Week 10 Blog #9: Why Media Literacy matters in your PLN

What is media literacy?

Media literacy is a very important skill in today’s society. Generally speaking, media literacy refers to the ability to access, understand and create media information. Its goal is to train the whole people to interpret media information objectively and fairly. First, we need to understand the characteristics and operation methods of social media. Second, we need to choose a platform that suits us to build our own PLN, publish our own content, and communicate effectively with people.

Why is it important?

I think the main reason why media literacy is important is that social media is widely spread. Almost everyone needs to use social media, but the information transmitted on social media may be false and one-sided. People need to obtain information and absorb knowledge. At the same time, learn to correctly distinguish true and reliable content and protect your privacy.

Why is it dismissed?

On the one hand, new media is in a stage of rapid development, but under the education system, media literacy accounts for a relatively small proportion, resulting in a lack of overall national literacy. On the other hand, people in today’s society pay more attention to material life, so there is a state of extreme lack of spiritual life, and the values of various social media have appeared to certain deviations. In addition, in this open Internet era, everyone can freely publish content, and people are easily affected by some speech, thus losing their own judgment and lacking rationality.

Why should you aim for varied views but the factual consensus in your PLN?

People may have different views on some issues, which is a normal thing. We cannot guarantee that our views are completely correct, so it is particularly important to understand the views of others and interact with others. Not only can we learn more knowledge, but we can also look at things more objectively. Reaching a consensus in PLN can help us attract more people, so that we can more easily obtain information from many aspects. This is a virtuous circle.

Open dialogues about media literacy and factual information can create conflict; why does this happen?

The media tend to give the masses the information they want to know, because people tend to believe only what they want to believe and are not interested in the truth or integrity of these things. The same things can be presented in different ways depending on what each person thinks. They don’t care if the information affects society or other people, and they don’t look for someone to verify whether the information is right or wrong, even though it may be false news that is being spread.

What is the benefit of having a PLN that values media literacy?

Having a PLN that values media literacy is a way for people to think effectively when confronted with the various messages in the media, to understand the message correctly and to distinguish between true and false information.