Basic Media Literacy

Pop Occulture:

"An easy place to start for people new to the topic might be the Center for Media Literacy. The CML has boiled down a nice set of 5 simple axioms to guide people in their quest to become literate in how the media operates.

1. All media messages are ‘constructed.’
2. Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules.
3. Different people experience the same media message differently.
4. Media have embedded values and points of view.
5. Most media messages are constructed to gain profit and/or power.

Each of these principles has a corresponding simple question the budding media theorist can and should ask:

1. Who created this message?
2. What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?
3. How might different people understand this message differently from me?
4. What lifestyles, values and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?
5. Why is this message being sent?"