Key Concepts of Media Literacy:

The Media Constructs a Version of Reality: A good example of how the media constructs a version of reality is the social networking site “ask.fm”. In this particular site you can ask people different questions anonymously and you can answer in return for those who have asked you. This site allows basically everyone who has an account to create a different version to who they really are. I know this for a fact because my close friends and I all have accounts and when I see particular questions that they get asked and I see their responses, I know that they wouldn’t actually answer like that. So they have created a different version to who they are. But since it is someone who is anonymous you can respond in any manner you want. This site can also be very dangerous and give people the opportunity to bully others and I’ve also seen that happen. With these types of social networking sites you can be the communicator and portray yourself to be anyone.
http://ask.fm/trinalovemusiclife

Media messages contain social and political implications: A good example of how the media contains both social and political implications is the music video and song by the musical artists Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis featuring Mary Lambert. Even though “Same Love” isn’t an advertisement, it contains a strong message with what is going on in the world. Recently, the United States have been legalizing gay marriages in different states. The message that the song is giving is that just because politics is telling you that it is okay to be gay doesn’t mean that you will accept someone who is, socially. So the artists that created this song have decided to use the media as a way to get their message to the world that being gay should be accepted and they cannot change who they are and that you shouldn’t judge them for being who they are. In the song itself you hear Mackelmore speaking about how people judge each other online “behind the keys of a message board,” this means that even though the government and most of the world have started to accept the homosexuals a lot of others haven’t and they bash gays online. The artist Mackelmore is fairly new to the music world; however he has used what fame he has to get his message across using the media. In the music video it shows the life of a gay man, from birth to the end. You see him growing up as any other child, playing games with his father and such. As he grows older he starts to realize that he isn’t considered “normal” and therefore is seen being shy and unsure of himself. However once his adolescent years were over, he settled down and had found another man who he shared a relationship with. Eventually they got married, as it is now legal; you see them looking very happy at their wedding and sharing their life together to the very end as old men. I think this video and its song have a very strong social message that is given to the public by the media.

Media text that contains value/social messages: This is an image of Marilyn Monroe with a quotation from her. I believe that this contains a valuable social message. What she basically said was that everyone is human and can make mistakes, no one is perfect and everyone has both good and bad qualities about them. Marilyn Monroe has been known to be someone who was always herself and didn’t care what others thought of her. She was an inspiration to young women and still is to this day even though she is deceased. Part of what made Marilyn so great was the fact that even though she was an attractive woman she was a woman. She wasn’t stick thin; she had a very curvy body with wide hips and everything. But because of her confidence, society accepted her. So I think a lot of what she tried to get everyone to do is just accept themselves and just realize that no one is perfect.