MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY
LESSON 1:
✷ Media Literacy is a 21st century approach to
education and set of skills that anyone can learn. It is
the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create
media messages of all kinds.
➔ In schools
➔ In the community
➔ In public life
✷ Information Literacy is a transformational process
in which the learner needs to find, understand, evaluate,
and use information in various forms to create for
personal, social or global purposes. It is a skill needed to
find, retrieve, analyze and use information. The
beginning of the 21st century has been called the
Information Age because of the explosion of information
output and information sources.
✷ Technology Literacy is the ability of an individual,
working independently and with others, to responsibly,
appropriately, and effectively use technology tools to
access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create, and
communicate information.
➤ Basic Concepts
1. Media construct our culture.
2. Media messages affect our thoughts, attitudes, and
actions.
3. Media use “the language of persuasion”.
4. Media messages contain “texts” and subtexts”.
5. No one tells the whole story.
6. Media construct fantasy worlds.
7. Media messages reflect the values and viewpoints
of media makers.
8. Individuals construct their own meaning from
media.
9. Media literate youth and adults are active
consumers of media.
10. Media messages can be decoded.
✷ Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights - Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to
hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive
and impart information and ideas through any media
and regardless of frontiers (United Nations, 1948).
LESSON 2:
➤ Evolution of Traditional to New Media
✷ Pre-Industrial Age (Before 1700s) - People
discovered fire, developed paper from plants, and forged
weapons and tools with stone, bronze, copper and iron.
• Cave paintings (35,000 BC) - considered to
have a symbolic or religious function, sometimes
both.
• Clay tablets in Mesopotamia (2400 BC) -
Being used by scribes to record events happening
during their time.
• Papyrus in Egypt (2500 BC) - Used for hymns,
religious texts, spiritual admonitions, letters,
official documents, proclamations, love poems,
medical texts, scientific or technical manuals,
record-keeping, magical treatises, and literature.
• Acta Diurna in Rome (130 BC) publicare et
propagare
• Printing press using wood blocks (220 AD) -
Woodblock printing (or block printing) is a
technique for printing text, images or patterns
used widely throughout East Asia and originating
in China.
• Dibao in China (2nd Century) - a publication
issued for regulation and circulation of
government's official reports and announcements
to masses.
• Codex in the Mayan region (5th Century) -
Maya codices (codex) are folding books written by
the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in Maya
hieroglyphic script on Mesoamerican bark paper.
✷ Industrial Age (1700-1930) - People used the
power of steam, developed machine tools, established
iron production, and the manufacturing of various
products (including books through the printing press).
• Printing press for mass production (19th
century) - Device for applying pressure to an
inked surface resting upon a print medium (such
as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink.
Typically used for texts, the invention and spread
of the printing press.
• Newspaper - The London Gazette (1640) -
One of the official journals of record of the British
government, and the most important among such
official journals in the United Kingdom, in which
certain statutory notices are required to be
published.
• Typewriter (1800) - Mechanical or
electromechanical machine for writing characters
like those produced by printer’s movable type. A
typewriter operates by means of keys that strike a
ribbon to transmit ink or carbon impressions onto
paper.
 • Telephone (1876) - Device that allowed multiple
messages to be transmitted over a wire at the
same time.
• Motion picture photography/projection
(1890) - One of the oldest modern imaging
technologies that remains current today. Motion
picture theory is simple and clear-cut
• Commercial motion pictures (1913) -
1913 was a particularly fruitful year for film as an
art form and is often cited one of the years in the
decade which contributed to the medium the
most, along with 1917.
• Motion picture with sound (1926) - Motion
picture with synchronized sound, or sound
technologically coupled to image, as opposed to
a silent film. The first known public exhibition of
projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900,
but decades passed before sound motion pictures
were made commercially practical.
• Telegraph - têle “at a distance” and gráphein, “to
write” is the long-distance transmission of textual
or symbolic (as opposed to verbal or audio)
messages without the physical exchange of an
object bearing the message.
• Punch cards - Piece of stiff paper that can be
used to contain digital information represented by
the presence or absence of holes in predefined
positions. The information might be data for data
processing applications or, in earlier examples,
used to directly control automated machinery.
✷ Electronic Age (1930-1980) - The invention of the
transistor ushered in the electronic age. In this age, long
distance communication has become more efficient.
• Transistor Radio - With the transistor radio,
music and information suddenly became portable.
• Television (1941) - From its lowly start at an
RCA research lab, to becoming the throne of the
living room, it has changed dramatically, but it
remained true to its original utility, delivering
images to a screen.
• Large electronic computers (1945) - It was
Turing-complete and able to solve "a large class of
numerical problems" through reprogramming.
• Mainframe computers (1960) - Mainframe or
big iron, used primarily by large organizations for
critical applications like bulk data processing for
tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer
statistics, enterprise resource planning, and large-
scale transaction processing.
• Desktop Calculator (1968) (Hewlett
Packard) - A programmable calculator, designed
for scientists and engineers, who require complex
calculations, which is probably the first device in
the world, called “personal computer”.
• Apple 1 (1976) (Steve Wozniak) - Desktop
computer released by the Apple Computer
Company.
• Overhead projectors - Sheets or rolls of
transparent film are placed on top of the lens for
display. The light from the lamp travels though the
transparency and into the mirror where it is
reflected onto a viewing screen. The mirror allows
an audience to see the image.
• LCD (liquid display) projectors- LCD projectors
use liquid crystal panels plus the latest computer
and optical technology to project both still and
moving images in vivid color. Many projectors also
have built-in audio speakers, making them all-in-
one audiovisual presentation units.
✷ Information Age (1900s-2000s) - The Internet
paved the way for faster communication and the
creation of the social network. People advanced the use
of microelectronics with the invention of personal
computers, mobile devices, and wearable technology.
➤ Web browsers
• Mosaic (1993) - Used “point-and-click” graphical
manipulations and was the first browser to display
both text and images on a single page.
• Internet Explorer (1995) - First introduced on
August 16, 1995, by Microsoft as version 1.0 and it
came with Microsoft Windows 95.
➤ Blogs
• Blogspot (1999) - BlogSpot is a free domain
service provider.
• LiveJournal (1999) - Created in 1999 by Brad
Fitzpatrick. LiveJournal consists of a journal for
each user, which can be created using various
privacy levels.
• WordPress (2003) - Content management
system (CMS) that allows you to host and build
websites. WordPress contains plugin architecture
and a template system, so you can customize any
website to fit your business, blog, portfolio, or
online store.
➤ Social networks
• Friendster (2002) - Designed as a place to
connect with friends, family, colleagues, and new
friends over the Internet.
• Multiply (2003) - A user's network was made up
of their direct contacts, as well as others who are
closely connected to them through their first-
degree relationships.
• Facebook (2004) - Built in order to connect
Harvard students with one another. Today,
Facebook is one of the most valuable companies in
the world, with over 2 billion monthly active users.
➤ Microblogs
• Twitter (2006) - Social media site, and its
primary purpose is to connect people and allow
people to share their thoughts with a big audience.
 • Tumblr (2007) - Blogging and social media LESSON 3:
tool that allows users to publish a "tumblelog", or
short blog posts. ➤ Types of Media
➤ Video • Radio
• Newspaper
• YouTube (2005) - Originally created as a • Large Circulation Magazines
platform for anyone to post any video content they • Television
desired. It was hoped that users could use the site • Billboards
to upload, share, and view content without • Internet
restriction. It has since grown to become one of
the foremost video distribution sites in the world. ✷ Print - media consisting of paper and ink,
reproduced in a printing process that is traditionally
➤ Video chat
mechanical.
• Skype (2003) - Connecting with the people that
matter most in your life and work. Skype ✷ Broadcast - media such as radio and television that
messaging and HD voice and video calling will help reach target audiences using airwaves as the
you share experiences and get things done with transmission medium.
others.
• Google Hangouts (2013) - Makes it easy to ✷ New Media (Internet) - content organized and
connect with people via talk, text, or video, and
distributed on digital platforms.
the app allows you to create groups that can be
connected again and again. It also stores your ➤ Advantages of Mass Media
past chats so you can pick up the text
conversation any time and can refer back to past • Reaches many people quickly.
messages as convenient. • Low cost per person.

➤ Search Engines ➤ Can be used to..

• Yahoo (1995) - Internet portal that incorporates • Tell people about new ideas and services.
a search engine and a directory of World Wide • Agenda-setting and advocacy.
Web sites organized in a hierarchy of topic
➤ Types of Media Opportunities
categories.
• Google (1996) - Google's mission is to organize • News and Features
the world's information and make it universally • Documentaries
accessible and useful. That's why Search makes it • Magazine Programmes
easy to discover a broad range of information from • Drama
a wide variety of sources. • Quizzes
• Jingles
❖ Smart phones - Portable device that • Announcements
combines mobile telephone and computing functions • Chat Shows
into one unit. • Advertising
❖ Wearable technology - Also known as ➤ Classification of Media
"wearables," is a category of electronic devices that
1. Print Media - Print media. They include books,
can be worn as accessories, embedded in clothing,
journals, magazines, newspapers, workbook,
implanted in the user's body, or even tattooed on the textbooks.
skin. 2. Non-Print Media
➤ Portable computers • Projected media: they require light source for
projection.
• Laptops (1980) - Build small, portable personal • Non-projected media: they do not require light
computers that combine the components, inputs, source. They include 3 dimensional objects, charts,
outputs and capabilities of a desktop computer in models etc.
a small chassis. 3. Electronic Media
• Tablets (1993) - Apple Computer released • Audio media: this form of media carry sounds
the Apple Newton alone.
• Netbooks (2008) - Relatively new category of • Visual media: These are the ones that can be
notebook computer noted for being smaller, less seen.
expensive and generally more energy efficient. • Audio-Visual: this term refers to those
instructional materials which provide students with
 audio and visual experiences by appearing to the
hearing and seeing senses at the same time.
4. Hardware and Software
• Hardware: this the classification of machines or
equipment used in the instructional process. It is
upon these gadgets that the software is
transmitted.
• Software: this classification consists of all
materials used with the machine. They are the real
carrier of knowledge or information.
LESSON 4:
➤ Media and Information Languages
✷ Media Text – any media product we wish to
examine, whether it is banner article in a broadsheet, a
television program, a poster, a music video, a
documentary, etc.
➤ The features of media texts are elaborated in 3
features:
1. Media texts have a physical form.
2. Media texts have economic value.
3. Media texts are a site for creation and production
of meaning.
✷ Language - pertains to the technical and symbolic
ingredients or codes and conventions that media and
information professionals may select and use in an effort
to communicate ideas, information and knowledge.
• Media Languages - codes, conventions, formats,
symbols and narrative structures that indicate the
meaning of media messages to an audience.
✷ Codes - systems of signs, put together (usually in a
sequence) to create meaning.
➤ Types of Codes
• Technical Codes - Camera techniques, framing,
depth of field, lighting, exposure and juxtaposition
• Symbolic Codes - Objects, setting, color,
clothing, body language, actions of characters, or
iconic symbols that are easily understood.
• Written Codes - Headlines, captions, speech
bubbles, language style
✷ Conventions - habits or long accepted ways of
doing things through repeated experiences, audiences
become familiar with these.
➤ Media Conventions
Story Conventions
• Cause and Effect
• Point of View
• The Structuring of time
Genre Conventions
• Generic Structures
• Character and Story Arcs
• Story Principles
Form Conventions
• Form and Structure
• Elements of Page Layout
• Paper Stock for Print
• Titles and Credits Sequences
• Hyperlinking, Mounting and Framing of Images
✷ Messages - the information sent from a source to a
receiver.
• Explicit messages - expressed or shown clearly
and openly, without any attempt to hide anything.
• Implicit messages - a message that uses visuals
rather than literally saying or explicitly saying what
they mean.
✷ Producers - People engaged in the process of
creating and putting together media content to make a
finished media product.
✷ Audience - the group of consumers for whom a
media message was constructed as well as anyone else
who is exposed to the message.
✷ Other stakeholders - Libraries, archives, museums,
internet and other relevant information providers.
The Languages of TV and Film
• Camera
• Lights
• Sound
• Editing
• Setting
• Costume
• Actor expressions
LESSON 5:
➤ Media and Information Services
• Magazines - is a collection of articles and images
about diverse topics of popular interest and
current events.
• Academic Journal - is a collection of articles
usually written by scholars in an academic or
professional field. An editorial board reviews
articles to decide whether they should be
accepted.
• Database - contains citations in magazines,
journals and newspapers. They may also contain
citations to podcast, blogs, videos, and other
media types.
• Newspapers - is a collection of articles about
current events usually published daily, since there
is at least one in every city, it is a great source for
local information.
• Library Catalog - is an organized and searchable
collection of records of every item in a library and
can be found on the library homepage. The
catalog will point you to the location of a particular
source, or group of sources, that the library owns
on your topic.
• Books - cover virtually any topic, fact or fiction.
For research purposes, you will probably be
looking for books that synthesize all the
information on one topic to support a particular
argument or thesis.
• Encyclopedia - are collections of short, factual
entries often written by different contributors who
are knowledgeable about the topic.
• Website - allows you to access most types of
information on the Internet through a browser.
One of the main features of the web is the ability
to quickly link to other related information.