CRITICAL THINKING AND MEDIA LITERACY

Media are the channels through which humankind communicates. Media conveys meaning through different mediums such as television broadcasts, newspapers or films. Media includes radio, videos, recorded music, magazines, junk mail, comic books, computer software, the internet, video games, and advertisements. All media present a message in a text. In the context of media analysis, a text is not only as something that is written. A text is anything that communicates a message. Some examples of non-conventional texts are: commercials, webpages, songs, billboards, advertisements, or even illustrations.

One cognitive skill that is essential in approaching media texts is critical thinking. critical thinking is a term applied to the analysis of data or ideas by using observation, experience, reasoning and logic in order to arrive at a conclusion. When we think critically, we try to go beyond understanding just the superficial elements of a text, idea or problem and we try to decipher the implicit intentions or arguments behind them and question these.

Through critical thinking, we can analyze messages to which we are exposed in the media. Critical thinking aims to help us understand the messages that might be implicit, hidden, or subliminal. 

A specific type of critical thinking and analysis that is used particularly in the context of media analysis is media literacy, but what is it?

Media literacy is all about taking a second look at media texts. This basically means that when we hear or look at media, we can miss elements that are not obvious or explicit. Media literacy is about learning to “read” media in order to find those underlying meanings in a text. By listening or looking twice we will be able to catch information that may contain important clues to these messages. This kind of double-checking can be intentional or accidental. For example, you might have been listening to an artist for many years before you notice that there is a deeper message in the songs. Or, you may intentionally analyze an advertisement to understand the strategies used by the marketer to sell the product. Although some media are based on real events, people and places, nowadays they have millions of ways to make things that are not real seem so, that is why media literacy is important as it helps us to avoid being manipulated by these strategies.

There are different media strategies used by the media, such as identification, generalization, emotional appeal, the image of a famous person or creating the illusion of reality, to achieve their objective, whether it is to earn more money, have more sales, visibility or others, and to connect and persuade the recipient, hence the importance of thinking critically about the information consumed and being objective. 

MY POSTURE: Regarding this issue, I believe that critical thinking is of great importance because it allows us to be aware of the information that is available on the Internet and other media without falling into deception or believing everything that is found. If society would learn to have a better management of the information that circulates, it would not fall easily into deceptions or scams and it would also achieve a better cyber coexistence by not taking things personally and creating conflicts in spaces where people share what they want or like, whether true or false.