Media Literacy

10 months Ago

It is said that Information is Power and the currency of democracy. The dawn of the Information age has drowned us in Information. Rising of the Internet and Media Technologies have made it easy to access almost any information. Before about 1900, there was no such technology called ‘Internet’. Books, newspapers or magazines were the only sources of news and information in the early days of mass media evolution.

After the second world war, Electronic media, such as Radio and Television were introduced and gradually became very popular among the mass audience. But Print and Electronic media have specific impediments so people could obtain very limited information. Nowadays anyone from anywhere can have access to information in different formats of Media content with the help of the Internet. With so many sources of information today, people often encounter fake news and misleading information that can affect all aspects of lives and society. It can easily manipulate and change people’s perceptions, or attitudes. Propaganda or fake news can be the potential threat to democracy as it can polarize people’s opinions, spread hate speech and promote violent extremism. Fallacious and negative media consumption have a wide range of harmful psychological, emotional, and behavioral effects. It may influence people’s decision making process and the critical thinking abilities.

Media literacy enables people understand the messages or information that are being circulated and communicated to them. It is a literary form of the process which is intended to promote awareness of media influence. A strong understanding of media literacy allows people to recognise biasness, helps to analyse the accuracy of information, identify reliable sources and filter-down the truth. Many people, especially in India, still unaware of the negative impacts of media and deny necessity of media literacy.