MIL

• Media

  • Social institutions (people)
  • News producing institutions
  • Abide by the norms for credible information
• Media

  • Based on editorial process determined by journalistic values and with editorial accountability attributed to an organization or a legal person
• Media


  • As technical vehicles for communication, these refer to the physical means for communication
  • E.g. paper, broadcast, film, and digital transmission
• Information


  Data that have been processed in a form that is meaningful to the recipient and is of real or perceived value in current or prospective actions or decisions
• Data


  Raw data that have been collected, processed, and interpreted so that they can be used
• Media Literacy

  • Ability to read, analyze, evaluate, and produce communication in a variety of media forms
  • Exercise critical thinking
  • Allows us to think independently and make our own decisions — reflect thoughts on all issues
  • Develop intellectual and artistic sense when creating useful and effective forms of media
  • Effects of media on the individual and the society
• Media Literacy

  • Understand the role and functions of the media
  • Fulfill the functions of media
  • Critically evaluate media content
  • Engage with the media for self-expression and democratic participation
  • Review skills needed to produce user-generated content
• Not bashing but criticizing
• No merely producing media
• Simply looking for political agendas, stereotypes or misrepresentation is NOT media literacy
• Looking at media message from just one perspective is NOT media literacy
• Information Literacy

  • Skill that allows us to recognize when information is needed and how we will be able to access, locate, evaluate, and use it effectively in various formats
  • Allows us to distinguish relevant information
  • Allows us to develop effective research skills
  • Allows us to gather information to interpret and resolve issues to foster a more participatory environment
• Information Literacy

  • Define and articulate information needs
  • Locate and access information
  • Organize information
  • Make ethical use of information
  • Communication Information
  • Use ICT skills for information processing
• Digital Literacy


  • More on technical skills (e.g. troubleshooting)
  • Ability to use and understand digital technology, communication tools, or network to locate, evaluate, use, create and share content
  • Ability to transform data and images through digital manipulation
  • Allows us to understand concepts related to science, engineering, and computers
  • Enables concerned people to advance technology through discoveries or breakthroughs
• Digital Literacy


  • Use of digital tools
  • Understand digital identity
  • Recognize digital rights
  • Assess AI issues
  • Improve how to communicate digitally
  • Manage digital health
  • Practice digital security and safety
• Media Information Literacy

  • Interrelated set of competencies
  • Help people to maximize advantages and minimize harm in the new information, digital and communication landscapes
  • Enables people to critically and effectively engage with information and other forms of content
  • All people in media are also people as media
• Media Information Literacy

  • People in Media
  • Those who work directly with the media
  • Scriptwriters, producers, technicians, manufacturers, operators
  • Directly related to the media
  • People as Media
  • Everyone can be sources of information
  • Not all people as media can be people in media
• Citizen Journalism
• Social Journalism
• Citizen Journalism


  Citizens report on what is happening around them through the use of available media
• Social Journalism

  1. Professional journalist becomes involved and applies the journalistic process in a report from a citizen

  2. Pro-journalists get involved in the story
• Triangulation involves having at least three reliable/credible resources; with regards to context as well
• Characteristics of a Good Media Practitioner

  • Truthfulness
  • Fairness and Objectivity
  • Responsibility and Integrity
  • Empathy and Sympathy
  • Hard-working
• Core Concepts of Media

  • All messages are ‘constructed’
  • Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules
  • Different people experience the same media message differently
• Five Laws of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) are inspired by the Five Laws of Library Sciences proposed by S.R. Ranganathan in 1931
• Five Laws of MIL

  • Law 1: Equal in stature
  • Law 2: MIL is for all
  • Law 3: Media messages are not always independent of biases/always value neutral
  • Law 4: Every citizen wants to know and understand new information, knowledge, and messages
  • Law 5: Lived and dynamic experience and process
• Creative techniques used to attract attention


  • Can refer to each medium having its own way of delivering a message
• Different people experience the same media message differently
• Keyword: audience


  Key Question: How might different people understand this message differently from me?
• Media have embedded values and points of view
• Keyword: Content


  Key Question: What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in/or omitted from this message?
• Most media messages are organized to gain profit and/or power
• Keyword: Purpose


  Key Question: Why is the message being sent?
• Media Models

  • Market Model
  • Public Sphere
• Market Model

  • Advocates for private, unregulated ownership of media
  • Focuses on making profit sometimes at the expense of content quality
  • Emphasizes competition and meeting people's needs
• Public Sphere

  • Members of society are free to exchange news, information, and opinions
  • Example: National Geographic
• Media Theories

  • Agenda-Setting Theory
  • Uses and Gratifications Theory
  • Cultivation Theory
  • Symbolic Interactionism Theory
  • Spiral of Silence Theory
• Agenda-Setting Theory


  • Determines the issues that concern the public rather than the public's view
  • Issues that receive the most attention lead to public discussion, debate, and action
  • When media fails to address the issue, it becomes marginalized in the minds of the public
  • Popular issues may receive more attention than important ones due to profit motives
• Uses and Gratifications Theory

  • Consumers use the media to satisfy specific needs and desires such as personal identity, information, entertainment, social integration, and following trends
  • People engage with media based on their needs and purposes
• Cultivation Theory

  • Analyzes violence in TV and formation of political opinions
  • Shapes the audience's perception of the world based on media exposure
  • Explains the development of stereotypes