Unit1/Exam I

Chapter 1: Why Increase Media Literacy?
What is the “information problem” in today’s message-saturated society?
The information problem has shifted from one of gaining access to one of protecting ourselves from too much information.
What is automatic processing/automaticity? How does it help us consume media messages?
It is a state where our minds operate without any conscious effort from us. We can perform even complicated tasks routinely without even thinking about them.
It helps us get through a great many decisions with almost no effort.
What are disadvantages of this information processing strategy?
With so many messages constantly available, we are overwhelmed and begin to think that value of any one message in almost nothing, so we make poor exposure decisions and while we are exposing ourselves to more and more messages, we are paying less and less attention to them. It is likely that the more time people spend with the media in general, the less likely they are to learn from any one message, especially with the multitasking further reducing attention to any one message.
What happens when you allow other agents of programming to dominate your mind?
They are trying to use you as a tool to achieve their goals, which are often different from your own goals. When this happens it makes you feel less and less happy as they “help” you solve problems you don’t have and make worse the problems you do have. Your mind then runs on autopilot and you end up behaving in ways that achieve the goals of those programmers.
Why is becoming more media literate important?
It gives you a much clearer perspective to see the border between your real world and the world manufactured by the media. You have clear maps to help you navigate better in the media world so that you can get to those experiences and information you want without becoming distracted by those things that are harmful to you.
Why does the author compare media illiteracy to pollution?
The media industries provide us with many products that we desire, products that are good for us, but these same media industries are also producing harmful by-products and dumping them into our culture.

Chapter 2: Media Literacy Approach
How does the author view mass media in terms of their effects (positive or negative)?
We need to view this as change that is some things deteriorate but other things get better.
What is personal locus? Why is it important?
The energy and your plan. It is composed of goals and drives. The goals shape the information processing tasks by determining what gets filtered in and what gets ignored.
What is factual information? What is social information?
Factual information is something raw, unprocessed, and content free. They are discrete bits of information.
Social information is composed of accepted beliefs that cannot be verified by authorities in the same way factual information is composed of techniques can be. It is composed of techniques that people learn from to dress, talk, and act to be considered attractive, smart, athletic, hip and so on.
The skills crucial to media literacy are analysis, evaluation, grouping, induction, deduction, synthesis, and abstraction.
What would “Analysis” skill allow us to do when you are exposed to a news story?
Analysis is the breaking down of a message into meaningful elements.
With a news story, we can accept with a journalist tell us or analyze the story for completeness. That is, we can break the story down into its who, what, when, where, why and how to determine if the story is complete or not.
What is faulty use of induction?
People are using elements they have learned in media messages to dominate their perception of a pattern in real life. They accept a faulty belief because they do not take their own real-life experience into account when inferring a pattern, that is, they do not use induction well, instead preferring to use elements from mass media stories and not the elements from