What role does the audience play in becoming media literate and why does it matter?

What roles does the audience play in becoming media literate? Let’s think about it this way, if the audience becomes literate and start understanding the importance of its role, what change would we see in the media?

The audience has a huge impact on the media! Despite this huge impact, the roles of who carries the power have been reversed. The media has the power of influence. Due to our inability or lack of “fact checking” the source or sources, we have become a society that relies heavily on the media to provide information on all areas of our life. But we, the audience, consume the responsibility to become literate.

During this week’s reading we reviewed several cases that involved newspapers or media outlets that provided accusation and fascinating information regarding particular communities and person. The Near v. State of Minnesota (1931) case involved a newspaper that published accusations about public officials that they were “Jewish gangster” and other anti-Semitic remarks. Near v. Minnesota became a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that recognized the freedom of the press by rejecting prior restraint on a publication. Imagine the front page of the newspaper with the title, “Public Officials the New Jewish Gangsters.” Immediate speculation and assumptions would arise without any researching but solely based off the words of the reported article, log, or post.

Now that we have an understanding of the importance of becoming more literate, let’s tackle some practical methods to get started. First we must have some sense of awareness that will allow us to vet and discern the information covered by the media. We must consider and carefully investigate the source of the information. It would be realistic to expect the audience to conduct a thorough background investigation but at least consider the source of information, the information presented, and consideration of the ultimate goal of the writer. The implementation of this very basic and practical step will allow us as the audience to become more literate.