by Zoey (Xuezhao) Wang
Zoey Wong
If there is one thing that has made the definition of media literacy so fascinating, that would be the fact that you cannot simply define it as one thing. There are so many dimensions of interpretations to understand media literacy. Just like the way you can use media literacy as a tool, a skill, a key to decipher the mediated world. Therefore, it is complicated, thus frustrating to explain why media literacy is important.
As time goes by, people in our society have become more and more aware of the power of information. As a consequence, media literacy has become more and more recognized as a survival skill of consuming information in a digital age. However, what has not seemed to be paid enough attention to is the culture dimension of media literacy. As an international student from China, studying media literacy in the United States, the first and foremost experience I have encountered was switching between two completely different cultures. What’s more, media literacy has attracted me to further inquire the nuanced intercultural communication in this mediated era.
In a radio interview, I was asked what had changed the most for my understanding of America by studying here for two years. My answer was media literacy. Simply speaking, media literacy has furnished what I have previously learned about the American culture through media. Mostly, popular media.
In one of my studies on the cultural and social changes among Chinese Milleninals, I found that many of my fellows have shown huge passions for the United States. By observing and interviewing them, I found that one of the factors they mentioned quite frequently, that have cultivated this zeal, was, the so-called “American dream.” And where does it come from? American popular media. Freedom, opportunities, success, and so on, are the elements that we can find in almost every American movie, TV shows, as well as commercials. These have considerably significant affective influences on us. Including myself, those were part of the reason I decided to come to the United States. Besides pursuing American education, many Chinese young people are more longing for American Life. The kind of life which they see every day in their favorite American movies and TV shows. Besides news outlets, people obtain more specifically picturesque impressions about American culture through popular media. And these impressions further become cultural imprints implanted into their belief systems. Media literacy enables people to realize the process of media communication. Consequently, media literacy empowers citizens to think and choose the media messages from a seemingly familiar culture, and interpret them in their own way.
Interestingly, I have been asked quite frequently about China and Chinese culture by my American friends, based on their knowledge from the media. I have surprisingly found their curiosity about China and Chinese culture that is partially attributed to the media. While I have enjoyed, every time, explaining to them by providing historical, cultural and social contexts, andI have again a deep sense of how important media literacy is for us to understand different cultures via the media.
As the inexorable expansion of global market continues, people from all over the world are more and more aware of the significance of international communication. Now more than ever before, media plays pivotal role in the process of globalization. In this process, culture presents the most integrated dimension in media communication. Media literacy not only is the fundamental human right, but also has become the basic qualification for global citizens. In this globalized mediated era, those who are media literate are enfranchised to employ their manifest source —the media, while those are not might be facing the danger of creating a more modern system of serfdom.
Zoey (Xuezhao) Wang is a Webster University graduate holding a Master’s degree in Media Communications. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Broadcast, Television, and News Sciences in 2010. She was an academic exchange representative to Taiwan and Singapore during her undergraduate study. She gained working experiences in both National Public Radio member station in the US and China’s top station — China Radio International (CRI)– in Beijing while serving as an intern. She currently serves as a interactive media communicator at GMPL and
