Introduction
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I am a big supporter of media literacy. It is a huge part of my work. I believe that it is one of if not the most important skill of the 21st century. There’s a lot of the misinformation, disinformation and rumours that spread fast on social media. So, it’s important to know how to “read” media. If we want better stories on our screens, we have to know how.
Further reading: Why media literacy belongs in every school
This week, I came across an article about how fandom culture influence our media literacy skills. I thought it was interesting because the article represents how much media literacy has changed. I’m sure that in the beginning, fan culture and online communities weren’t a part of the understanding of media literacy. Now they are. This is the reason I wrote this blog post. I want to engage with new ideas.
People construct media
In the article, the author argues how people can misunderstand media sometimes because some of it are unrealistic. They use the HBO show Euphoria as an example of how people don’t understand that some of what the show portrays is actually realistic. This includes who the characters on the show represent. People like the characters exist in real life and, according to the author, “if you’re tweeting about Rue being a terrible person because of her drug addiction, someone you know in real life could be struggling like Rue and take your comments to heart.”
While that may be the case sometimes, it generally isn’t. The first tenet of media literacy is that people construct media. Yes, all of it. People make choices about what we see and what we don’t see for particular purposes, whether it’s money, power or fame. As a result, media are never entirely accurate reflections of reality.
Beyond TV shows and films, there are fake images, disinformation and misinformation to contend with. For example, fake imagery of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia have already begun to circulate on social media. But whether or not media is realistic does not change how you should read it. You should still use your media literacy skills to critically analyze any piece of media. They help you discern between what’s important or real and what isn’t.
We collaborate to negotiate meaning
The thing is that people may not agree with your assessment of media. And that’s okay. Part of having media literacy skills is also understanding another tenant of social media: audiences negotiate meaning. An idea may have started with the creator of some piece of media. But once it’s released into the world, people interpret it in accordance with their own lived experiences.
This doesn’t mean that, as the author implies, people have an unhealthy relationship with media content. Of course, people who intentionally and unintentionally harrass and harm media creators are always in the wrong. But critique is not hatred. If I don’t like something a lot of people do, that isn’t hatred. They are two different things. The pace of social media and how easy it is to misinterpret someone else’s ideas makes it very possible to conflate hatred with critique. This is especially because of the commercial, political and social implications at stake.
Conclusion
I generally enjoyed reading the article because I think it makes a really important connection between fandom and media literacy. These kinds of connections deserve more space online. However, it’s important to understand that the point of media literacy is not for people to all see media in the same way. It’s for people to really understand what they are seeing and to make informed decisions from there. That is what media literacy is all about.