Media literacy can be explained as “a framework to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a variety of forms, build an understanding of the role of media in society, as well as [develop] the essential skills of inquiry and self-expression.” (Trilling, B & Fadel, C 2012). In the other words, media literacy provides people platforms such as video, website, audio, pictures to help them to learn the full view of the medias in the society from different perspectives. Meanwhile, as people could gradually understand the significance of social medias’ existences, they also could develop the abilities to collect the data, judge the information, develop personal thoughts, express individual opinions, and finally connect with the society more closely. As Jesse and Smith Julie mention that literacy is not limited only by the paperwork, such as reading books, but also could be displayed by medias because “the media have their own text also they have their own language”(8:20). For example, scientific or educational YouTube channels belong to video medias which provide people with knowledge that may not be seen on the books. Therefore, medias in society provide diverse ways for people to receive timely information about the world and learn new knowledge which may not be included in books. Media literacy is an opportunity for people to touch and connect with the social environment by watching and accepting the changes of the world from medias. If the medias are not exist to spread information and build the image of the society, people may be derailed from society because they cannot know how the world is changing. Meanwhile, without understanding the develop trends of the society, people would lose their senses of stability and belong because of the unknown future. However, at present, medias in society are more likely to be considered as entertainment. People could get relaxation from entertainment, but at the same time addictions would occur. Focusing too much on entertainment information would occupy people time and energy of studying; also, because entertainment information are not serious or scientific, so everyone has the right to publish any legal entertainment information on the internet. Therefore, entertainment information could be unverified resources which misguide people to believe in them. In addition, not only the entertainment information, but also some seemingly scientific knowledge resources are actually fake information. These fake information are easier to be instilled in people’s brain and spread to others because they are “scientific”. These are the reasons that why the media literacy would be dismissed. Actually, most time we could find that people’s PLNs are more likely to include varied views but no the factual consensus. I think this is because people are more likely to leave their footprints in the topics they are interested with no matter the information are truth or not. As I mentioned before that medias in society would be considered as entertainment in most time, so people access these topics may just because interests rather than learning knowledge. Therefore, personal PLN would include more varied views instead of the factual consensus that they need to learn or accept as knowledge. As Smith Julie mentions that in the large amounts of information in social medias, “it is impossible to figure out what is real” (4:20), so the open dialogues about media literacy and factual information would create conflicts. For example, the makeup blogger may promote the cosmetics could improve the skin conditions, but this is not all true actually. If a person has really bad skin condition, he/she had better not to do makeup for a short period because some cosmetics would clog the pores and result in worse skin conditions. The most parts of blogger’s audience would be the people who must do makeup everyday, they could get some comforts after listening and believing with the blogger’s speeches no matter the speech is true or not. Therefore, people are more likely to seek and believe in the speeches in media literacy that they prefer to accept even the speeches are not factual information. When standing at the bystanders’ perspective, other people could feel the speeches in open dialogues are conflicted with factual information. Therefore, having a PLN that values media literacy would be important. Valuing on media literacy means that everyone needs to focus on improving the media environment, such as improving the authenticity of information resources. All citizens need to ensure that they publish and spread factual information on their PLNs. As the accuracy of information increased, people would be more likely to trust in the medias in society, and less people would be misguided by the false information.

References:

Smith Julie. “EDCI 338 A01- SMITH, JULIE” YouTube, uploaded by Miller, Nov 2, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_T9RghwJlI

Trilling, B & Fadel, C (2012). Digital Literacy Skills . Media Literacy Chapter 4 pp.66. https://learning-oreilly-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/library/view/21st-century-skills/9780470475386/fade_9780470475386_oeb_c04_r1.html