For most of us, it’s hard to imagine a media-free day. We need media to stay informed, interact with our community, be entertained and participate in democracy. But to do these things effectively, we need a basic level of media literacy. But what is media literacy? And why is it important? RTRFM’s Allan Boyd caught up with one of the authors of a new report into media literacy…
Most of believe that media, and media diversity is important, and we consume so much of it – often reading the news from the moment we wake up, scrolling throughout the day – and can often be the last thing we do at night. Social media is by far the most common type of media we use – with 83% of adults using social media on a daily basis. But how well do we understand media? A new study on Adult Media Literacy in Australia provides a comprehensive analysis into how Australians understand and use different forms of traditional and digital media. I spoke with the lead author of the study – Senior Lecturer in Digital Media Dr Tanya Notley from the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Western Sydney.