The world is full of messages. Some we choose to listen to, others we ignore. But how is it that with a daily saturation, we become less and less likely to pay attention to most messages, and react on certain others? This is where Media Literacy plays an important role in our day to day decision making process. According to Potter (2005) message saturation has evolved into a problem of access to one of protection. My presentation is a short briefing of the effects of mass media on our personal and social interests.
Media Reform
Journalist Bill Moyers, in his address to the National Conference on Media Reform, suggested that society needs to change the means of mass communication to "a media system that serves as effectively as it sells - one that holds all the institutions of society, itself included, accountable."
Neil Postman, makes note of the effects of television in his book "Amusing Ourselves to Death". Postman (1985) argues that our use of other media is greatly influenced by television (p.78). Television he claims, "arranges our communications environment for us in ways that no other medium has the power to do" (p.78).
To extend extend Postman's argument, we saw in the video Dreamworld's 3, the direct advertising of sex, violence, money, greed, male dominance, female subservience, and more. We were also exposed to how advertising of brand products seemingly sells us a different you in the Dove Self-Esteem videos. How media sends "double speak" messages is clearly evident in the Dove "Onslaught" video in which the advertiser's message starts with a young girl looking innocently at the camera, then proceeds to stream you through advertising commercials that seem to exploit sexy, skinny beauty by showing a collage of the effects of dieting, sexy clothes, and body make-overs, and in the end, asks you to "talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does".
Media Literacy
Clearly there is a need for media literacy within our current social system. Potter (2005) suggests that we end up in a "mindless acceptance" from exposure to the many media messages that infiltrate our lives. Additionally, we do not spend the time nor the effort to pay attention to these messages as we should. Thus, we do not invest any effort into analyzing or evaluating these messages for better information to "construct more accurate interpretations" of what information matches our personal or social interests (Potter, p.13).
Postman, in his book "Technopoly", suggests that technopoly is a totalitarian technocracy (p.48). In other words, the technical experts have redefined the meaning of religion, art, family, politics, history, truth, privacy, and intelligence by the new requirements established by technology and its birth of mass media. He also suggests that technology has provided our society with convenience, comfort, speed, hygiene, and abundance so obvious and promising, that we need look no further for other sources of fulfillment, creativity, or purpose (p.54).
Marshall McLuhan (2001), in his book "The Medium is the Massage" backs this up by stating that electronic technology is "reshaping and restructuring" our patterns of social interdependence, and every aspect of our personal lives. He goes on by stating that technology "is forcing us to reconsider and re-evaluate practically every thought, every action, and every institution formerly taken for granted" (p.8).
Conclusion
As Moyer suggests, we need a media system that serves effectively to a social democracy rather than sell for the purpose of capitalistic greed. The media cannot, nor should not, have a monopoly over our society. We should not allow this. What media literacy does for our personal and social interests is to grant us more control over the decisions we make regarding those interests. The best way to embrace media literacy is to understand the effects of mass media, and to take control over what information is the most meaningful to us to help us make the right decisions!
References
McLuhan, M. (2001). The Medium is the Massage. Corte Madera: Gingko
Postman, N. (2005). Amusing Ourselves to Death. New York: Penguin
Postman, N. (1992). Technopoly. New York: Vintage
Potter, J. (2005). Media Literacy. Thousand Oaks: Sage
