdogs, and cake more than pie” (McGeough & Golsan, 2023, p. 1).

Past research has found that “people like dogs more than cats, hamburgers more than hotdogs, and cake more than pie” (McGeough and Golsan 1).

Note, that in APA, we have now added the page number to help a reader find the information that we are quoting whereas citation in MLA doesn’t change. In both cases, though, we use quotation marks to indicate that we are directly quoting material from a source. You must copy information from the source word-for-word if you are using a direct quotation.

Written References

Your references (APA) or works cited (MLA) pages are where you collect all of the information for your sources into one place. Doing this makes it easier for your reader to find the information you use in your writing. Let’s use the article, “Academic advising as teaching: Undergraduate student perceptions of advisor confirmation” and see how to cite it properly in your papers. First, let’s compare out how the citation appears on the article’s first page , Bib It Now , and proper APA :

Scott Titsworth, Joseph P. Mazer, Alan K. Goodboy, San Bolkan & Scott A. Myers (2015) Two Meta-analyses Exploring the Relationship between Teacher Clarity and Student Learning, Communication Education, 64:4, 385-418, DOI: 10.1080/03634523.2015.1041998

(Article’s first page)

Titsworth, S., Mazer, J. P., Goodboy, A. K., Bolkan, S., & Myers, S. A. (2015). Two Meta-analyses Exploring the Relationship between Teacher Clarity and Student Learning. Communication Education. Retrieved from https://www-tandfonline-com.proxy.lib.uni.edu/doi/full/10.1080/03634523.2015.1041998

(Bib It Now)

Titsworth, S., Mazer, J. P., Goodboy, A. K., Bolkan, S., & Myers, S. A. (2015). Two meta-analyses exploring the relationship between teacher clarity and student learning. Communication Education , 64 (4), 385-418. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2015.1041998

Can you see the differences? The third citation is the correct way to cite it in APA. The differences you see are why it is so important to know how to cite information properly. If you just relied on the journal article or app, then your citation would be incorrect and you wouldn’t be informing your audience of your information in the standardized way. Let’s try it with MLA now:

Titsworth, Scott, et al. “Two Meta-analyses Exploring the Relationship between Teacher Clarity and Student Learning.” Communication Education, 9 June 2015, www-tandfonline-com.proxy.lib.uni.edu/doi/full/10.1080/03634523.2015.1041998.

Titsworth, Scott, et al. “Two Meta-analyses Exploring the Relationship between Teacher Clarity and Student Learning.” Communication Education , vol. 9, no. 4, 2015, pp. 385-418, https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2015.1041998 .

Again, can you spot the differences? The final example is the correct way to cite an article in MLA.

The examples we just gave are for journal articles, but there is a unique way to cite almost anything: tweets, textbooks, websites with authors, websites without authors, YouTube videos, and a whole lot more. There are thousands of books, blogs, online writing centers, and YouTube/TikTok videos on citation. We suggest you visit a reputable website that offers sample papers so you can compare your work to what is the correct, standard way of citing and formatting your paper. We recommend (and often use ourselves!) the Online Writing Lab (or OWL) website from Purdue University, which offers sample papers in APA and MLA .

As you look at the sample paper and your own, sing the children’s song from Sesame Stree t : “One of these things is not like the others/One of these things just doesn’t belong/Can you tell which thing is not like the others/By the time I finish my song?” That is, if your paper looks different than the sample paper’s formatting, in-text citation, or reference/works cited page, yours is most likely the one that is incorrect—fix it! When students turn in papers that do not adhere to proper formatting, then there are two primary explanations: either the student didn’t take the time/energy to do the work properly or the student cannot follow Sesame Street rules and make corrections to their paper based on comparing their work to a sample paper. Frankly, neither is a good look, which is why your professors (and audience) will get frustrated if you don’t take the time to properly reference your sources.

When you are trying to inform, persuade, or motivate your audience, you need to be able to communicate why you have come to the conclusions you have based on the evidence you have gathered. If you cannot explain why you believe something or if you believe something for poor reasons (e.g., “my family believes this,” “my friends all say this,” or “everyone knows this”), then you have not lived up to your responsibility to be a good, careful researcher. Being able to vet your evidence is the first step to not only demanding that you are an informed person, but that others around you live up to their responsibility to communicate in ways that are factually supported about important topics or problems you and your community may face.

Communication for College, Career, and Civic Life Copyright © by Ryan McGeough; C. Kyle Rudick; Danielle Dick McGeough; and Kathryn B. Golsan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Information literacy framework.

• Introduction to Information Literacy
• Research as Inquiry
• Searching as Strategic Exploration
• Information Has Value
• Scholarship as Conversation
• Authority is Constructed and Contextual
• Information Creation as a Process

Additional Readings

Why we do this, emotional impact of information.

• Vocabulary/Glossary
• Recommended Reading
• Information Distortion

For more practical advice on how to use the resources available through the Macdonald-Kelce Library check out Introduction to Library Research .

The following books are available in the library.

The ultimate point of all of this is to learn to be a life-long learner. To be a life-long learner it helps to cultivate a sense of curiosity, learn how to frame questions which will elicit enlightening answers, and know how to effectively evaluate information sources to ensure you draw accurate and reliable answers.

In fact, it's part of the Spartan Code .

(These assignments are offered as inspirational prompts to be adapted by anyone using this guide.)

Remember that information can have a variety of emotional impacts. Discuss.

• << Previous: Information Creation as a Process
• Next: Vocabulary/Glossary >>
• Last Updated: Aug 10, 2023 3:19 PM
• URL: https://utopia.ut.edu/InformationLiteracyFramework

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Media and Information Literate Citizens: Think Critically, Click Wisely!

Media and Information Literate Citizens: Think critically, Click Wisely (Second Edition of the UNESCO Model Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Educators and Learners)

Download: Full document  -  Summary of the resource

Response to the disinfodemic requires a combination of information, media, and digital competencies, i.e. media and information literacy (MIL).

This international event aims to launch a new resource Media and Information Literate Citizens: Think critically, Click Wisely (Second Edition of the UNESCO Model Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Educators and Learners).

This three-day international event is co-organized by UNESCO and the Republic of Serbia and will take place on 23, 27 and 29 April 2021, including:

• two high-level television-style discussions (23 April, 15:00 – 16:15 CEST)
• four international webinars presenting various case studies from MIL experts and practitioners as well other experts (27 and 29 April, 15:00 – 17:00 CEST)

The international event will be hosted by the Republic of Serbia, in the presence of high-level officials. Taking a hybrid format, the event will combine remote and physical participation (local representatives in the country) and moderation from a television studio in Belgrade. International participants will connect via a video conferencing tool.

UNESCO and its partners reinforce people's critical engagement in information for public good and to tackling the rising disinfodemic.

#ThinkBeforeSharing  #ThinkBeforeClicking

REGISTRATION

Please click here to register.

Two high-level television-style discussions 23 April 2021, online and offline  

Summary of the High-Level Discussions

1. Time: 15:00-15:30 CEST

The first will include high-level representatives of the Republic of Serbia, UNESCO, the European Commission, and the World Health Organization. It will take place via remote participation and coordinate from a television studio in Belgrade.

This first session will focus on 1) the importance of MIL to the international development agenda, 2) the need for national policies and international cooperation especially in the context of sustainable ways to tackle disinformation and promote information for public good, and 3) launch of the resources Media and Information Literate Citizens: Think critically, Click Wisely! (Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Educators and Learners).

2. Time: 15:45-16:15 CEST

The second high-level discussion will consist of representatives of UN Agencies and the Republic of Serbia at the Director level. It will take place via remote participation and coordinate from a television studio in Belgrade.

This second session will focus on 1) role-out and use of the MIL Curriculum in formal, non-formal, and informal learning outside and inside the classroom, and 2) the role of education systems, NGOs, media, libraries, digital communication companies and other information providers. The sessions will benefit from interpretation in English, French, and Serbian.

Four international webinars presenting various case studies from MIL experts and practitioners as well other experts 27 and 29 April 2021, fully online

Time: 15:00 - 17:00 cest on each day.

These 4 webinar will include speakers from countries where the UNESCO Model MIL Curriculum has been adapted to national contexts, MIL experts and practitioners as well as other related competency areas such as global citizenship education, education for sustainable development, cultural literacy and intercultural competencies, science literacy etc. The webinars will highlight various integrated topics covered in this new MIL Curriculum.

• Detailed Agenda (PDF)

ABOUT THE MIL CURRICULUM

UNESCO began the process of updating its Model Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Curriculum during the International Consultative Meeting on MIL Curriculum, on 12-13 September 2019, hosted by the Republic of Serbia. The international consultation was followed by a series of regional consultations that spanned over one year. This event aims to launch the second edition of the UNESCO Model MIL Curriculum for Educators and Learners, again in the Republic of Serbia, where the process started.

UNESCO issued its Model Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Curriculum in 2011, the only international curriculum to date that harmonises information, media, and digital competencies under the umbrella term of “MIL”. The current edition is highly demanded, exists in twelve languages, and has informed the development of further MIL resources by various partners across the world. Notwithstanding, it is necessary to update this flagship resource ten years after its publication. This is increasingly needed in light of new developments in the digital domain including artificial intelligence, the emergence of new concepts such as digital citizenship education, and the exponential rise in disinformation and online hate speech.

The pioneering Second Edition of the UNESCO Model MIL Curriculum for Educators and Learners will be launched during this dedicated event in the Republic of Serbia. This Second Edition followed a series of global consultations on MIL in all regions of the world, which spanned over one year and began in the Republic of Serbia. This launch will kick start a rejuvenation and strengthening of MIL training in formal, informal and non-formal learning online and offline. This event will be held in the presence of high-level officials.

• Concept Note (PDF)

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Information Literacy in the Digital Age by Teresa Welsh, Melissa Wright

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Information literacy may be defined as the ability to find, locate, and evaluate current, relevant, and accurate information and to use this information effectively in order to meet one’s needs. A generation ago, most information was found using the newspaper, television, radio, or scholarly journals which could be located using a library card catalog or the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature. While these media are still used, much information can now be found using computers and the Internet. The current generation of college students is the first to grow up immersed in technology and the Internet. They are often referred to as ‘Web 2.0 students,’ ‘the Net Generation,’ or ‘Digital Natives.’ 1

By the age of 21, the average ...

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Module 1 : Citizenship, Freedom of Expression and Information, Access to Information, Democratic Discourse and Life-long Learning

• Unit 1: Understanding Media and Information Literacy – An Orientation

Duration: 2 Hours

KEY TOPICS:

• Defining ‘information’ and ‘media’
• Exploring the importance of the media and other information providers
• Describing key learning outcomes of media and information literacy

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this module teachers should be able to:

• Identify key learning outcomes/elements of media and information literacy
• Understand media and information literacy, and its importance and relevance in the lives of students and teachers today
• Explore the roles of media and other information providers such as libraries, archives and Internet
• Explore these roles in a variety of media and information texts

PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES and ACTIVITIES

Multiple roles of media.

Media and other information providers play a central role in information and communication processes. They are one way of communicating information, although their role is much broader than that. For the purpose of the MIL curriculum, media are defined (irrespective of the nature and technologies used) as sources of credible and current information created through an editorial process determined by journalistic values whereby editorial accountability can be attributed to a specific organization or a legal person. To the extent that media are an important part of every society’s communication system, their institutional make-up can mesh with a variety of non-media information providers, such as libraries, museums, archives, Internet information providers, other information organizations and citizens who produce their own content.Media play several roles. They:

• act as channels of information and knowledge through which citizens communicate with each other and make informed decisions
• facilitate informed debates between diverse social actors
• provide us with much of what we learn about the world beyond our immediate experience
• are means by which a society learns about itself and builds a sense of community
• function as a watchdog of government in all its forms, promoting transparency in public life and public scrutiny of those with power through exposing corruption, maladministration and corporate wrong-doing
• are essential facilitators of democratic processes and one of the guarantors of free and fair elections
• are a vehicle for cultural expression and cultural cohesion within and between nations
• function as an advocate and social actor in its own right while respecting pluralistic values

Sourcing Information

The proper use of information made available by media and various information providers depends on people’s abilities to understand their information needs, and to locate, retrieve and evaluate the quality of the information they can access. Today, there is an extremely wide and diverse selection of information material, content, and resources available, particularly on the Internet, varying greatly in accuracy, reliability, and value. In addition, this information exists in a variety of forms (e.g. as text, image or statistic, electronically or in print), that can be made available through online repositories and portals, virtual and real libraries and documentary collections, databases, archives, museums, etc. The most important factor, however, is that the quality of this information can range from ‘very good’ to ‘very bad’.

Before evaluating information sources, it is important to think about what the information is for. This will help you to identify credible information sources. The key questions might be:

What source or what kind of source would be the most credible for providing information in this particular case? Which sources are likely to be fair, objective, lacking hidden motives, showing quality control?

We can think of information as being held by media and other information providers, such as libraries, museums, archives and the Internet. These information providers have a number of roles, including to:

• facilitate teaching and learning processes
• provide access to all types of information (often free of charge, plural, reliable and without restrictions)
• serve as a gateway to information
• promote universal values and civil rights, such as freedom of expression and information
• serve as society’s collective memory
• gather information
• preserve cultural heritage
• Survey the media to find resources or media texts that are examples of the functions listed above. Identify texts that illustrate these roles on a local, national and global level. Survey college/university or public libraries to find books or other resources available which provide information about democracy, other parts of the world, different cultures, social and economic life, etc. Explore questions such as: Who decides on the level of resources that should be allocated to libraries? Who decides which books should be included in the library and which should be excluded? Who decides which books are more important than others? Are libraries serving their purposes? (A similar activity could be organized for museums or archives)
• The media play an important role in helping to encourage the development and building of a nation. Discuss how undue restrictions that might be imposed on media can prevent the media from exercising this function. Think about the content of media in your country. How many different points of view can you find on development, nation building and national interests and from which perspective?
• Search the web to find stories relating to the deliberate destruction of libraries, museums or archives or certain books due to war, ethnic conflicts, etc. How can you verify that this story is true? Given that this is the first unit, teachers may not have been exposed to the requisite skills to answer this question, so should not spend too much time on it but move on to the other questions. How could the destruction of media, libraries, archives and other information providers, resources available and services offered by those institutions affect people, their history or culture? What are some other implications, based on your observation, of such actions?
• What is public demain information? Research how public domain information is treated by two government institutions in your country. Debate the adequacy (or lack thereof) of information provided by these institutions. Are there national policies for how information should be made public? Does access to information laws exist in your country? Are these being used? What are citizens’ entitlements as mentioned in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
• Based on the answers provided from the activity suggested above, indicate the outcomes for media and information literacy (what the media and information literate person should be able to do). What does each individual term mean?
• Make a list of media that are present in the daily lives of students and teachers today. What are the key roles and functions that each of these media perform? What do you think it means to be ‘literate’ when it comes to using the media and other information providers? What knowledge, skills and attitudes are necessary?
• Keep a journal for one day in which you record your daily use and interaction with media and information providers, such as public and private Internet information providers. What patterns emerge in your personal use? How many hours do you spend engaged with media and technology such as the Internet, television or radio? What roles are these media and other information providers playing in your life?
• Take a walking tour of your school or neighbourhood. List the examples of media and other information providers that are present in these environments. Which of the roles listed above do these examples illustrate?
• How would they be informed now?
• How would they communicate news, facts, and events?
• What would happen with the decisions you usually make?
• What would you – personally – most miss in such a situation?
• What would society lose with this kind of problem?
• Write a ‘letter to the editor’ with your conclusions on the value of the media and information in a democratic society.

IMPORTANCE OF MIL FOR CITIZENS

Media and information literacy (MIL) brings together disciplines that were once separate and distinct. MIL is concerned with giving people an understanding of the importance of media and other information providers in order to:

• make informed decisions
• learn about the world around them
• build a sense of community
• maintain public discourse, and
• engage in lifelong learning

Further, MIL should spur citizens to become active producers of information and innovators of media and information products, as well as critical thinkers. MIL should incite them to use new and traditional media for self-expression, creativity and greater participation in their country’s democracy and the global information network. ACTIVITIES

• Consider the characteristics of MIL described in Figure 1 in the Media and Information Literacy Curriculum and Competency Framework for Teachers (Part 1). Discuss each characteristic. Write down what each of these means to you. Do you think this description is complete? What do you think should be included?
• Media literacy
• Library literacy
• Computer literacy
• Freedom of expression literacy
• Internet literacy
• Digital literacy
• News literacy
• Cinema literacy
• Games literacy
• What do you observe about the relationship between and among these individual terminologies or notions of MIL? Write one paragraph describing what would be your rationale for combining media literacy and information literacy as MIL.
• Unit 2: MIL and Civic Participation
• Unit 3: Interactive with Media and Other Information Providers such as Libraries, Archives and the Internet
• Unit 4: MIL, Teaching and Learning

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Media Literacy, Essay Example

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Introduction

Media literacy is a complex issue that requires further investigation and evaluation in the modern era. It is important to identify the resources that are required to effectively adapt to a media-filled culture, whereby there are significant opportunities to achieve growth and change in the context of new ideas for growth and maturity for the average viewer/reader. It is known that “Interactivity as a core factor in multimedia is in some ways closely related to performance and can enable the viewer/reader/user to participate directly in the construction of meaning” (Daley 36). This quote is inspiring because it requires individuals to truly connect with the media on several levels that will have an instrumental impact on personal growth and the ability to be informative on many levels. The media saturates society through Facebook, Twitter, 24-hour news channels, and traditional forms such as magazines newspapers. Therefore, it is essential to identify a personal strategy that enables the reader/viewer to decipher through the hundreds if not thousands of messages that the media delivers on a daily basis so that individuals are better prepared to manage their own degree of literacy effectively.

For a website such as CNN.com, there appears to be a clash of sorts between that which is truly newsworthy and important to the lives of many people and that which might be deemed sensationalism to grab readers’ attention and an increased number of views, as well as ratings. This is a complex situation because the network and its accompanying website strive to remain competitive with the needs of its readers/viewers, while also requiring other factors to be considered that might improve their ability to decipher through the messages and to identify those which are most meaningful and appropriate within their lives. The homepage of the CNN website typically has an emerging or news-worthy story that is designed to grab the reader’s attention and to facilitate a response from the reader, perhaps a visceral reaction. This is part of the appeal of online news, as it attempts to draw viewers’ attention to what the website deems as newsworthy and of value to the reader. Although this is not always the case, the website achieves it key objective by attracting the reader enough to at least read the headlines and perhaps read some of the other stories that are listed on the homepage. Nonetheless, it is likely that many viewers will barely scratch the surface of an article because they lose interest or do not understand the backstory regarding the topic to keep reading. This is a key component of the high level of media illiteracy that exists in the modern era and that supports the development of new strategies to encourage readers to become less media illiterate and to improve their literacy regarding issues that generate much attention and focus from the masses.

There are critical factors associated with media literacy that require further consideration and evaluation, such as the tools that support the growth of individuals as they learn how to weave through the messages that they receive online, on television, and in print. Media literacy is more than merely reading stories, as it is about taking these stories in, forming opinions, developing a passion for a topic or an idea, and forming a bond with others who might share or contrast with these views (Media Literacy Project). In this context, it is important to identify the resources that are required to develop a strategy that supports media literacy on a much larger level that will impact society and its people as they develop a higher level of intelligence and/or acceptance of the ideas set forth within a given story or headline.

Overcoming media illiteracy requires the development of new strategies for individuals to take ideas that they read on a website such as CNN.com and to make them their own and perhaps apply them to their own lives in one or more ways. This is how media literacy works, as it enables individuals to transition from simply reading news stories online towards adapting them to their own lives in one way or another. This process engages readers and enables them to recognize the importance of improving their own level of literacy through these opportunities. It is imperative to recognize the value of media literacy as it applies to the human condition in the modern era, particularly as individuals have become increasingly dependent on the news as a part of their daily routines. This process supports and engages readers/viewers in the context of many different situations that enable them to cross over into a world where they have a better understanding of the media and how it impacts their lives in different ways.

Media literacy is a complex and ongoing phenomenon that has a unique impact on the lives of individuals. Many websites influence how people interpret the news, such as CNN.com, as they only tend to scratch the surface of news without any real opportunity to formulate opinions regarding the topics that are within. Therefore, it is important to identify some of the issues that are common in these stories and to recognize the importance of developing new approaches to stories that will have a positive impact on the response from readers/viewers. Media literacy is an ongoing process that requires the full attention and focus of individuals in order to accomplish the desired goals and objectives, while also considering the value of developing new perspectives that will encourage readers to take greater steps towards formulating their own opinions regarding stories and topics that may impact their own lives on many levels.

Works Cited

CNN.com. 11 May 2014: http://www.cnn.com/

Daley, Elizabeth. “Expanding the concept of literacy.” Educause, 11 May 2014: https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0322.pdf

Media Literacy Project. “What is media literacy?” 11 May 2014: http://medialiteracyproject.org/learn/media-literacy

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Home / Essay Samples / Information Science and Technology / Digital Literacy / Navigating the World of Information: Media Literacy

Navigating the World of Information: Media Literacy

• Category: Information Science and Technology , Sociology
• Topic: Digital Literacy , Effects of Social Media , Modern Society

Pages: 2 (1063 words)

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