by Dr. Dino Sossi

In this exercise, students were asked to create a visual to communicate various aspects of media literacy that can help people in their home community.  

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What are the 5 Qualities of Media?

by John Martinez  

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Information Literacy

by Jennifer Claxton    

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Three Literacies That are Important to Have When on the Internet

by Nadine Pierre-Louis  

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Media, Information, and Digital Literacy

by Branka Romih

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The Impact of Media Literacy

by Danielle Hance

by Dr. Dino Sossi

Alvin Toffler popularized the term “information overload” during the 1970s (1970).

Over 50 years later, we still haven’t caught up.

People are overwhelmed by a deluge of information on a seemingly moment-by-moment basis.

Our in-boxes are full.

Tweets constantly chirp on our phones.

Doomscrolling toward the next inflammatory piece of news and rumor is the end result.

As we swipe ever upward on our phones, the content never seems to stop.

As a result, media literacy becomes increasingly important.

We need to learn how to cope with this constant avalanche of bits and bytes, data and details. Information begets misinformation which can be further distorted into disinformation.

Social media has accelerated the trend toward shorter and shorter forms of communication. It is debatable whether print is dead, but text and images disseminated via the web certainly aren’t.  

Giving CUNY students the opportunity to reshape important ideas regarding media literacy in less dense, more widely disseminable, visuals will allow them to share their thoughts more widely.

We cannot write the world if we cannot read it. Translating dense text into visuals helps with this laudable goal. Not only will CUNY students further their knowledge of media literacy, but also work on their ability to share this valuable skill with one another and the communities they inhabit to help them improve their appreciation of media messages, both corporate and beyond.

References:

Toffler, A. (1970). Future shock. Random House.

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