New Age of Technology: Why We Need Media Literacy.

Media literacy is expanded information and communication skill that is responsive to the changing nature of information in our society. It addresses the skills adults and students need to be taught in school, the competencies people must have as we use information in our homes, and the abilities workers must have as we move throughout the twenty-first century and the challenges of a global economy. Most media literacy organizations use this definition of media literacy: The ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate information in a variety of formats. It includes the ability to both read and understand and write. It moves from merely recognizing and comprehending information to the higher order critical thinking skills understood in questioning, analyzing and evaluating that information.

Today, we are in an age right now where most Students and Adults get their information from television and pictures, instead of books and print. Today, we are not only in an age of computers and forms of telecommunications, but are subjected to virtual reality as well. In a lot of today’s movies and television shows, we are highly affected by the sound and special effects put in to these movies and shows. Things like people coming back from the dead, color with black and white, etc. These are seen in a lot of movies and shows out there today. Examples like the horror movie series Friday the 13th, even in old movies like The Wizard Of Oz where it goes from black and white to color.

The problem is that these special effects are not only put in to entertainment media, but news broadcasts as well. A reporter in a news broadcast can magically be transported by computer to look as if she is standing right in front of the White House, which is usually a close up shot that looks as if he or she is as tall as the building. This demonstrates that the reporter has power and authority to report the story. Trends like these need to be questioned by the viewers. The need to question the authenticity and accuracy of all the information. Many people believe that a lot of what they see on the news must be true because it’s the news. That’s not always true, sometimes especially when broadcasting about the war in Iraq they want people to believe that everything is negative over there, but in fact some of the soldiers serving over there are helping the Iraqi’s to rebuild.

A person who is media literate is able to create, produce, and communicate information in all forms. An example of this would be our digital cameras. We can take pictures off them and put them right on to our computers or onto disc. Americans in the workplace and in their daily lives will require the information and communication skills essential to live and work with many formats. Rather than just typing print from page to screen, they will work with still and moving images, graphics and text. If we can distinguish what is real and not real, and be diverse by reading not only on the internet, but by picking up and reading a book or newspaper.

Violence and Media Factors

Often, the media is a great source of information. Sometimes, this information can influence people negatively or positively. In today’s society, different types of media can create these effects on different types of people depending on certain factors. There are seven different set point factors which can influence these media effects, and when watching a violent film, I determined which of these factors influenced me.

One of these factors is developmental maturities. Because of differences in cognitive development, children learn things from the media at different ages. Children who are younger are not able to follow everything going on when watching TV, or dramatic plots; they sometimes construct false images of the world. Since I am an adult, I am not scared of certain sound effects; I know what is real and fake, and how the media portrays certain things for effect.

The degree of identification factor says, a person pays more attention to the character they identify with. People identify with characters who have similarities to them but who also have qualities that they would like to possess but do not. I usually don’t chose violent films to watch so most of the characters that I relate to are the “good” characters. The characters who try not to create conflict, or use violence. The probability of this media effect occurring would increase if you related more to violent characters. According to the states factor, the emotion a person is feeling at the time of viewing can potentially increase the media effect. So in order for this film to have a higher potential of creating aggression in myself I need to view it after having a bad day or feeling frustration.

I can see several factors that could make me behave aggressively, but there are many factors that would decrease my chances of this media effect occurring. Since the socialization factor states that, a set point is hard to move when a person has been exposed consistently to anti-aggression norms all their life. I grew up in a small town where there is not a lot of violence that takes place; my college choice was based on that sole reason. I was raised in a religious environment where I would attend church with my family and sit down to have a family dinner no matter how crazy our schedules were. My chances of acting aggressively after this film are very small.

Playing a college sport, I am part of a team so I am very social and active. The lifestyle factor refers to how active and social a person is. So these factors reduce my chances of acting violent because of my low exposure to media. With thirteen different factors which influence media effects, I think that after viewing a violent film the likely for aggressive behavior to occur would be very low. Due to my lifestyle, low exposure to violence, and how I was brought up, I believe that the chance of this media effect occurring is very slim.

and the winner is....American Idol!

One of my all time favorite prime time television shows is American Idol. I am a huge fan every season, whether it’s during the results show on Wednesday nights, or when they perform on Tuesday nights. So I automatically thought that if it was one of my all time favorite shows, and the performers get so many votes, it must be another favorite show to other viewers.

According to USA Today, during the week of February 12^th through the 18^th, American Idol placed first and second with 31.2 million voters, and 28.9 million voters. These viewers were between the ages of 18 and 49 years of age. In the category of viewers 50 years and older, CSI and CSI Miami placed first and second with 11.7 and 11.6 million viewers. For the week of March 24^th through March 30^th, Fox’s American Idol placed first and second again. This time the Wednesday night show at 9 PM had a rating of 15.2 with a share of 24. There was an audience of 17,185,000, and 25,742,000 viewers. The Tuesday night performance show at 8 PM had a 14.0 rating with a share of 21. The audience was 15,767,000 and there were 24,758,000 viewers.

I don’t think the ratings would change that much if you moved American Idol to a different night or time. The only other competition that American Idol would have would be if they changed it to Monday night at 8PM or Tuesday night at 9, because Dancing With the Stars on ABC came in third and fourth place with the Monday night show having a rating of 13 and a share of 20.0 There was an audience of over 14 million, and over 20 million viewers. The results show has a rating of 11 and a share of 17. There was an audience of over 12 million and almost 17.5 million viewers.

So as you can see these shows are close, but American Idol still comes out on top. I think that since most of the viewers of American Idol are between the ages of 18 and 49, the only thing that could change the ratings would be if they moved the time earlier, like at 7 PM. People in this age bracket are either college students, parents, or work a full time job so it would be more difficult for them to catch the show at a different time. I think this is exactly what Fox was thinking when scheduling the show. I know that since the show is at 8 and 9 PM it gives me time to finish up my day and get everything done so that I can just relax and watch the show.

Postman From Beginning to End

Neil Postman begins Amusing Ourselves to Death with a comparison of the visions presented by George Orwell in his book, 1984. Orwell warns that we will be defeated by an outwardly imposed oppression. Orwell feared those who would ban books and would deprive us of information, and that the truth would be concealed from us. He feared we would become a caged culture. Overall, he feared that what we hate will ruin us. Postman fears what we love will ruin us.

Postman attempts to show “that a great media-metaphor shift has taken place in America, with the result that the content of much of our public discourse has become dangerous nonsense. The form in which ideas are expressed affects what those ideas will be.” (p. 31) “The written word endures, the spoken word disappears; and that is why writing is closer to the truth than speaking.” (p. 21)

He is referring to the period of time during which the American mind was “submitted to the sovereignty of the printing press” as the Age of Exposition. Almost all of the characteristics we associate with mature dialogue were amplified by typography. “Toward the end of the nineteenth century, for reasons I am most anxious to explain, the Age of Exposition began to pass, and the early signs of its replacement could be discerned. Its replacement was to be the Age of Show Business.” (p. 63) He then goes on to talk about photography and the telegraph and how they have provided an illusion of context for the unknown names and places.

The second part of his book shows that television’s way of knowing is uncompromisingly hostile to typography’s way of knowing. Television, in other words, is transforming our culture into one vast arena for show business. It is possible, that in the end we shall find that delightful, and decide we like it just fine. (p. 80)

Television has truly become both the media and the metaphor of American culture. On average, Americans watch about 4 hours a day of television.

As many researchers are discovering, television viewing, not only uses limited brain function, but actually might be the cause of dangerous impairment. Postman’s book was written before the explosion of the internet. If we take the television or internet away from kids they may discover the world of books.

A New Way of News!

According to our Mass Communications text, Media Literacy by W. James Potter, "News is not a reflection of actual events; it is a construction by news workers who are subjected to many influences and constraints." Everyday journalists have to make a decision on what should be reported. After that is selected they have to decide what the main focus should be. In some of the bigger news markets, journalists do not have enough time to explain in full detail what the story is all about; so what we actually see in the news is bits and pieces of news stories. In today’s society this problem is being solved by what is known as "CyberJournalists."
The idea of a CyberJournalist is that regular citizens of towns and cities are able to act like journalists on what’s going on in their area, and then they are published through these websites. CyberJournalist.net is a news and resource site that focuses on how the Internet, convergence and new technologies are changing the media. You can also find tips, news and commentary about online journalism, citizen’s media, digital storytelling, converged news operations and using the Internet as a reporting tool.
A citizen journalism site that I found was called Northwest Voice. The focus of this citizen journalism site is for it to be a new community newspaper and website-serving residents of Northwest Bakersfield California.
The Northwest Voice is a free newspaper that is being home-delivered to 21,700 Northwest homes every other Thursday. Their website is updated daily and includes even more news and pictures. The Northwest Voice is all about news that the citizens of their town can relate to because it’s local and told from their perspective. Readers, community organizations, churches and schools submit most of the information and pictures used. One thing that I found that was different on this site than many other news sites, is that it offers a section called "Meet Your Neighbors" which is a section dedicated to getting to know recent visitors to the Northwest Voice. You can create a profile that let’s visitors know a little bit about you and what you enjoy about the community.
This site only contains information about Bakersfield, California, which is different than some of the other news sites out there where it’s worldwide news, or even just state news. There are several resource limitations. The community does all of the reporting, and an editor writes a few articles with information about land development, home sale prices and other issues of interest to the community. Since most is written by the community though, that means there is a limited amount of high-tech footage being used. Most of the people in the community do not have access to the high tech equipment or news crews that is usually used by professionals. The site contains some news-framing influences because most people interested in this site are citizens of Bakersfield, California. Some articles are used to inform, whereas some advertise certain events that are going on that they think people will be interested in. It’s a great way to learn about area businesses, and keeps you in the loop of the latest local services, restaurants, and shops.
I enjoyed so much on this site. One thing that really made this site stand out is that the people posting have similar news perspectives because they are all reporting on what is going on in Bakersfield. This site was really easy to read, so that means that anybody of any age can read the stories posted and understand what’s going on in the area. One thing I found surprising was that there wasn’t a lot of bias. The posts include both positive and negative things about the town. For not having a lot of publishing background, I was happy to see that most of the articles were diverse and not all about the same topic. You can also find information on the site about celebrations, contests and cooking recipes.
I think the idea of having a CyberJournalist site for many different towns and areas, is going to be something that keeps growing in the future. I know I have something like this in my community and it’s a big hit. I look at the site atleast once a day, and get e-mails about breaking news.

Survivor: Fans vs Favorites

When Alexis from Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites said, "I think the fans versus favorites setup is the ultimate challenge because we have the favorites who have obviously played the game before, coming in here with experience. But at the same time you have us (the fans) and we know their game. We know not only their strengths but weaknesses too. So I think that puts us at a huge advantage."
I think what she said really relates to what we call "traps" in the media. It particularly relates to Trap 2: False Feeling of Being informed, because the problem is with the variety and type of information stated. She thinks because she saw how the favorites played the game before that the fans who watched them now know their strategies and are at an advantage, but what I think she doesn't realize is the power the media has to make the show look as "real" or "fake" as they want. I think Alexis is satisfied with her strategy which is based on what could or could not actually be true, and just because these players used a certain strategy in a previous episode does not mean that these Survivor Favorites will use the same strategy again.
If she believes that the fans are going to win just because they have watched the favorites previously can either go one of two ways...a fan will win and she will be right, or a favorite will win and she will prove to have fallen into trap 2. I guess we will just have to tune in and find out!

Experience & the Max Headroom Episode

As long as you have had good exposure instead of negative exposure to the media, most people will likely believe what they saw on TV. Most students in our class could relate to the episode of the Max Headroom series entitled "War" because of what is going on in our country today. Today, we watch the news and read magazines and newspapers to follow along with what is going on over in Iraq. Unless we are over there we are forced to believe that what we see and read is what is really going on over there.

In this episode, their society believed that a terrorist group had bombed an area and wiped it out. Instead, it was all a set up so that the news' ratings would sky rocket. This attack was fake and was a money scheme. The episode even stated that "Ratings are everything...if they don't buy this package someone else will. "

Society can't believe that everything they see or read is true. Most of us believe though, that since we've had only good experiences with the media then this time shouldn't be any different.