A Few Words about "Media Literacy"

Media literacy is the ability to understand how mass media work, how they produce meanings, how they are organized, and how to
use them wisely. The media literate person can describe the role media play in his or her life. The media literate person understands
the basic conventions of various media, and enjoys their use in a deliberately conscious way. The media literate person understands the
impact of music and special effects in heightening the drama of a television program or film...this recognition does not lessen the
enjoyment of the action, but prevents the viewer from being unduly credulous or becoming unnecessarily frightened. The media
literate person is in control of his or her media experiences.
The following definition of media literacy came out of the Trent Think Tank, a 1989 symposium for media educators from around the
world sponsored by the Canadian Association for Media Literacy:
"The goal of the media literacy curriculum must be to develop a literate person who is able to read, analyze, evaluate, and produce
communications in a variety of media ( print, TV, computers, the arts, etc.)."
Most often, "the media" are lumped together as a single entity. But "the media" are actually many forms of communication...including
newspapers, magazines, and billboards, radio, television, videocassettes, video games, and computer games. Since the students
participating in VidKids are primarily engaged in television viewing (most of them are too young to read newspapers and magazines),
our activities focus on video and TV.
Information and Media Literacy (IML) enables people to interpret and make informed judgments as users of information and
media, as well as to become skillful creators and producers of information and media messages in their own right. [1]
Prior to the 1990s, the primary focus of Information Literacy has been research skills.[2] Media Literacy, a study that emerges around
the 1970s traditionally focuses on the analysis and the delivery of information through various forms of media. [3] Nowadays, the study
of Information Literacy has been extended to include the study of Media Literacy in many countries like UK, [4]Australia and New
Zealand.[5] The term Information and Media Literacy is used by UNESCO[1] to differentiate the combined study from the existing
study of Information Literacy. It is also defined as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the United States.[6]
[7]
Educators, such as Gregory Ulmer, has also defined the field as electracy.
IML is a combination of information literacy and media literacy. The purpose of being information and media literate is to engage in a
digital society; one needs to be able to use, understand, inquire, create, communicate and think critically. It is important to have
capacity to effectively access, organize, analyze, evaluate, and create messages in a variety of forms. [8] The transformative nature of
IML includes creative works and creating new knowledge; to publish and collaborate responsibly requires ethical, cultural and social
understanding.
INFORMATION LITERACY
Information literacy is a crucial skill in the pursuit of knowledge. It involves recognizing when information is needed and being able
to efficiently locate, accurately evaluate, effectively use, and clearly communicate information in various formats. It refers to the
ability to navigate the rapidly growing information environment, which encompasses an increasing number of information suppliers as
well as the amount supplied, and includes bodies of professional literature, popular media, libraries, the Internet, and much more.
Increasingly, information is available in unfiltered formats, raising questions about its authenticity, validity, and reliability. This
abundance of information is of little help to those who have not learned how to use it effectively.