Media Literacy


Today I went back and looked at the week four reading task. This task was all about media literacy but mostly focused on how society deals with it and how it could improve. 

In this task, we were presented with three reading pieces, which I had trouble trying to comprehend. It took me reading the same paragraphs a few times to understand the message. however, despite this issue, I was able to collect some facts I found interesting.



Opinion: Digital Media companies found lacking with helping users understand the online environment.


This reading by Dr. Niamh Kirk, talked a lot about the misinformation given online. according to this essay that these companies (Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter) were all found to have had "significant weaknesses in terms of the structure and practice of the code".  


Irish users specifically were not properly protected online when it came to online misinformation. Dr. Niamh Kirk explained that other than sponsoring the development of the #bemediasmart and donating a 1 million grant to children charity Barnardos, (which is aimed to keep children online) they haven't made any other efforts of keeping people safe online. Microsoft also made very little effort when it came to this issue.


Because this has been an ongoing issue it makes me wonder what would it take for these companies to start taking this issue seriously? and are they allowing people to receive misleading information intentionally? 


Opinion: Misinformation about covid - 19


According to Rebecca Lennon a regulatory affairs adviser at Ofcom, they surveyed 2000 people 16 and over in the UK on the misleading information during quarantine.


this survey revealed that in the first four weeks almost all the online population (in the UK, Northern Ireland, Scottish, and Wales) received news about covid - 19 more than once a day, and nearly half of that information was false.


I think it is also interesting that they mentioned these points as it is something I had to deal with myself. When Covid started spreading around the world there was a lot of misleading information, the media was able to convince me that even if you used masks you were still unsafe. The more media I consumed the more paranoid I became. Like a lot of the population during the time of covid - 19, I had a very hard time knowing what to trust and what not to trust online with the information given, and recently there was/is that big issue regarding the fake bank emails and messages.


Journal Article: perceptions of bias and interception of news


Although I particularly found this essay hard to follow along, I did find it interesting that they mentioned "Bias" 


This essay by Melissa Tully, Emily K Vraga, and Anne - Bennett Smithson is based on a study made with a diverse group of adults 19+ living in the United States. In this part of the study, some of the participants admitted that their worldviews and viewpoints influenced their interpretation of news stories and that they are more likely to follow news that is similar to their beliefs. 


this reminds me a lot about the Cultivation theory. The cultivation theory believes that the more you view the media the more your mind becomes distorted and you only start seeing one point of view. E.g. if you don’t like Joe Biden you will only seek negative information and news about him and then you will start seeing it as a reality. So your not getting both perspectives. 


During my time reading these essays, led me to the question of are we consuming too much media? and do we need to limit the amount of media we take in? 

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