Media Literacy

Valmora Gogo, University College Bedër, Albania
valmoragogo@gmail.com

Media literacy is a set of perspectives that we actively use when we expose ourselves to the mass media to process and interpret the meaning of the messages we encounter. As Potter stated, to build our knowledge structures we need tools (our skills) and raw material (information from the media and from the real world). Media literacy is a multidimensional concept with development taking place cognitively, emotionally, aesthetically, and morally; and is a continuum, not a category, similar to a thermometer—where there are degrees.

Today studies are being conducted on the influence conspiracy theories have and what post-Truth is. In this case McIntyre points out that ‘post-Truth’ is about a form of ideological supremacy where practitioners try to force someone to believe in something whether or not there is evidence for it.

The founding fathers of Media Literacy concept are Marshall McLuhan and Stuart Hall. McLuhan’s work is clear on the point that the first most vital step of all is understanding media and its revolutionary effects because we gain a measure of control over them.

Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory describes how a media text has different meaning to different audiences. Hall talks about encoding and decoding and the importance of the social and cultural context behind the discourse.

Keywords: media literacy, media effects, encoding, and decoding

References:
Hall, S. (1973). Encoding and decoding in the television discourse. Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies.
McIntyre, L. (2018). Post-truth. MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11483.001.0001
McLuhan, M. (1966). Understanding media: The extensions of man. Signet Books.
Potter, W. J. (2021). Media literacy (10th ed.). SAGE.