Media Literacy

by W. James Potter

Media Literacy teaches students how to navigate through the overwhelming flood of information found in today’s media-saturated world. Drawing from thousands of media research studies, author W. James Potter explores key components to understanding the fascinating world of mass media. Potter presents examples and facts to help students understand how the media operate, how they attract attention, and how they influence the public. Chapters conclude with exercises to help readers apply the material to everyday life and improve their media literacy. The Tenth Edition integrates a stronger focus on digital media, features a streamlined organization, and updates facts to keep readers informed on the rapidly changing media phenomenon.

Genres: Nonfiction, Grad School, Journalism, Textbooks

504 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 8, 1998

Reviews

[Milky way · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب سوادرسانه‌ای دبلیو جیمز پاتر، یک کتاب هشتصد صفحه‌ای درباره نحوه درست مواجه ما با رسانه هست که بزرگ‌ترین ضعف این کتاب از نظر من حجم زیاد و قیمت بالاشه و بزرگ‌ترین قوت هم ساده و کاربردی بودنشه.

علت اعتراضم به قیمت و حجم بالا بیشتر به‌خاطر اینه که بخش اعظم کتاب شامل مثال‌های متعدد و گاها خسته‌کننده هست، هر فصل نزدیک چهل صفحه‌ داره که به‌راحتی و به‌صورت قابل فهم می‌شد توی بیست صفحه جمعش کرد و حتی دو سه تا مثال رو هم آورد تازه برای خیلی بخش‌ها بیست‌صفحه رو هم زیاد گفتم.
کتاب از ابعاد مختلف شناختی، عاطفی، زیبایی‌شناسیک و اخلاقی مواجه ما با رسانه رو بررسی می‌کنه و سعی داره بگه چه‌اشکالی در مواجه ما وجود داره و چرا باید جور دیگه‌ای باشه، انواع محتوا دسته‌بندی شده و به‌راحتی می‌تونید انتخاب کنید با کدوم شروع کنید. البته بعد از خوندن چند فصل اول. بحث مورد علاقه من توی این کتاب مربوط به صنعت می‌شه، چشم‌انداز جالبی داره که در راستای سایر چشم‌اندازهاس.آخر هرفصل هم یک‌سری تمرین داره که هم بهتون نشون می‌ده سواد رسانه‌ای خوبی ندارید و فقط تا الان خیال می‌کردید که رسانه اثرش مال دیگرانه و هم اینکه کمکتون می‌کنه تقویت سواد رسانتون رو از یه‌جایی شروع کنید. خیلی از کارگاه‌های سواد رسانه‌ تو ایران براساس این کتابه.
خلاصه کتاب بهمون نمی‌گه از رسانه دوری کنید و در معرضش قرار نگیرید چون غیرممکنه بلکه بیشتر می‌خواد بهمون یاد بده استفاده رسانه‌ایمون رو خودمون کنترل کنیم.
فقط کاش اون کتاب سواد‌رسانه‌ای فسیل شده راهنمایی رو آتیش بزنن و شده دو خط از این کتاب رو یاد بدن....آه

[Diz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a textbook that covers pretty much everything related to media literacy. Since it is covering so much, it aims for coverage rather than depth. However, it's a good choice if someone is looking into media literacy for the first time. Of particular use are the reading suggestions at the end of each chapter.

I read the 8th edition, so while I was reading it, I could kind of tell which sections were newer and which sections were older and in need of an update.

[Ema · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely useful book for understanding the media and thus the world we live in because when we reduce the mass media to the smallest unit it is information and people “live” of information.

[Billy Kid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Media Literacy teaches you how to navigate through the overwhelming flood of information found in today's media-saturated world. Drawing from thousands of media research studies, author W. James Potter explores key components to understanding the fascinating world of mass media. Potter presents examples and facts to help you understand how the media operate, how they attract attention, and how they influence you and the public.

A must read, don't sit on this one!

Learn about Media Literacy, especially if you're name is Louis (I swear to God).

Here's some random quotes from the book that I highlighted for whatever reason:

[...] while choice is attractive, too much choice can paralyze us into inaction. When we feel overwhelmed, we rely more and more on automatic routines, and leads us into a deeper and deeper rut of doing the same things over and over.

That moment when you stare at the hundreds (thousands?) of games in your Steam Library and proclaim: "I don't know what to play" or "I guess I'll just play (insert predatory MOBA or CCG here)".

The reason faulty beliefs are such a dangerous trap is because they are self-reinforcing.

cough cough Flat Earthers cough cough Anti Vaxxers cough cough

The mass media construct audiences so they can rent those audiences out to advertisers. In constructing those audiences, the media focus on particular niches where they can provide content that serves a need not already being met. They attract particular kinds of people into those audiences then condition them for repeat exposures.

If you take a step back and really think about what the porn industry has been able to do in the last 15 years or so, it's bananas. How many kids have grown up with instant access to an infinite sea of porn accessible anywhere and at any time? A lot. How many of them have been seriously harmed psychologically by this? At least one.

Successful websites, whether they deal with information, entertainment, music, video, or the printed word, all try to do the same thing. They offer you apps that you can download and use for free on your mobile devices. They want to condition you to continually use their services so it becomes a habit that you cannot live without.

Is being constantly on Twitter really making your life better? Or have you been conditioned to such an extent that you can't live without it and whenever someone asks you why you're still on Twitter, you reply like an addict.

It is likely that there are many adults who are not as highly developed cognitively, emotionally, or morally as many children.

There's enough sick burns in this textbook that the author is clearly moonlighting as an inflamatory standup comedian on weekends.

We are the consumers, and our resources include not only our money but, even more importantly, our time and attention.

Over the course of your life, the amount of free time you have tends to shrink and the amount of money you have tends to grow. And that shapes the way you interact with the media.

[...] the singing ability of Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, and Justin Bieber, although good, cannot alone account for their huge popularity; that is, these recording artists have some inexplicable ability to attract large audiences that cannot be explained solely by the artistic quality of their singing ability.

Absolutely savage.

Advertising gets people to look beyond the product features to consider product images as well as psychological advantages of using the product.

This product will make you fuck because yes absolutely that's how the world works. You slap on some awful smelling body spray and your inside someone else quicker than you can say "false advertising".

This strategy of increasing revenue streams can also be seen in all the merger and acquisition activity across all media industries. When a media company becomes a conglomerate, controlling the distribution of messages in many media channels, it can easily market a single message across many channels and thus quickly create multiple revenue streams for that one message.

Can't stop, won't stop, consolidation.

"[...] it is less costly emotionally to watch characters in a movie try to meet each other, establish relationships, break up, and learn from their mistakes than it is to go through all of that in real life to learn the same thing. Audiences therefore have a strong, continuing motivation to seek out messages in the media. They search for messages that have two general characteristics. First, those messages must appear real. [...] Second, those messages must present a little more than their every day reality. [...] people want media messages that are not so real that they are the same as their everyday lives. But neither do they want media messages that are so far removed from their experiences and needs that the messages have no immediate relevance. So people want messages that are one step removed from real life; they want messages that show what is easily possible and make it seem probable and even actual.

Reality TV and Youtube vloggers say hi.

We all live in two worlds; the real world and the media world. Attaining higher levels of media literacy does not mean avoiding the media world. Instead it means being able to tell the two worlds apart as the two merge together under pressures from new message formats and newer technologies that seem to make the boundary lines between the two worlds very fuzzy.

Say it with me, parasocial relationships are not real relationships.

Most of us feel that the real world is too limited; that is, we cannot get all the experiences and information we want in the real world. [...] We are continually entering the media world to get experiences and information we cannot get very well in our real lives. We enter the media world to expand our real-world experience and help us understand the real world better. But those experiences we have in the media world are different than if we had experienced them directly in the real world. We often forget this as we bring media-world experiences back into our real world.

And that's all for now folks. Textbooks are lonnnnnnng. But I don't mind.

[Klara Jarolimova · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a part of European old media culture course in college, but I keep getting back to it, because the history of visual effects and acting techniques is just so interesting and this book is a perfect intro for anyone who would like to explore the world of film. I also entirely enjoyed watching some of these old productions. Bicycle Thieves of Italian Neorealism turned into one of my dearly loved movies, depicting life realities of ordinary people in such a touching story that activates sense of empathy for its viewers. I enjoyed learning about German Expressionism when watching and analyzing Nosferatu, the dramas of Socialist Realism in Battleship of Potemkin or French New Wave movement that was influenced by Italian Neorealism while watching the 400 Blows. I got to learn more about Jean-Luc Godard and Alphaville, something that I always considered to be ahead of its time and inspiration for later sci-fi films. I took the course as part of my electives, but it quickly became one of my favorite courses as I was in the process of changing study majors from engineering to design. The book provided inspiration for the art and media world, which was just what I needed at the time and I love coming back to it as well as some of the b&w movies it references.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of this was a skim, but I allow myself to count thorough skimmings of textbooks as a "read." Parts of this are still quite good — particularly the first few chapters talking about literacy, audiences, and media effects. The more specific the book gets, though, the more dated it is — there's a huge focus on television, for instance, and I don't think social media was mentioned even once (it was only 2008, after all — smartphones were only just arriving on the scene). I probably should have looked for a later edition.

[Farideh · Rating 4 out of 5]

بسیار عالی، باید حتماً یه وقت دیگه بذارم نکاتشو مرور کنم و اگر بشه دوباره بخونمش که چه بهتر

[Meg]

Textbooks for class count towards reading goals LOL

[Марко Вујчић · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not fun

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exposes generational biases.

[Nana · Rating 5 out of 5]

for my research, it is the best sources

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comprehensive, but ugh, so much "textbook" writing.