Wally's Domain

Social media, as defined by the Meriam Webster is a form of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos). Nowadays, social media has become the center of the lives of so many people. Through social media, people are able to communicate easier and receive information faster than before. There are other features that people like, such as posting and receiving likes and hearts. But as much as social media has provided us with good features, it also has its downsides. Social media addiction has become common among people, especially in the youth. Too much usage will affect one’s physical and mental health. Social media can also help us with our studies — good and bad. The good side is that in just one post, some users (mostly your followers) can give ideas for your activities or probably sharing your ideas to them also. The bad side says that it is indeed addictive and very time consuming which can give you a non-productive day.

Information and News Literacy provides information and understanding the news for the people, while the social era is where people gather information that is based on credibility, authenticity, and purpose. It is important to have a better understanding of their relevance to each other in order to provide the effective outcome, putting the information that is needed for the individuals to understand, and is relatable and up to date on happenings in a society. The effectiveness of the relevance of information and news literate in the social era is that the information is accurate and valid, and it helps the readers, researchers, and students to use the information.

A direct proportion to the loving hate oxymoron of the government to the media tells that the more the people listen to the media for news, the more the people’s views in politics get affected.

It has already marked in our minds that the government is in charge of enforcing rules in the society, booming the economy, security of a country and many more that could benefit the citizens. Now, let us connect the Government to the Media. They indeed have a love-hate relationship as for the media’s task is to give information to the public and of course they share information acquired from the government whether it could give the government a good or bad impression for the people. As watchdogs to our government, the media watches every single move that the government has done.

According to Diana Owen a news article writer in Georgetown University, “The media act as watchdogs checking government actions. They set the agenda for public discussion of issues, and provide a forum for political expression.” That statement itself explains how their relationship can change from love to hate and hate to love because a government's single wrong move can be exposed and lose the people’s favor. On the other hand, politicians can actually use the media to their advantage. In the report of Lata Nott, an attorney with expertise in the intersection of law, technology, and expression states that “In 2008, Barack Obama became one of the first candidates to use social media advertising in his campaign. That year, 2008, candidates spent a total of $22.25 million on online political ads. Since then, online political advertising has exploded—in 2016, candidates spent $1.4 billion on them.” Other than newspaper, television and other media forms, social media is also beneficial to them.

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure" -J.K. Rowling

Literate in the simplest term means educated. Being an educated individual gives you an upper hand with the world. You are not easy to be dealt with such hoax and are able to detect the wrong and right. Obviously speaking, being literate is essential to each individual in order to not be dragged down easily and be able to know exactly what to do in a given field. Yes, at a given field. Thus, every individual has its own literate areas in life. There are also fields in literacy to where each person should be knowledgeable about. Here, is a brief discussion of the VALUE of being a Media and Information Literate individual.

When one is Media Literate, he/she is able to know what to do when it comes to media, such as video editing, photography, music, accessing the internet and/or the media itself and uploading things on the internet. A media literate person also has good critical thinking skills, polishing the media he/she created to avoid flaws and making sure that it passes the ethical standards for each individual. Moving on to an Information Literate individual, he/she should also have good critical thinking skills, analyzes the information acquired to give a conclusion that one is credible and should be trusted. An Information Literate also has the ability to give information to the people with ethical standards. He/she also makes sure that the information given by him/her is legit for the public and not erroneous. What happens when you share non-eye-pleasing media and/or false information? That would obviously cause chaos.