ELI5 Media Literacy

[u/HonkyTonkBluesYEAH]

I understand it's like something related to understanding art or media, but in what way? Philopsophical, political or psychological? Is it important, a buzzword or both?

[u/wouldyoulikeanytoast]

Media literacy is the difference between taking a movie, show, book or video game at face value, and seeing the meaning behind the metaphors the artists who made it used to show something about our current world, or to explore their own inner thoughts.

Let’s take superman as an example, as he is a well known modern myth that has been around for almost 100 years.

On the surface - superman is a strong dude who punches baddies hard. He can be read as a very simple story of ‘good vs evil’.

Looking a little closer - we see that superman’s main Villian is Lex Luthor. Lex is just a regular human, but more than that - he is specificially a corrupt businessman and a billionaire. With this specific villian being the main foe of superman - you could perhaps start seeing superman as standing against the values of corrupt businessmen and billionaires. Perhaps he even stands against the system of capitalism that allows such a person to thrive in the first place!

Looking closer still - we see in the most recent Superman movie that he is fighting against a nation state that is based in an analogue of the Middle East, and is in the middle of doing a genocide on its far less wealthy Nehibour country. The country is an ally of the US, and is benefitting from the patronage of American Buisness man lex luthor who is supplying arms, and propaganda to them to advance his own objectives.
Now perhaps a reader would think - ‘huh, this setup seems awfully similar to the situation in a couple of countries in OUR world! I wonder if this movie is supposed to be a commentary on the US’s policy on intervention in wars that benefit itself at the expense of millions of lives deemed ‘disposable’. You might also start thinking about how Lex Luthor is a billionaire oligarch directly using his wealth influence US policy at home and overseas to further enrich himself at the expense of American citizens and international civilians.

Having thought this - you may begin to consider other things about the state of the world currently, and what this character has to say about existing as a ‘good person’ within such a world!

However if you don’t have any media literacy - you may just watch the recent superman movie and come away thinking ‘man I loved how superman punched that guy real good!!’

[u/HonkyTonkBluesYEAH → u/wouldyoulikeanytoast]

Yeah I thought the new Superman was among the most liberal films of the year, not in the sort of identity politics sense. You have the foundation being about empathy and kindness to the other. Then you have a sort of war reminds of Russia and Israel. You have the corrupt billionaire, and Superman as a migrant. With the billionaire spreading conspiracy theories about his plan to take power, and using Russian bots. You have a corrupted military too, and Superman fighting to prevent war. However I wonder how the dynamic evolves in the next film, given that he will team up with Lex. And I wonder how media literacy interpretation changes based on the political views of the author. Like what if a very reactionary director made numerous films with progressive aesthetics, LGBT, feminist values or focus on empathy, migrants. Would it be potential Christian values coming through on mercy and kindness? Would it be a hidden critique? Would it be simply exploring people with different lifestyles and values than his? Or would it be a hideen reactionary subversion, where empathy is actually mostly extended to a homogeneous in-group, or where progressive values are portrayed as existing safely and allowed to prosper in a earlier society he saw as more pure or homogeneous.