Media Literacy

 

Media Literacy is the practices that allow us to access, critic and create media. It is intended for us to promote awareness on how we may be influenced by media, creating an active stance to consuming and creating media.

I read up on two opinion pieces talking about media literacy. In the first reading; "Digital Media Companies found lacking in helping users understand the online environment" stated that 62% of Irish people were concerned about misinformation online, and who could blame them. Each day I come across misinformation on the likes of twitter/Instagram such as others opinions, or filters which makes a person look completely different, or somebody pretending to be someone they are not.

Pillar D is a code of practice on disinformation giving poeple the decision on what to do when coming across misleading information. This basically helps the consumer control what they would like to view therefore personalizing their feature pages. Although Facebook and Google claimed to label fact check consent it was not identified by code check research.

Google, Facebook and Twitter are all apart of MLI( Media Literacy Ireland. In each way they campaign #BeMediaSmart. Google not so much but it did sponsor the be media smart campaign micro-site.

Its important to know where to get your trusted sources from. I wish it was more about our own country and where we got our sources from, no doubt it was RTE 1 with their news updates and how everyone's phone binged at 6pm when the Covid-19 cases would be out, typical Irish behaviour. However when reading my second opinion piece Nearly half of people across the UK nations have come across false or misleading information about Covid19. 

Ofcom showed us the UK's statistics and to my surprise they were quit scattered. They surveyed over 2000 people, age 16 and above. The most popular media by their studies was BBC, radio, and online and closed groups coming in at the lowest. 

Here it states the most common misleading information came from "Theories linking of origin or causes of Covid-19" to "Drinking water more frequently" saying they found it hard to know what was true/false.

Overall my experience of reading both opinions I feel misinformation along our media platforms is always going to be there. People creating pages to trick the mind of others, or as I said in the beginning pretending to be someone they are not. 

References: 

Untitled (2020) Digital Media Companies Found Lacking in Helping Users Understand the Online Environment.  Digital Media Companies Found Lacking in Helping Users Understand The Online Environment | Media Literacy Ireland

Lennon, R (2020) Ofcom Research; Nearly half the people across the UK Nations have come across false or misleading information about Covid-19.

Ofcom research: Nearly half of people across the UK nations have come across false or misleading information about Covid-19 | Media Literacy Ireland