What is Media Literacy and Why is it on the Decline?
According to the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), media literacy is “the ability to encode and decode the symbols transmitted via media and synthesize, analyze, and produce mediated messages.” There are numerous contributing factors to why media is so difficult to consume these days. For starters, there is simply more media than ever before, from social media platforms that prioritize algorithms and clicks over high-quality and verified content to a wider range of leisure and entertainment. It’s not just books, movies, and TV anymore. We have TikTok, YouTube, podcasts, streaming, etc. We also have more avenues for consuming said content, from small screens to big ones.
In short, we are inundated by media all day and every day. In our fast-paced, busy lives, we rarely find the time to stop and check if we fully understand what we are reading and watching. To combat this, NAMLE includes a list of key questions that are worth asking yourself every time you consume media. Among these important principles are questions of authorship and purpose. It’s always worth asking who is the author of a piece of media and what they are trying to say. Additionally, in order to grasp meaning from media, you must assess the credibility of your source, the techniques the author employs to deliver their message, and your personal response to the material.
For some of you, these concepts might sound self-explanatory, but the overall decline in media literacy is a legitimate issue. According to a Stanford Graduate School of Education study, “82% of middle school students couldn’t tell the difference between sponsored articles and real news stories.” But before you dismiss this as an issue that only children face, 59% of adults had the same problem. That list of key questions might not solve this problem entirely, but it’s a step for consumers to become better at deciphering all media content from AI-generated videos to news articles to narrative storytelling.
The Importance of Media Literacy for Watching Film & TV
Believe it or not, a lack of media literacy can affect one’s ability to watch a movie and actually understand it. In the same way that high school students learn to identify metaphors and literary techniques in novels to extrapolate the author’s meaning, an engaged audience member should be able to do something similar when watching a film. Film and TV lovers can get granular in their analyses by looking at cinematic tools like composition and narrative structure, but fundamental media literacy skills do not need to be this complex. On a basic level, understanding the core thematic message of a writer or director is a seemingly simple, but increasingly difficult task for contemporary audiences to master.
A recent article in Deadline reported that Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, co-creators of HBO’s Industry, have received countless messages from fans praising the show’s unflinching and disturbing portrait of the toxicity of the finance industry in Britain. However, Down and Kay were shocked to see just how many of those fans completely misunderstood the point of the show. Some of these viewers even went so far as to say that the show inspired them to pursue careers in finance, as if the toxic bravado portrayed onscreen was meant to be interpreted as an endorsement of this behavior.
Before receiving these messages, it’s possible Down and Kay assumed that any fan of Industry would inherently understand that their show is a scathing critique of the many corrupt, unethical, and power-hungry individuals that work within this world. However, some people clearly are not “getting it,” and that is where a lack of media literacy comes into play.
Just because a story centers on an abhorrent, amoral protagonist does not necessarily mean that the film or show itself is abhorrent and amoral. Antiheroes like Walter White in Breaking Bad or Patrick Bateman in American Psycho are prime examples of flawed and even villainous characters who are in the foreground of their respective stories. That does not mean that Vince Gilligan or Bret Easton Ellis, the creators of those characters, are supportive of everything they do. It does mean, however, that they are interested in saying something through these characters, though this can get lost in translation. In the case of American Psycho, Patrick Bateman has remained a cultural embodiment of idealized heterosexual machismo within incel culture despite the fact that the original novel is a satire of toxic masculinity written through the eyes of a gay male author. Part of interpreting media accurately involves making this distinction. An inability to do so doesn’t just mean a viewer is unsophisticated. More specifically, it means they lack sufficient media literacy skills.
So how do we ensure that audiences don’t make the same mistakes that those “finance bro” fans of Industry did? Well, artists most definitely should not dumb down their stories or make it more clear who is “good” and who is “bad.” An overly moralistic and editorialized approach would only damage the artistry. It also would allow the critical thinking skills of viewers to decline even further if they are told exactly what to think every single time they consume media.
At the end of the day, I believe it comes down to attention and engagement. These are powerful tools for improving media literacy for all forms of content and entertainment. Just as those key questions listed by NAMLE can help consumers decipher the meaning and validity of a headline or social media post, they can also help audiences better understand artistic choices. Following these guidelines requires paying close, undivided attention to what we are watching. This kind of engagement might even foster greater discourse and conversation about the material beyond the basics.
All audiences are capable of this level of understanding. However, we will never get there if we have our hands held every step of the way. Media creators need to demand the audience’s attention and engagement by creating content and art that compels them to apply their critical thinking skills. If we, in turn, take it upon ourselves to be more engaged with the media we consume, then we are more likely to become informed, media-literate viewers. And yes, those “finance bros” will be able to understand that the behavior of the characters on Industry is, in fact, abhorrent.
