Let's get something straight.
[transcript for the hearing impaired]
The world is a pretty confusing place. Everyone is trying to convince you of something, and some of them are really good it. Most people aren't very good, but fortunately for them a great majority of listeners are not mentally prepared for calling them on their bologna. Usually you just get tricked into buying something but other times it can put people in actual harm. Take the anti-vaccination movement for instance. Some genius notices autism is getting diagnosed a lot more often than it had been 50 years ago and says "Hmm, we've also been vaccinating our kids a lot more often in the last 50 years." and writes a paper on how autism might be caused by toxic ingredients in vaccines that we force all children to get. Every scientist who reads that article says there is no evidence to support this, you're mistaking correlation for causation, and obviously, doctors have been getting a lot better at diagnosing psychological disorders in the last 50 years which would explain the problem you set out to solve. In a world where everyone was taught scientific literacy, and was capable of critical thinking, that would be the end of it. That is unfortunately, not the case. A few people that do not understand the term "peer review" but do understand that a story like this means blog views, a lot of them, see that paper and start denouncing vaccines as poison. Eventually a Playboy model who fancies herself smarter than every doctor in the United States has a son born with Autism, and in her research (which was probably not much more comprehensive than a google search of "What is autism?") comes across one of those scientific illiterate's blogs, and decides to become a celebrity figurehead for the cause (as well as the face of a brand of electronic cigarettes, meanwhile, not a soul questions her authority to give medical advice). And now we're seeing the first few new cases of diseases like diphtheria and measles in decades. Thanks to the ignorance of a few, for whatever reason, very influential people several horrible and completely preventable diseases are making a comeback, and children are particularly vulnerable. Thanks Jenny. My point is that when ignorance starts to endanger the health and safety of the entire world population rather than just the ignorant, it becomes imperative that those of us capable of critical thinking do something to help the masses gain the ability to analyze and assess messages they receive, or at the very least, blindly follow people who aren't actively endangering public health. This blog will be a place for people to get educated on a thing called "Media Literacy", critically analyzing the things media throws at you constantly. It will be a place to discuss it, to get better at it, and to help others understand it. We might even make the world a better place. Trust me. And vaccinate your kids. SITE MAP |
Joseph Meier
Junior advertising student at Temple University. In his time there he noticed a lot of talk about "Media Literacy" in his advertising classes, but not so much at any other point in his education, beginning his realization that media illiteracy is an incredibly widespread problem that very few people even know about. "10 out of 10 cool people say Joseph Meier is a modern-day prophet and this blog is the path to a better tomorrow"
|
What is Media Literacy?
|
What can you do?
|
Forum
|
Blog
|
Contact
|