Media and Information Literacy (MIL) 4.MIL Media Literacy (Part 1)- D…

Taken from http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/what-media-literacy-definitionand-more
What is important to understand is that media literacy is not about "protecting" kids from unwanted messages. Although some groups urge families to just turn the TV off, the fact is, media are so ingrained in our cultural milieu that even if you turn off the set, you still cannot escape today's media culture. Media no longer just influence our culture. They ARE our culture.
Media literacy, therefore, is about helping students become competent, critical and literate in all media forms so that they control the interpretation of what they see or hear rather than letting the interpretation control them.
To become media literate is not to memorize facts or statistics about the media, but rather to learn to raise the right questions about what you are watching, reading or listening to. Len Masterman, the acclaimed author of Teaching the Media, calls it "critical autonomy" or the ability to think for oneself.
Without this fundamental ability, an individual cannot have full dignity as a human person or exercise citizenship in a democratic society where to be a citizen is to both understand and contribute to the debates of the time.

Source: http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/dl/free/0072827580/88223/bar27580_ch02.pdf
Media scholar Art Silverblatt (1995) identified five fundamental elements of media
literacy. To these we will add two more. Media literacy includes these characteristics:
1. An awareness of the impact of media. Writing and the printing press helped change the
world and the people in it. Mass media do the same. If we ignore the impact of media on
our lives, we run the risk of being caught up and carried along by that change rather than
controlling or leading it.
2. An understanding of the process of mass communication. If we know the components
of the mass communication process and how they relate to one another, we can form
expectations of how they can serve us. How do the various media industries operate? What
are their obligations to us? What are the obligations of the audience? How do different
media limit or enhance messages? Which forms of feedback are most effective, and why?
3. Strategies for analyzing and discussing media messages. To consume media messages
thoughtfully, we need a foundation on which to base thought and reflection. If we make
meaning, we must possess the tools with which to make it (for example, understanding the
intent and impact of film and video conventions like camera angles and lighting, or the
strategy behind the placement of photos on a newspaper page). Otherwise, meaning is
made for us; the interpretation of media content will then rest with its creator, not with us.
4. An understanding of media content as a text that provides insight into our culture and
our lives. How do we know a culture and its people, attitudes, values, concerns, and
myths? We know them through communication. For modern cultures like ours, media
messages increasingly dominate that communication, shaping our understanding of and
insight into our culture. Some groups feel so strongly about the potential of the media to
shape culture that they have attempted to take back some of that power themselves. See the
box “Media Literacy as the Struggle for Power” on page 54 for more information about
media literacy as a power issue.
5. The ability to enjoy, understand, and appreciate media content. Media literacy does not
mean living the life of a grump, liking nothing in the media, or always being suspicious of
harmful effects and cultural degradation. We take high school and college classes to
enhance our understanding and appreciation of novels; we can do the same for media texts.
Learning to enjoy, understand, and appreciate media content includes the ability to use multiple
points of access—to approach media content from a variety of directions and derive from it many levels
of meaning. Thus, we control meaning making for our own enjoyment or appreciation. For example, we
can enjoy the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie Minority Report as an exciting piece of cinematic science
fiction. But we can also understand it as a thrilling whodunit in the film noir tradition. Or we can access
it at the point of its cultural meaning. What, for example, does the operation of the precrime unit have to
say about the holding and detaining of “suspected’’ individuals, say, terrorists? How does the erasure of
the many minority reports reflect on the fairness of the judicial system, especially in capital cases? Just
how much freedom are we willing to give up to feel safe?
In fact, television programs such as Arli$$, Sex and the City, The Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle,
and Star Trek: The Next Generation are specifically constructed to take advantage of the media literacy
skills of sophisticated viewers while providing entertaining fare for less skilled consumers. The same is
true for such films as Pulp Fiction, Dogma, and Being John Malkovich, magazines such as Mondo
2000, and the best of jazz, rap, and rock. Arli$$ and Sex and the City are produced as television
comedies, designed to make people laugh. But they are also intentionally produced in a manner that
provides more sophisticated, media literate viewers with opportunities to make more personally interesting
or relevant meaning. Anyone can laugh while watching these programs, but some people can investigate
hypocrisy in professional sports (Arli$$), or they can examine what goes on inside the heads of young
and middle-aged women looking for love (Sex and the City).
6. An understanding of the ethical and moral obligations of media practitioners. To make
informed judgments about the performance of the media, we also must be aware of the
competing pressures on practitioners as they do their jobs. We must understand the
media’s official and unofficial rules of operation. In other words, we must know,
respectively, their legal and ethical obligations. Return, for a moment, to the question of
televised violence. It is legal for a station to air graphic violence. But is it ethical? If it is
unethical, what power, if any, do we have to demand its removal from our screens?
Dilemmas such as this are discussed at length in Chapter 14.
7. Development of appropriate and effective production skills. Traditional literacy assumes that
people who can read can also write. Media literacy also makes this assumption. Our definition of literacy
(of either type) calls not only for effective and efficient comprehension of content but for its effective and
efficient use. Therefore, media literate individuals should develop production skills that enable them to
create useful media messages. If you have ever tried to make a narrative home video—one that tells a
story—you know that producing content is much more difficult than consuming it. Even producing a
taped answering machine message that is not embarrassing is a daunting task for many people.
This element of media literacy may seem relatively unimportant at first glance.
After all, if you choose a career in media production, you will get training in school and on
the job. If you choose another calling, you may never be in the position of having to
produce content. But most professions now employ some form of media to disseminate
information, for use in training, to enhance presentations, or to keep in contact with clients
and customers. The Internet and the World Wide Web, in particular, require effective
production skills of their users—at home, school, and work—because online receivers can
and do easily become online creators.

In essence, critical thinking requires you to use your ability to reason. It is about being an active learner rather than a passive recipient of information.
Critical thinkers rigorously question ideas and assumptions rather than accepting them at face value. They will always seek to determine whether the ideas, arguments and findings represent the entire picture and are open to finding that they do not.
Critical thinkers will identify, analyze and solve problems systematically rather than by intuition or instinct.
Source: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/critical-thinking.html

A fallacy is, very generally, an error in reasoning. This differs from a factual error, which is simply being wrong about the facts.
To be more specific, a fallacy is an "argument" in which the premises given for the conclusion do not provide the needed degree of support. A deductive fallacy is a deductive argument that is invalid (it is such that it could have all true premises and still have a false conclusion). An inductive fallacy is less formal than a deductive fallacy. They are simply "arguments" which appear to be inductive arguments, but the premises do not provided enough support for the conclusion. In such cases, even if the premises were true, the conclusion would not be more likely to be true.
Source: http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ad-hominem

Ad hominem attacks can take the form of overtly attacking somebody, or more subtly casting doubt on their character or personal attributes as a way to discredit their argument. The result of an ad hom attack can be to undermine someone's case without actually having to engage with it.

Example: After Sally presents an eloquent and compelling case for a more equitable taxation system, Sam asks the audience whether we should believe anything from a woman who isn't married, was once arrested, and smells a bit weird.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/strawman

By exaggerating, misrepresenting, or just completely fabricating someone's argument, it's much easier to present your own position as being reasonable, but this kind of dishonesty serves to undermine honest rational debate.

Example: After Will said that we should put more money into health and education, Warren responded by saying that he was surprised that Will hates our country so much that he wants to leave it defenceless by cutting military spending.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/loaded-question

Loaded question fallacies are particularly effective at derailing rational debates because of their inflammatory nature - the recipient of the loaded question is compelled to defend themselves and may appear flustered or on the back foot.

Example: Grace and Helen were both romantically interested in Brad. One day, with Brad sitting within earshot, Grace asked in an inquisitive tone whether Helen was having any problems with a drug habit.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/begging-the-question

This logically incoherent argument often arises in situations where people have an assumption that is very ingrained, and therefore taken in their minds as a given. Circular reasoning is bad mostly because it's not very good.

Example: The word of Zorbo the Great is flawless and perfect. We know this because it says so in The Great and Infallible Book of Zorbo's Best and Most Truest Things that are Definitely True and Should Not Ever Be Questioned.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/black-or-white

black-or-white

You presented two alternative states as the only possibilities, when in fact more possibilities exist.
Also known as the false dilemma, this insidious tactic has the appearance of forming a logical argument, but under closer scrutiny it becomes evident that there are more possibilities than the either/or choice that is presented. Binary, black-or-white thinking doesn't allow for the many different variables, conditions, and contexts in which there would exist more than just the two possibilities put forth. It frames the argument misleadingly and obscures rational, honest debate.

Example: Whilst rallying support for his plan to fundamentally undermine citizens' rights, the Supreme Leader told the people they were either on his side, or they were on the side of the enemy.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope

The problem with this reasoning is that it avoids engaging with the issue at hand, and instead shifts attention to extreme hypotheticals. Because no proof is presented to show that such extreme hypotheticals will in fact occur, this fallacy has the form of an appeal to emotion fallacy by leveraging fear. In effect the argument at hand is unfairly tainted by unsubstantiated conjecture.

Example: Colin Closet asserts that if we allow same-sex couples to marry, then the next thing we know we'll be allowing people to marry their parents, their cars and even monkeys.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/burden-of-proof

The burden of proof lies with someone who is making a claim, and is not upon anyone else to disprove. The inability, or disinclination, to disprove a claim does not render that claim valid, nor give it any credence whatsoever. However it is important to note that we can never be certain of anything, and so we must assign value to any claim based on the available evidence, and to dismiss something on the basis that it hasn't been proven beyond all doubt is also fallacious reasoning.

Example: Bertrand declares that a teapot is, at this very moment, in orbit around the Sun between the Earth and Mars, and that because no one can prove him wrong, his claim is therefore a valid one.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/composition-division

Often when something is true for the part it does also apply to the whole, or vice versa, but the crucial difference is whether there exists good evidence to show that this is the case. Because we observe consistencies in things, our thinking can become biased so that we presume consistency to exist where it does not.

Example: Daniel was a precocious child and had a liking for logic. He reasoned that atoms are invisible, and that he was made of atoms and therefore invisible too. Unfortunately, despite his thinky skills, he lost the game of hide and go seek.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/bandwagon

The flaw in this argument is that the popularity of an idea has absolutely no bearing on its validity.
If it did, then the Earth would have made itself flat for most of history to accommodate this popular belief.

Example: Shamus pointed a drunken finger at Sean and asked him to explain how so many people could believe in leprechauns if they're only a silly old superstition. Sean, however, had had a few too many Guinness himself and fell off his chair.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/appeal-to-emotion

Appeals to emotion include appeals to fear, envy, hatred, pity, pride, and more. It's important to note that sometimes a logically coherent argument may inspire emotion or have an emotional aspect, but the problem and fallacy occurs when emotion is used instead of a logical argument, or to obscure the fact that no compelling rational reason exists for one's position. Everyone, bar sociopaths, is affected by emotion, and so appeals to emotion are a very common and effective argument tactic, but they're ultimately flawed, dishonest, and tend to make one's opponents justifiably emotional.

Example: Luke didn't want to eat his sheep's brains with chopped liver and brussel sprouts, but his father told him to think about the poor, starving children in a third world country who weren't fortunate enough to have any food at all.

How can critical thinking save Filipinos from investment scams?

Media and Information Literacy (MIL) 4.MIL Media Literacy (Part 1)- Definition, Importance, Fundamental Elements, and Critical Thinking

Arniel Ping

Media and Information Literacy (MIL) 4.MIL Media Literacy (Part 1)- Definition, Importance, Fundamental Elements, and Critical Thinking