Literacy is the ability to read and comprehend. This is a well known concept. We talk about it in class, online, in the newsroom, in politics, and in education. But what is media literacy?
Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media.
Today it’s easy for people to be media literate… or at least partially media literate. The ability to access media has become extremely easy. Anyone that has a smart phone has access to media. Anyone that has a tv can watch the news (even if it’s just local news), and anyone that has a car with a working radio can listen to talk shows or popular music. This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg.
http://sunnibrown.com/2010/12/the-washington-post-spreading-the-doodle-revolution
Analyzing, evaluating, and creating media is still easy to do today if you have the right skills and equipment. Newspapers have made children friendly papers that introduces students to media and journalism so that they may begin to analyze and evaluate news.
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/03/practical-tips-top-wordpress-pros/
Creating media is just as easy as obtaining it. If you have a smart phone you can create media. Instagram is a form media; you create photos and share them with followers. Facebook posts are a type of media as well. Also, if you have a compute and access to internet you can definitely create media. You can create a blog to discuss whatever topics fit your fancy. For example, I have a blog that I use as a creative outlet (because most of my writing is formal history papers). Blogs are very common and very easy to create, which allows a large population to create media.
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