Have you ever found yourself scrolling through your social media feed and suddenly

realizing you've been mindlessly consuming information for hours? Or have you ever
come across an article or video that seems too good to be true, yet you can't help but
believe it because it confirms your beliefs? Well, it's time to talk about media
information literacy.

Let us first define what media and information literacy means. It is a set of
knowledge, attitudes, and skills that help us to make ethical and wise decisions when
we engage with information and media.

You must have thought of questions like "what are the skills are you talking about?
And how actually do they help me to, as you've said, make ethical and wise decisions
when I engage with information and media?"

Well, I also have that in my mind now that i realize this definition is indeed vague and
kinda broad.

To fully grasp what MIL is, let's dig into its competencies. What I am referring to are
the skills that are important in being media and information literate. There are 3
competencies of MIL and those are: access, evaluate, and create.

Let's start with "access". It generally means being able to reach or use something.
When we talk about media and information literacy, it means using different types of
media to find, get, and keep information. A good example of this is what you're doing
right now — watching this pre-recorded presentation because you know where to find
it and what to do with the link that we provided. And now, you're consuming
information! Another example could be when you and your classmates needed to
find books on a specific topic for your GE 8 report. You went to the library at NORSU
and searched for the books you needed on our group chat. Or maybe you searched
for related studies on Google Scholar by typing specific keywords for your research
proposal. Those are all instances when you used your access skills in media and
information literacy.

Having access to information is like owning a lot of keys, including the room you
wanna get in, but it's not enough to just insert any key into the knob. We also need to
take a closer look at which key is the right one. The same process happens when we
evaluate information and media messages.

The second competency of MIL is the ability to evaluate. When you evaluate an
information or media content, you ask yourself questions like "who made it?" "What is
the message they are trying to share?" "Is the message clear and accurate?" "What's
the reason they made it, and does it look real or not?" "Is it biased?"

For instance, as you're watching this video right now, do you believe what I'm saying
is accurate? Do you trust me as a reliable source for this topic? You might want to
check other sources of information to confirm whether what I'm saying is true or not.

Another example is when you're shopping online. Let's say you want to buy a pair of
trousers on Shopee. Some of you might check the product reviews, compare prices
with other shops selling the same product, and even inspect the seller's information
to ensure a successful purchase.

Furthermore, evaluation is also essential when consuming news from your Facebook
or Twitter newsfeed. So, these are just a few of the most common instances when
we need to evaluate information and media contents.

Now, let's move on to another competency of MIL which is "create". It is the ability to
use different media tools and techniques to make videos on TikTok, music,
Facebook posts, or any media content you can think of. But, remember, it's not just
about being good with the technical stuff - you also need to know how to
communicate well and be responsible and ethical. That means not stealing other
people's ideas or work and making sure your message is clear and respectful. For
example, you are participate on online discussion. You wanna make sure you write
your ideas clearly and not in a way that can offend others. Also, talking about
intellectual property, when you make video projects that require you to add video
clips, images, and music, you may use copyright-free ones from pexels, pixabay, or
from epidemic sound to avoid using products illegally. It's also important to be part
of democratic processes like creating or signing online petitions and using media to
spread awareness about important social or political issues, such as climate change
or human rights.

And that concludes our discussion on definition and aspects of media and
information literacy.

Now that we're done with it, let's dive into the dimensions of MIL.