The book, Media Literacy, on page 22 defines media literacy as, “a set of perspectives that we can actively use to expose ourselves to the media to interpret the meaning of messages we encounter. We build our perspectives from knowledge structures. To build out knowledge structures, we need tools and raw material. These tools are our skills. The raw material is information from the media and from the real world. Active use means that we are aware of the messages and our consciously interacting with them.”
"Today's technologies represent a startling fusion of sight and sound that frequently make it difficult for us to discern illusion from reality, fact from fiction." Technological advances have changed the ways in which people, seek, receive, and perceive mass media. People are no longer getting information from just the radio, newspaper, and television. The internet has become a prominent source as well as cell phones and other digital gadgets.
These technological advances affect American students on a daily basis. They are the ones who constantly want the latest gadgets. In my opinion it is important that media literacy be taught to students before they involve themselves in the technological world of media messages. Preferably during their high school careers because their maturity and cognitive skills will have started to or fully evolved, and they should be taught media literacy before they become adults.
According to "Why Media Literacy Matters", “It is estimated that North American children spend twice as much time over the course of a year watching television as they do in school. A recent study found that U.S. children spend over four and a half hours a day using television, computers and video games. As media saturate our lives, it is vital that children learn to decode messages and images, to ask critical questions about who is creating them and for what purpose. Media literacy is fundamental in helping young people to become informed citizens who can actively and successfully communicate with society and the world.”
An article I read titled "Why Do U.S. Students Need Media Literacy?" states another reasonable argument as to why it is important for youth to learn media literacy. “As far as many American students are concerned, media is "just entertainment. "They know little about who controls the media, how media products are made, what effects the media may have on the public, and how media socialize us.”
High students are constantly using and exposed to technology. It is important for high school students to understand the technology they are exposed to especially if they are using newer technologies as their main media source. High school students need to learn and develop media literacy so that they are better prepared for college and the future. There is a relationship between the way the world is presented by the media and the way we as media consumers perceive that world. Crime is 10 times greater on television than in real life, but many Americans perceive their world to be as violent and threatening as the media construction.
To conclude, Media literacy is constantly changing the ways in which people think and view the world. Elizabeth Thoman writes, "Screenagers" — media-saturated kids — need to develop skills in order to recognize a culture that is shaped around the image.” Therefore, media literacy should be taught to students before they graduate high school, so that they can properly interpret mass media in the future and understand future technological advances.
In this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T59DKKNheoU, George Lucas discusses the Importance of multimedia literacy.
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