Murase 1

Yuna Murase
Professor. Jackie
ENG113A
November 15th, 2015
The necessity of Media Literacy for education
Media literacy has been necessary in this global era. People use a lot of media tools
such as cellphone, PC, and TV. They can connect with anyone all over the world immediately
by using those kind of tools. That means our cultures have been mixed and shared through
media around the world. Media Literacy has been defined as the ability to access, analyze,
evaluate and communication messages in a wide variety of forms (Hobbs). People should be
aware of how media represent their messages in many kinds of ways. There must be some
wrong information, because anyone can be producers of media through social network
services these days. Even the information is not from private individuals, but public facilities,
it can be under the control of the producers who have concealed their purposes. Especially,
media literacy is important for children, because they can trust the information easily.
Media literacy should be taught in school, because media manipulate people socially,
economically, and politically.
Media manipulate people socially with the stereotypes of race, class, and gender.
Through the consumption of media and popular culture, children, teenagers, and adults are
fed a steady diet of images that often promote and reinforce stereotypes and misinformation
about cultural groups (Sorrells). People can get stereotypical images unconsciously through
media. Even if they have never talked to some people in some specific cultural places, they
would get how they live stereotypically and never notice if these information are wrong.
Moreover, there is one specific race which dominates our world and has been considered
better than any other races: white. According to the study of the 2001 to 2002 TV season by
Children Now, TV casts are still 90% of white and only 5% of black play main roles, even
though TV program has become more diverse. Also, the prime time viewing hour which is
around 8pm was the least racial diverse (Sorrells). The media producers in the United States
tend to make racial dominance, which is white supremacy and embed those images to
children. Non-dominant groups, which are minorities are often represented as negative
images, such as criminals, gang members, and pimps. Children understand those stereotypes
unconsciously and maintain their images as they grow up with media. Also, this can be
related to the class. White people are often represented as rich and high class in media. Their
culture is organized and showed as symbol of capitalism. For example, some brands which

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are considered as rich tend to use white models to show the beauty. Moreover, there are often
gender stereotypes as well. For example, commercials show female as role of inside the
house, such as cleaning or laundry products. In the Disney movies, which most children like
to watch, there are a lot of stereotypes of gender. Most princesses are always waiting for men
who will save them. This shows how passive women should be. These social stereotypes can
manipulate children because they trust those images easily. They might think any different
races are worse than their own if they are white. If they are in minority groups, they may
become sad or think negatively about their own races. Media literacy should be taught in
school as education, because children can be aware that there might be some wrong
information if they learn to analyze and have a different perspective for media. By realizing
those negative effects by media, children can also send their own opinions through media,
such as YouTube, and any other social networks as they grow up. For example, there is a
YouTube channel which is created by creators: COMPLEX. They define themselves in their
information page, as COMPLEX is a community of creators and curators, armed with the
Internet, committed to surfacing and sharing the voices and conversations that define our new
America. They pick up a lot of issues of race, gender, sex, transgender, culture, and more.
They have over 800,000 subscribers and make arguments of those problems. Media literacy
can lead those actions that try to spread the social justice in this world.
Media control people for economical ways. Relating to the social manipulation,
media produce consumers or customers by using advertising skills which is materialism and
commodification of culture. According to an encyclopedia of Merriam-Webster, Materialism
is the way of thinking that gives too much importance to material possessions rather than to
spiritual or intellectual things. The reason why beautiful models or celebrities are used for
their advertisements is because they can make desires of customers. The producers try to
make them imagine that if they can get the product, they would become like those famous
people. Children must be targets for advertising, because they can get the information from
TV or any another sources and easily grow their desire to get the products. For example, this
is obvious that they want to get toys of hero or princess because they trust that they can
become hero or princess if they get one of the toys and put it on their bodies. Therefore, they
ask adults to buy one and also parents want to give it to them. Media literacy can make them
to distinguish the ideal and reality. When they watch a violent movie, or another fiction
movies, it is very important to understand the story is not true. By analyzing those facts in the
movies, they can figure out the morality which is sometimes lost in movies.
People can be controlled in political ways by media. Politics can be changed by

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public opinions, and public opinions are made by mass media, such as newspaper, radio, TV,
and the Internet. The way that media use in order to give information to public one-directly is
called mass communication. By using this way, media can control people, because those
information that they give sometimes may be one part of the information. They need an
audience rating so that tell information that they are likely interested in. Moreover, for
example, in Japan, there are a lot of journalists who become close to politicians while they
collect materials from them. This encourage the information more prejudiced. In order to
solve these problems, it is important that some media compete to others in order to give
people correct and fast information, and also, people should learn media literacy not to be
manipulated. If people have learned media literacy since they were a child, they would know
how to handle and judge the media. In the United States, over eighteen years old people who
have citizenship can go elections. In order not to be controlled and make their own decisions,
media literacy is very important.
However, there is an opinion that If children can be taught to deconstruct media
texts, the magic mantra goes, then they wont be taken in the fantasy, seduced by the
violence, or manipulated by commercial ploys (Bazalgette). It is sad that there is no dream if
children know everything about fantasy. Media Literacy should be taught in school, but
gradually from elementary school. Schools should have a class for Media literacy as a subject
of English, and children discuss and analyze about how media show them fantasy. Not only
fantasy but social and gender stereotypes can be analyzed too. If they learn how to be
manipulated by the time they graduate from high school. They are prepared to go out the
society as an adult. They also can get the knowledge to consider critically and build their own
opinions without being controlled.
Media literacy should be taught in school, because if they learn it, they should not be
manipulated by socially, economically, and politically. They can understand social justice by
understanding stereotypes which are created by media, how media produce materialism by
using advertisements, and manipulation of political reasons to change the public opinions.

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Work Cited
"Seven Great Debates in the Media Literacy Movement -- Circa 2001." Seven Great Debates
in the Media Literacy Movement. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.
Sorrells, Kathryn. Intercultural Communication: Globalization and Social Justice. Thousand
Oaks, Calif.: SAGE, 2013. Print.