Media Literary In The 21St Century

278 Words2 Pages
Media Literacy is a 21st century approach to education, which provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages in different forms. These forms include print, video and pictures. Media literacy helps to build an understanding of the role of media in society, as well as a way to express oneself. Media literacy helps students to become competent, critical and literate in all forms of media. Media literacy helps students interpret what they see, hear and feel. Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at swaying the attitude of a community toward some cause or position, and can be found in media. Propaganda is usually biased, with facts presented in a selective manner to encourage certain ideas. Propaganda can be used to produce an emotional and irrational response to material presented, which can change the attitude of the targeted audience. Children are potential targets for propaganda. Children and young adults are still developing their critical reasoning skills. Critical reasoning skills are necessary to determine if a message is propaganda or not. Also, children are highly imitative, and will mimic what they see or hear in the media. Children also learn from their peer groups. Children can have certain ideas or attitudes indoctrinated by their peer groups. After researching propaganda and media literacy, I feel children are very vulnerable to believing propaganda, especially propaganda found in the media. For example, most children believe in the myth of Santa Claus. Santa Claus can be found in books, on television, and at various local malls. Media has influenced children to believe in Santa Claus for decades. Children also learn from their peers and will form similar
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