Media literacy is perhaps one of the most important skills to have in today’s culture, but few people are even aware of what media literacy is, much less how to use it. In short, to be media literate is to evaluate and think critically about the media we consume.
First off, “media” encompasses more than you may think. We commonly refer to news, television, and advertisements as “the media,” but, as well as those things, “media” can include everything from the labels on soda cans to the welcome screens on computers. Secondly, given that we are consuming so much media communication every day, it’s important that we know how to carefully navigate it all.
Think of a recent public relations campaign for a celebrity product endorsement—for example, Beats by Dre—or a provincial election; in every case, the purpose of the media is trying to persuade you of something—to think, to buy, or to believe a certain view (except this column, of course). So, how do we make it through this storm of solicitations?
It’s important to realize that all media isn’t bad; rather, the bad thing would be to think of all media as neutral. The Subway ads in the Camosun bathrooms, for example, aren’t evil—they’re just carefully placed there in hopes that you’ll think of Subway next time you’re hungry (which as a student, I’m sure you always are).
With this in mind, we can assess our media with a more critical lens. If we were to open up our definition of media to include things like food packaging, for example, then we can start to see things such as more and more snack foods highlighting phrases like “100 percent natural,” “no artificial ingredients,” and “no preservatives.” Taken for granted, you could say, in effect, “Well, I don’t want artificial ingredients, so that’s a good thing.” But, leaving it at that we’d miss why they’re choosing to state that.
Now that we’re all on the same page, let us get back to those Subway advertisements. On one hand, it’s a few extra advertising dollars for the college, and Subway recognizes that college students are likely to eat their food, so the pairing seems to make sense.
On the other hand, exercising our media literacy, we might say that a company as large as Subway has extensive marketing experience with a set advertising budget and certain return expectations for said budget.
Literacy—to read—is us getting halfway there; media literacy—to think critically about what we read, see, and hear in the media—is the full picture.