Media Literacy

The reading this week talked about media literacy. There are many different kinds of media such as visual literacy, story literacy, and computer literacy. The media can produce both beneficial and harmful effects. There are three building blocks of media literacy: the personal locus, knowledge structures, and skills. These building blocks are necessary to build your perspectives on the media. The personal locus includes your goals, which help you decide what information to pay attention to and what to ignore. The more aware you are of your goals, the better you will be able to decide which information to pay attention to. Increasing your awareness of your personal locus increases your media literacy. Next are the knowledge structures. This is your organized information that you have in memory. Knowledge structures are constructed using skills. The article defines media literacy as the “set of perspectives that we actively use to expose ourselves to the mass media to interpret the meaning of the messages we encounter”. We do this by using the three building blocks. I thought this article was interesting because I have never really thought about how I decide which media messages to pay attention to and which to ignore.

Presidential Debate

During the Presidential debate, body language plays a key factor for how the candidates are perceived. One thing I noticed during the debate was that President Obama has very good eye contact. He also seems confident while he is talking because he does not fidget while he speaks. While Romney is talking, he seems to move around a lot and looks back at Obama a lot while he is talking. While Obama is listening to Romney’s answers, he shakes his head a lot. Both candidates make a lot of the same hand gestures while they are talking. They also both walked closer to the people asking the questions to signify interest in the question. While Obama was listening to Romney answer some of the questions, he leaned forward and looked like he was listening intently to his answer. Romney blinks and licks his lips a lot while he is listening to Obama, which makes him seem nervous.

The Tragedy of the Commons

I found the article by Garrett Hardin to be interesting. In this article, Hardin talks about the problem of population growth and whether it would work itself out. Hardin also discusses the tragedy of the commons. When people are sharing a resource, they realize that it is limited but believe it is in their own best interest to use a little extra because they are the only ones that will benefit from it but everyone will share the negative of more of the resource being used. This in theory would still benefit the individual, but the problem is that everyone using the resource has the same thought to do this, so the resource becomes depleted. This is the tragedy of the commons. Pollution is an example of a reverse tragedy of the commons, because instead of taking something out, pollution is being put into the environment.

Hardin goes on to acknowledge the effects of conscience on decisions. He says that by telling people to do one thing, they then think that if they follow it they will be regarded as a simpleton, and are then caught in a double bind between their two choices. He concludes that for the commons to be justifiable, there must be a low population. Once the population gets too large, the commons must be abandoned.  

“Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace” by Danah Boyd

The article by Danah Boyd, “Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace” was written in 2006, when MySpace was more popular. The article starts off by describing what MySpace is. MySpace started as a site for people over 18, but eventually the age limit was lowered to 14. Originally it was thought that MySpace wouldn’t become popular because of previous sites such as Friendster, which had died out. However, it was found that teenagers loved using MySpace, so it quickly caught on. MySpace provides a hang out space for teenagers when they can’t hang out in person. Although this worried adults, MySpace did not replace in person hanging out with teenagers.

Despite what adults may think, teenagers are not using MySpace to spite parents; rather, they wish to create their own hangout where they can talk and explore their profiles without the control of their parents. Although this article was written in 2006 and more people use Facebook than MySpace now, the premise is the same. Recently, MySpace has been given a makeover in the hopes of attracting users back to using MySpace. Whether or not this new MySpace will be able to compete with Facebook remains to be seen.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a social media site that allows you to look through pictures that other people have posted and then pin the ones you like to your own board. You can then go back and look at your boards and your friends’ boards whenever you want. It is fairly recent, but has a lot of users and is a growing trend. Pinterest has a wide variety of topics; basically anything you would want to find information about, you can probably find something about it on Pinterest.

Recently, I have used Pinterest for everything from looking up ideas for Halloween costumes to finding new recipes to make for dinner. Pinterest is a good marketing strategy for businesses that want to make a product known. Once people start repinning a picture, it keeps getting pinned on more and more people’s boards, so it is an easy way to get publicity. Pinterest is a useful and fun way to find new recipes, crafts, and do it yourself ideas!