The Qualities Of Media Literacy
By: Jeffrey Candelo
Entry #1
What is media? That’s a good question . In my opinion the media is the main source for people to get news about things happening globally, nationally, or even locally. Media is the main means of mass communication throughout the world. Whenever you hear about global warming, politicians, or even celebrity drama those news reporters, news anchors, or paparazzi’s are considered as media. Even snap chat or Instagram is considered as media. Why? Mainly because they report about what’s happening around the world. Usually media is seen through the newspaper, magazines, radio, television, and internet.
What is Media Literate? Is basically on how well you understand the new trends or new meanings. For example if someone who was born in the 90s heard YOLO they probably wouldn’t understand it; but if you watch the media you would know that YOLO means “You Only Live Once” which was said from the rapper Drake in one of his Songs Called “The Motto.” Teenagers and Young adults usually tend to be more media literate than older people.
Another Example of Media Literacy is knowing the news. Not everything you see on the news deal with celebrity drama; or who is dropping the hottest mix tape in 2016. Being Media literate involves the news. How well do you know what’s going around your country? If you understand what Trump is saying, and what Clinton or Sanders are saying means your media literate. You have a sense on what’s going on.
Therefore you can have a basic decision on who’s taking your vote this year.
News Anchor
This image is an example of my type of media. News Anchors provide us with the information we need. They Inform us on whats happening around the world.
Word it Out
These words are a summary of what the media covers and how they cover it. For example most of the teenagers in high school get news through social apps, like snap chat or Instagram. Other people can get it on newspapers, magazines, radio, or even the internet.
Papparazzi
These people may seem like annoying bugs to others; but to us there our most reliable source. Paparazzi are at the tip of the nose when it comes to the latest drama or trend. They give us information straight from the source
Entry #2
In today’s youth social media plays a huge role it’s the new Fab of today’s generation. Back when I was in middle school Facebook was like today’s Instagram and Snap chat. Mainly because it gave you a since of popularity, because everyone was doing it. It’s sort of like “keeping up with the Joneses”. Everything you do revolves around social media for example. Snap chat is a social media app were you can send pictures to people, and they can see them for 3 to 10 seconds depending on how they set it. You can also view how someone day was just by looking at their story. Teenagers find that as the “New Cool” thing to do and now that Social media constantly have updates it never ends. You can also post funny videos for entertainment, and another main reason why people use Social media is to get famous or recognized. For example Vine are snippets of videos that amuse people and half the people are ‘’Vine famous” off that. People enjoy seeing new things on the internet.
I tried to take the challenge but to be completely honest I forgot half way throughout the day. I checked my Snap chat and Instagram. It’s almost like an involuntary habit like blinking or like biting your nails; you don’t realize you did it until you do it. Since I’ve been exposed to social media basically my whole life social media is already a part of my life so it was hard not to check it.
The challenge was very important because I was trying to prove my mother wrong; cause she always tells me how today’s youth is glued on to their phone. I told her she was wrong but however I proved myself wrong. Every generation had their own “addiction” it might have been going to parties and breaking the rules for people back in the 80s or 90s; but for us its being dependent on our technology and our social media.
Entry #3
The gender advertising activity was truly eye opening to me because it made me see the “true” hidden implements of the commercial or brand. In many of the commercials it showed how women and men roles are portrayed in different ways. For example the male role was usually played by a man with dominate traits (shiny hair, muscular, tall etc.) While the women were portrayed as (vulnerable, soft, weak etc.) As I continued to watch the commercials I saw a repeating pattern on how the women are played as scared or discouraged. In one commercial with the young lady on the boat surrounded by men showed how helpless she was. The commercial in my opinion was very “ugly “for doing that.
After learning about this it made me more aware of how commercials use gender to implement dominance. We as a society are so used to seeing the male role as dominance that we don’t say anything; but it shouldn’t be like that. Whether if it’s a female in the dominate role we should learn to respect that we are all equal. I’m glad that I took part of this activity because not only did I learn interesting things. I can finally see the true meaning of a commercial and tell whether the female role or the male role is being demeaned or not.
In conclusion we have to remember that no matter what race or gender your are we are all equal.
Entry #4
"African-Americans are more likely to be arrested by police and sentenced to longer prison terms for doing the same thing that whites do." ( Clinton)
Analysis: What Hillary Clinton is trying to express in this commercial ad which aired in South Carolina is that black people get swindled and denounced in the justice system, and she is absolutely right. In my words I think that the ad was trying to educate the American people on how black people get worse sentences and punishments on the same crimes that white people do. In this country there is a sense of injustice and systemic racism. I personally feel that the black community gets down played when it comes to the "Fair Court grounds." we protect the white and wealthy but we ignore the black and poor. In this source she is explaining on how america has socially degraded black people by treating them with disrespect by waving chargers on the wrongful doing of cops .
I double check facts often to make sure I'm telling people the right fact. If I go around telling people wrong facts; not only am i misinforming everyone else, it looks ignorant. It shows that I lack true knowledge. I accept the truth as anything that can be backed up with proof or evidence.
Entry #5
What makes a revolution so powerful is hatred toward the ruling majority rule or the government has messed up the country so bad that the only way to change is to rebel against their own government. For example in the “Jewish Uprisings in Ghettos and Camps, 1941–1944” the Jewish people were in camps and were trying to smuggle guns they were trying to escape and rally up there fellow brothers and fight back against the Germans.
What made them inspired to do this act was the condition on how they were living they were In overflowed working camps were conditions were horrible people just died of starvation, diseases, or soldiers just killing them. They imagined that they rather try dying for their own freedom than dying in a camp. They also thought it wasn’t fair because it was there country to and the Germans didn’t have the right to put them in camps and slaughter them
The techniques they used were simple. First they started by spreading the word that they needed people to fight against the governing authority. Secondly they also got people by recruiting fellow members that wanted freedom too. Thirdly they started implying hope into their hearts for a better future for them and their children.
In conclusion people well fight for their freedom even though it was considered unsuccessful they fought for what they believed in and died for it to.
Entry #6
TE: "Who controls the past," ran the Party slogan, "controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."
TE: Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple.
Book 1 Chapter 3
Entry #7
Looking back to my very first entry in January. I thought that media literacy was just all about seeing the news and watching the information there. I completely change my mind on what media literacy is; not only is it understanding the materials shown but applying it to every day life. For example the entry we did about not using our social apps wasn’t a test, but a result. On how bad society or at least this generation depends on technology.
The things I can take out of this class are the lessons. It made me more open minded and more aware I had no idea how gender played a huge role in commercials. I never really looked at commercials differently until now. Not only did this class provide me knowledge it made me more responsible by having a teacher that showed great concern for her students. I really appreciate the way Mrs. Lowe taught us and I will miss her. {:’(
This class has taught me a lot about media through various activities. This class is different than other language arts classes I’ve taken throughout my high school year. Mainly because this is the only class were we discuss issues dealing with social media. For example we talked about how gender is displayed in commercials we tied that conversation with things dealing with Instagram and Facebook this class really fits the teenage demographic.
The things I could have done differently is turning my work in on time because that killed me in the beginning of the semester. I kept putting things behind and it just kept piling up and that made things very stressful or at least harder than they were supposed to be. Skipping class also made it harder. My advice to anybody in this class don’t skip or you might slip.
Entry # 8
In the video “Can We Auto-Correct Humanity” Prince Ea.’s delivers a well thought spoken message. He showed us that we have an “unhealthy” relationship with our technology. It’s really ironic to me how the machine we use to connect to people is actually separating us from them. The things we can do to change that is take time away from, your phone even though it sounds like a challenge it’s not. It will benefit in your favor if you disconnect from your phone. You can start going outside or communicate with people face to face instead of face time.
People say that this generation is addicted to their phones and that is a sad truth. It’s not really a bad addiction but an annoying one. I’m pretty sure people can go days without their phones; but since we’ve been exposed to phones basically our whole entire lives it’s hard to let go of it. Us being on our phones and apps for too long is sort of like a bad habit like nail biting. I think we’re are going to go to a point in our lives and realize that we don’t really need our phones that much. The plain fact is us as teenagers are on our phones all the time because that’s all we got to do for our free time. Back in the day people couldn’t Skype or Imessage each other they had to physically contact each other.
The ways we can harness the good power of social media is to inform us. The majority of the youth are all on Instagram, Snap-chat, and Twitter. We can use those apps to see what is happening around the world instead of seeing what Becky got for her birthday; we can see how the US is trying to defeat ISIS. Social media shouldn’t be there just to make us ignorant but to educate us.