I like to think that I am a more media literate since choosing to work in the media field. That being said, in many ways my whole life was consumed by the media, which I gladly followed without questioning. I wanted what everyone had on the television because that’s what you were supposed to want; I thought that the people that you saw in magazines and movies were “normal.” I never bothered really to give thought to the fact that there would be anything deeper going on than what was on the page. I let what the media portrayed was right and good for me dictate what was right and good for me. It’s so easy to just get sucked into that rut where you just accept that this is the way that things are, with no semblance of deeper thought to anything.
Marshall McLuhan, a veritable expert on media and its implications stated that: “all media, from the phonetic alphabet to the computer, are extensions of man that cause deep and lasting changes in him and transform his environment.” From this we can draw the necessity to be media literate. Every and any form of media is all an extension of ourselves and as such will leave a lasting change within us. We need to be aware of these changes and be able to question media, find out who it’s targeting, and see what it really is doing to us.
I believe that when we can step back and view media objectively, and control the amount of an impact that it has on us we can change the way that media is portrayed. Instead of being this harbinger of bad morals, sex, and eating disorders we can start to see it for what it was really designed for, a way to communicate with the masses.
I am Kaileigh Russell and I am media literate, are you?
Works Cited
“The Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan.” Playboy Magazine. March 1960. Web. 2 Oct. 2009.
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