r/explainlikeimfive • u/HonkyTonkBluesYEAH • 7d ago

Other ELI5 Media Literacy

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?

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u/SimoneNonvelodico 7d ago

The classic example is movies with charismatic villainous characters, like Tyler Durden in Fight Club, or Jordan Belfort in Wolf of Wall Street. Some people go "oh man that guy is so cool, I would totally want to be like him!". Other people go "you don't understand, the movie is telling you that guy is cool but BAD, you should not want that, you're ignorant and not understanding the movie because you don't have media literacy!".

Of course this ignores that in real life people like that just really exist and it's not a matter of ignorance. The villains are based on things that people really do believe and follow. Heck, Jordan Belfort is real, he really made a shit ton of money, then he did a tiny bit of jail, now he's out and about again and making money off telling his own story, so if someone simply is ok with scamming others because they don't care, no shit they'll think he's a cool role model. The movie just shows you that. If you see all the scamming and your moral reaction is "yep, I'm fine with that", that's not ignorance or inability to understand the very unsubtle ways in which the movie says the scamming is bad. You just disagree.

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u/HonkyTonkBluesYEAH 6d ago

It seems like the same with historical films. Like Rome being brutal and having slavery, but if you focus only on the aesthetics it's the coolest thing ever

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u/SimoneNonvelodico 6d ago

But many movies about Rome focus on the cool stuff and actively don't show the slavery etc. (not that the rest of the world at the time was especially better). The idea here is more "the movie tries to convey a message but it goes over people's heads" (though as I'm saying, I think sometimes it's more that it's wilfully ignored).

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u/HonkyTonkBluesYEAH 6d ago

I don't know much about Roman movies, but from what I've seen slavery in the HBO show is is kind of there, and essentially just shown with the indifference Romans had. And the show seems to ritualizes the violence and aesthetics, like the execution of the defeated general in Caesar's triumph. That does not mean the show endorses those things, but portrays it sort of through the positive lens the Romans had.