Media Literacy is defined as the ability to analyze and understand what we see in the news everyday. Media literacy is super important in today’s society. It is clear in examples like the case of Michael Brown that media perspectives warps everything we see today. One example that stands out to me was the activity we did in Contemporary Social Themes examining different perspectives in articles about the Murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson. Most of them seemed to take the side of Michael Brown. After the activity we watched a New York times piece about Police Perspectives on race relations in America. This activity forced us to see the positions of both sides, something you see less and less in today’s media landscape. This activity opened
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It’s totally clear that this is the case today with so many media sources that bias either to the right or to the left of the political spectrum. When a democracy doesn't have a baseline set of facts that everyone agrees with you simply cannot have a real functioning, well run democratic nation. It is why it is more important than ever that we sift through the media, to see what the true facts are. In this world where people like President Trump like to throw around the term “Fake News”, almost no one can be sure of what to listen to. Fake news is mostly news shared through social media, however some label reputable news sources such as CNN and the New York Times as fake, even when it really isn’t. I think the biggest reason the “fake” news is spreading is obviously Social Media and the 24 hours news cycle. Journalists used to have to adhere to much stricter guidelines compared to a news source that is exclusively social media. In the article How Journalists Minimize Bias A Journalist from the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch stated “People are biased; the process is not. You know, we go out, we talk to multiple people, we look at a story from multiple different angles. We fact check, I have editors who scrutinize my work.
It’s totally clear that this is the case today with so many media sources that bias either to the right or to the left of the political spectrum. When a democracy doesn't have a baseline set of facts that everyone agrees with you simply cannot have a real functioning, well run democratic nation. It is why it is more important than ever that we sift through the media, to see what the true facts are. In this world where people like President Trump like to throw around the term “Fake News”, almost no one can be sure of what to listen to. Fake news is mostly news shared through social media, however some label reputable news sources such as CNN and the New York Times as fake, even when it really isn’t. I think the biggest reason the “fake” news is spreading is obviously Social Media and the 24 hours news cycle. Journalists used to have to adhere to much stricter guidelines compared to a news source that is exclusively social media. In the article How Journalists Minimize Bias A Journalist from the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch stated “People are biased; the process is not. You know, we go out, we talk to multiple people, we look at a story from multiple different angles. We fact check, I have editors who scrutinize my work.