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Santiago Cardona

Professor Mardenfeld

Mass Media: History & Development

How to Create a Better World Through Media

Potter’s theory of media literacy states that there are four ways that consumers can

understand media, which are developed independently. This paper will explore the importance

and purpose of media literacy, how certain media can increase or decrease a viewer’s media

literacy, and the importance of media literacy in interactive mediums like the internet.

Potter discusses the ways that media literacy is important, especially because

misunderstanding media can lead to negative character development. “Media literacy must be

developed. No one is born media literate. The purpose is to gain greater control over influences

in one’s life, particularly the constant influence from the mass media. ” (Potter, 681). The main

benefit of being media literate is the ability to understand and filter out which messages to accept

and which to reject. Potter notes that low media literacy is associated with, “negative outcomes

such as believing that television characters are like real-world people, and learning aggression

from violent television” (686). For Potter, if media literacy is not developed the viewer will not

understand the purpose of media. Media is not an example of how the real world operates, but

rather a metaphorical portrayal of reality similar to myths or stories, and someone not

understanding this can lead to them thinking it is acceptable to act a certain way or to harm

others.

Potter outlines the different ways someone can engage with media. Engaging cognitively

means to engage with what a piece of media is trying to say. Emotionally is to understand the
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emotions being expressed. Aesthetically is to understand the tools that piece of media is using to

transmit its message. Lastly, engaging with a piece of media morally is to understand the social.

values that are being presented. Potter notes the importance of all these forms of engagement

with media, “someone might be highly developed along a cognitive dimension such that they

would be highly analytical when they watch a movie, but if they are not developed morally they

are not engaged in the dilemmas inherent in stories beyond a superficial level”(682). Being able

to analyze media on all these levels is important since media “shapes and reinforces knowledge

structures, beliefs, and habits” (Potter, 682) which have an impact in the real world. One form of

analysis is not more important than the other, they must all be enriched.

Martin Scorcese, a strong proponent of media literacy, discusses how media can enrich

viewers morally, "people need to understand that not all images are there to be consumed like

fast food and then forgotten… we need to educate people to understand the difference between

moving images that engage their humanity and their intelligence, and moving images that are

just selling them something” (1). Media can have a resonating impact on people’s lives if it

connects with them on a moral level. Coincidentally, many of his films show inherently good

people doing bad things, like ​Goodfellas,​ in which the viewer is given an intimate view of

someone’s moral character. Scorcese’s movies engage morally with viewers because they

humanize mobsters and murderers, which people usually aren’t forced to empathize with, and

serves to impact how people see others.

Scorcese’s views on media literacy also connects with comments he made about movies

like ​The Avengers “​ not being cinema”. Much like TV, superhero movies are made for

consumption and serve to aid people in escaping their lives while not forcing them to engage in
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any difficult way with the medium. The superheroes are the good guys, the villain just wants to

destroy the world, and the way the film presents itself makes it possible to zone out and still

understand the message. This does not lead to a greater understanding of the medium, the world,

or humanity; it is just a vehicle of entertainment which does not increase a viewer’s media

literacy or moral character. While this kind of material is not detrimental in itself, it is when

viewers only engage with this kind of material and do not enrich their media literacy that can

have detrimental effects.

Apart from mass media, Potter’s ideas about media literacy also extend to the internet.

The internet being an interactive medium, it is important not only to analyze how people

consume media, but also how they engage with a medium. Studies that have looked at the

relationship between economic status and higher cognitive literacy have seen that “young people

with higher SES (Socio-Economic Status) use the internet for information while those in lower

SES groups use it for entertainment” (Peter and Valkenburg, 2006). The different ways that

people engage with the internet shows how they understand the function of it, and how media

literate they are. Children of higher income families understand the benefits the internet can

provide for education and how the internet aids to engage with the world, while lower income

children use it to entertain themselves. One behavior leads to higher media literacy because the

more education someone receives, the better equipped they will be to understand media on a

cognitive, emotional, aesthetic, and moral level. The other form of internet use does not develop

media literacy if they are using it “to find something that might not bore them” (260) which is

how Fang characterized television viewership.

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To conclude, media literacy is extremely important in modern society, especially because

of how pervasive media and its messages are now. With the ease of delivery through the internet,

media messaging is rampant. 21st century viewers need to develop media literacy in order to

filter between messages that are beneficial and those which are potentially harmful. While media

can have a numbing effect, when a viewer chooses to engage with media on a cognitive, moral,

emotional, and aesthetic basis they can develop higher moral character and a better

understanding of the world around them.

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Work Cited

Fang, Irving E. ​Alphabet to Internet: Media in Our Lives.​ Routledge, 2015.

Park, Sora. “Dimensions of Digital Media Literacy and the Relationship with Social

Exclusion.” ​Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy​, Feb. 2012.

Potter, James. “The State of Media Literacy.” ​Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic

Media​, Dec. 2010.

Scorsese, Martin. “Scorsese and the Four Key Elements of Visual Literacy.” ​ACMI,​

ACMI, https://www.acmi.net.au/ideas/read/scorsese-and-four-key-elements-visual-literacy/.