Week Seven: Media Literacy


As I've studied librarianship one of the concepts I have seen emphasized again and again is information literacy.

Information literacy covers many topics. Including evaluating if the information is based on facts and is from a trustworthy source. Media literacy is very closely tied to this. To me, media literacy is having the knowledge and tools to critically analyze the media you consume. 

Renee Hobbs writes about digital literacy and its components. If you are interested in more details here is a link to a review of her book Digital and Media Literacy. Hobbs concludes there are five main components to digital literacy. 

They are:

  • Access
  • Analyze
  • Create
  • Reflect 
  • Act
Hobbs offers insight into each one of these ideas. However, the overarching theme is to take time to think about the media you consume. Ask questions like, "Why is this message being conveyed over Tiktok?" or "What messages are in this ad that are not being said?" or "Is this information presented accurately, or is it meant to cause a knee-jerk reaction?"

Of course, each part of what Hobbs discusses adds more details but I think the main message is to thoughtfully consume media. As a librarian, I want to make sure that the community I am helping has access to the information and resources they need. This is a difficult topic because it is fiercely debated in the library community how much of a neutral party we should be. If you would like to read more on this topic I suggest this article. 


(Image Credit: Ebook friendly)

This is a popular poster with librarians. I have even posted it to my own social media a few times. Ultimately librarians want to create an environment that helps people learn. I think this means teaching information and digital literacy but, also letting people make their own choices about how/what/where/why they consume media. 

As I thought about digital literacy and thoughtfully consuming content I kept thinking about AI. Today one of the biggest concerns is AI and how it fits into our society. AI is used to create images, read text, write articles, and even create deep fakes.

Here is a good resource detailing things to watch for when checking if images are AI-generated. It also discusses that text is particularly difficult to decipher if it is written by AI.  

I do enjoy using Facebook which has become saturated with AI content. People often do not recognize the images as AI-generated. Earlier this year a clothing brand I like called Holy Clothing created an ad using AI art (see below).

(Image Credit: HolyClothing Facebook)


This caused outrage among many of their consumers who were drawn to the brand because of their authenticity. They then changed their stance and posted the following:

(Image Credit: HolyClothing Facebook)

One of the main problems here is they are a clothing brand and the AI images had clothes that the company didn't make. People in the comments who didn't realize the images were AI were confused and frustrated that they couldn't find the clothes from the images. This felt misleading and dishonest and people appreciated that Holy Clothing changed their approach but many people did lose trust in them.

On the AI ad they ran I saw people posting this:


              (Image Credit: Connie Hartviksen Photography)

This meme is now something I use when I see what I know is AI-generated images. Hopefully, it will help people think about what they are consuming. Even if it just causes them to reconsider what they are thinking for a second it could help them be more critical next time they see an image that could be misleading. 

Comments

  1. OBOUBE April 21, 2024 at 5:59 PM

    Hi Kira: Thank you for your post!
    This weeks readings are indeed challenging and I completely agree with the connection you made with librarianship.
    We know that libraries are an universal educator, and now that our societies are going through a digital revolution, it become more and important to ensure that people analyze, reflect before they act on the digital information they have access to. Without a doubt, this places a burden on librarians. Ours is one of the few professions guided by ethics and values. Libraries ensure that people obtain the information they need without distinction regarding race, gender, age or economic status. I wonder though whether it is also our job to ensure that people use the information we provide in the right manner? Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  2. DRomanApril 22, 2024 at 7:59 PM

    Hello Kira,
    I really like your statement that "media literacy is having the knowledge and tools to critically analyze the media you consume". I think this is phrased accurately because it is important to have both the knowledge and tools to understand the message the media is trying to portray. I also like your poster. I think the library is a great place to start when learning about media literacy and it’s great that librarians allow people to make their own choices when consuming media but are readily available if they need information and/or help. It’s also concerning how AI is making it more difficult for users to decipher if what they’re viewing/reading is real or fake. I think this is going to be a major problem because AI is getting very good at creating fake images and it is getting harder to test for authenticity. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. NMZumpanoApril 23, 2024 at 1:37 PM

    There are some amazing resources out there to help start the conversation with students- especially involving AI. While I can't expect they would master all techniques I would hope that we could at the very least make them comfortable with questioning everything they see.

    ReplyDelete
  4. SomeLibrarian42April 25, 2024 at 2:33 PM

    I agree working in a library I am always concern about how my patrons go about finding information. But I have to remind myself that I can lead a horse to water but I can't make it drink.
    I don't know how people not notice AI art in the more photorealistic styles due to the unnatural glow around figures and backgrounds being nonsense blobs. But my bias might be due to me following a lot of artist and being friends with artists who point out the common flaws with AI art.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week Four Internet Safety and Library Policy

Image
Hello! For this week I have been thinking about even if you are extremely careful the internet is still a dangerous place. We have a responsibility to learn about the dangers for ourselves and also for the community we serve.  To start here  is an article that gives good basics of internet safety. As I first started to look at internet safety the acronym S.M.A.R.T kept popping up. This is meant for children but I think it is important for all internet users to keep in mind. See the image below for more details:  (Image Credit: AG Parts Education) After looking at this guide I wanted to look at more specifics to be safe. This is when I found a Google Guide . I highly recommend this resource because it hits so many important issues such as knowing how to secure your account and recognize when your accounts have been hacked.  (Image Credit: Eastcoastitnotes) One reason to review a guide like this is it can't hurt to check your knowledge right? As I read through the guid...
Read more

Week Five Digital Tattoos

Image
On TikTok there are creators who will find a persons location or personal information (like their birthday) based on very little information. Once I saw someone find a birthday because they found a friend of the person's Facebook and then saw that they ran marathons and then they searched through marathon records to find the year they were born. It was both interesting and terrifying.    One of those creators is @notkhanjunior and here is a video of her finding someone's birthday.  (Video Credit: @notkhanjunior ) Most of these creators do these videos to help people understand privacy on the internet. I remember the first time I saw one I was a little spooked because I am far more public with my information online than people they are looking at. This brings me to the term Digital Tattoos or Digital Footprints. This article   gives good information on Digital Tattoos and provides useful tools for any internet user. Here is a little guide to start thinking about...
Read more

Bonus Post! Exploring Parental Consent for Social Media

Image
  Social media can be intimidating. It has so many good and bad uses. I do not think its large scope should intimate people learning to use it as an educational tool. As a librarian I want to make sure that young and old library users have the knowledge they need to successfully navigate social media. One way to do this is through library programs and clubs. But if minors will be using social media in a library sponsored events parental (or from here on referred to as guardian) permission. Making sure that guardians not only give consent to use these tools but they understand the purpose behind programing like this is vital. In this sample guardian consent letter I am running a fictitious youth creators club. If I were to pitch this club to my library director I would describe how this would increase library engagement while also teaching valuable skills. This letter is specific for Youtube.  See below:   (Image by author) Now there are a few things I want to point o...
Read more