Media Education is the process when we learn to be media literate and be “able to critically understand the nature, techniques, and impacts of media messages and productions.” –  as defined by Media Literacy Week. (2014)

What are the goals of media education? Is media education important enough to be required?

Goals of Media Education can be simple but yet hard to achieve completely in one shot but is a long process in making. Hobbs (2009), points out in his article that media education has been developing and progressing to help children build communication, creativity, and critical thinking skills. Students need to gain the ability to analyze media messages and interpret them properly.  Media education is very important in our current day and age. People need to know where the information they are reading or listening about came from and the background of who wrote it. Being able to analyze this would allow them to know how credible the information is.  It’s very commonly seen now, especially on social media, of people who read then share articles they come across on social media without fact checking. When such information is brought into the classroom, though it may be the most current information/news, it may not be the most accurate. Spreading incorrect information as if it’s correct would not only be misleading but can also be very damaging to learning.

Turkle mentioned in the previous module’s reading that it lack of empathy is increasingly visible in face-to-face conversations because everyone is so focused on looking down at their phones. Starring at the phones for the latest updates and tweets seems more important now, so the content online becoming exponentially crucial. Because of this, media education is gaining more and more light in many classrooms and teachers are also starting to use more media technologies to “teach”. Like speaking the language of the new age.

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