Media literacy and critical thinking

WHAT IS MEDIA LITERACY? 

 Media literacy is understood as the continuous learning process that regulates, controls and informs about the most representative risks of misinformation from digital communications media. 

Today, new technologies have had a great impact on new generations, forming new prospects and lifestyles that are the pillar of the new social culture. Social networks and websites have gained greater strength in recent decades, transforming education, businesses, social relationships and culture in many parts of the world. It arises in the name of “social innovation” and makes work “easier” when performing jobs of any kind mentioned above. 

Technologies are useful tools that represent a function and a service to each of their users/consumers, in this way, the responsibility for the use and care of their content and creation arises. Anyone who has access to a technological device and therefore its content will find information of all kinds (informative, educational, informative, advertising, marketing, entertainment, etc.) but will have to be careful with the veracity and effectiveness of the information. to avoid poor processing and expansion of these. This is how Media and Information Literacy (AMI) was born, whose main objective is: “Provide the necessary skills to take advantage of the advantages offered by the new communicative environment and show the risks that they also entail and the tools to manage them, facilitate participation in society. of responsible, free and informed citizens.” 

 WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING AND HOW TO TRAIN IT? 

Critical thinking is defined as the ability to analyze any information and construct one's own interpretation based on facts or contrasted data, moving away from unfounded beliefs. 

New technologies offer extensive information content allowing consumers to stay up to date with the outside world through a digital screen. Likewise, the content offered by different digital media is not always reliable and safe; many people today have fallen into digital traps such as fake news, spam, viruses, vishing, etc. And every day the voices of sensational headlines, slogans written by authentic marketing experts and news that spread like wildfire through WhatsApp or social networks are more present, creating as a consequence a massification of false content that passes for true and absolute.

Digital critical thinking is, then, a tool that allows you to safely question and verify the information that surrounds and invades social networks every day. So developing critical thinking involves putting into practice skills such as:

• Analyze the information 

• Search for complementary data 

• Ensure the reliability of the sources 

• Have an open mind 

• Understand that there are different points of view 

• Recognize the strengths and weaknesses of an idea 

• Avoid getting carried away by prejudices and stereotypes 

• Act critically 

• Be able to create our own reasoned and contrasted opinion 

Once the practices are applied, it will be easier to avoid falling into digital traps and highly propagated misinformation. We can help others build critical thinking so that more people can avoid it. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF MEDIA LITERACY AND CRITICAL THINKING. 

As we mentioned previously, today people have access to any type of information issued from social networks, web news, influencers, streamers, text messages and other sources that have become indispensable in the daily use of our society. It is important that users analyze and investigate all the necessary information to avoid falling into fake news, hoaxes, manipulations or opinions that could harm the masses. 

Media literacy and the development of critical thinking are essential tools that combat the dissemination of false information on the various platforms that emerge on the Internet. It is essential for the creation of informed, critical and responsible citizens in the information and communication era. In addition, it allows us to acquire advantages such as the most effective understanding of information - since we can analyze and evaluate the different contents that underlie the network -, develop critical thinking - it leads us to question the information and create our own truth with supporting sources -, actively participate in society - we can safely and respectfully express our opinion and comments on various information content -, among others.

REFERENCES

Angecias. (2020, September 9). La alfabetizacion mediatica, indispensable para el  pensamiento critico. La Vanguardia. https://lavanguardia.com/vida/junior-report/20200909/482800196900/la-alfabetizacion-mediatica-indispensable-para-desarrollar-el-pensamiento-critico.html

Atresmedia, F.(2022, December 9)¿Que es Alfabetizacion Mediatica e Informacional? FundacionAtresmedia. https://fundacion.atresmedia.com/actualidad/que-alfabetizacion-mediatica-informacional_20221209639337821eed5a0001823263.html

Pensamiento critico, imprescindible en la era digital. (2023, February 16). cristic; Cris. https://www.cristic.com/pensamiento-critico-imprescindible-en-la-era-digital/