 My dear students, today I shall be introducing a new concept called Media Literacy Theory. You must understand what media literacy is in the modern day context. Media literacy is a very important role in a democratic society. Media literacy is the need of the day because media has been functioning more than what it is all these days. The question is, what exactly is the role of the media in a modern democratic society? Media is supposed to impart, educate and entertain. Information is fine, education is required, entertainment has become all the more important these days. With the explosion of media and media technology, the world is moving towards a mediated society. The concept of globalization has become real because of the mass media. Marshall McLuhan talked about medium as the message. In fact, he said medium is the message. Medium is all powerful today because all of us believe in whatever a medium means. Media literacy means trying to understand what mass media do to the people. Most of us do not know how media operate in a society. It is mysterious, it is glamorous, but the effect of media messengers is enormous. People have faith in mass media. We know that mass media are called as the fourth state. In fact, it was called as the fourth state because of the press which played the role of an opposition in a democratic quality. But with the electronic media coming into the picture, we have started using mass media in place of the press. Apart from the legislature, the judiciary, the executive, the mass media are considered to be a pillar of a democratic nation. By the time that we have gone into a new era of globalization, a new era of technological determination, a new era of media becoming very powerful, the role of the media has to be scrutinized. So where exactly we have to do it, it is not with anybody else, it is with the audience. The audience are considered to be very passive. No, audience are dynamic. Audience will have to take care of the media performance. Media, when they perform, they do not bother about the audience because there is something called as pluralistic ignorance among media persons. The reason is simple. Media people, they brush shoulders with the people in power. They think that they are powerful, they think that they know everything and at times they become cynical also. The cynical aspect of mass media persons is a cause of worry for all of us. It is okay to be cynical, but it has to be healthy things, for example. But unfortunately, it is leading us to put the audience down. So the question is how to make them understand what should be their role. Nobody can do it because it is only the audience who can do it. If the audience reject a particular media outlet, then they can understand the thought of the audience. You must also remember that audiences are dynamic, they are not passive. But in a country like India, where the rate of literacy is not even 60-70%, there is a very need for us to educate the people about the media. That's why media literacy has become important. One of the basic principles of mass communication is that mass media should play the role of a guardian angel of the society. Unfortunately, the days of corporatization have moved large and have taken over the role of the guardian as a commercial role. Profit motive is a very important problem. We call this as corporatization of mass communication or what we call as media operation. The basic premise behind corporatization is to make money and make more money. This is not the exact role of mass media. To survive, mass media should become commercial, should make money, but at the same time they should not avoid their social responsibility. Mass communication is a profession where social responsibility is equally important. So who should build a cat? It is the audience. It is not the question that nobody can build a cat, it is the audience. They have to understand the role and operation of mass media. Mass media in pursuit of profit have forgotten the ethical principles of mass communication. The ethical principles say mass media should be objective, mass media should be fair and mass media should be truthful. Again, the question is how far mass media are truthful? Are they telling the truth? Are they telling partial truth? Are they camouflaging the truth in the guise of making profits for themselves? It appears corporatization has taken a toll on the social responsibility and duty of the mass media. Mass media have to be ethical, they have to be moral because the society depends upon them for guidance. Once mass media lose credibility, then they have no chance of survival. Unfortunately, in a country like India where there are hundreds and hundreds of television channels, hundreds and hundreds of radio stations and almost 100,000 newspapers and magazines which is quite contrast with the western media scenario, we have to understand that we have to be on our watch to tell them what we are doing is correct or what we are not doing is... what we are doing is in thought, that is how we have to put it. The question of objectivity is very important. Long, long ago, the famous editor of Manchester Guardian, C.P. Scott made a statement, facts are sacred, common is free. Unfortunately, today in the rat race for influencing people, we have taken to what is known as Adyuthi Sridharanandasana where facts and opinions are mixed and a hybrid news content is given. I think this is where people have to be very careful. Today we must understand that news is a product, mass media are a manufacturer in the industry. The manufacturer facts and also works in India and long ago western scholars, particularly European scholars called mass communication media as a cultural industry. So they are a manufacturer in the world. The question is the impact of these contents on the audience. How far they are influenced? Today in India we are debating among how to preserve our culture from the western influence. The young people who are exposed to new technology, particularly new media, they are becoming more and more westernized. Our value system, our culture will have to be taken care of but there appears to be a slight deviation from what it should have been. It doesn't mean that we should not expose our children to the outside world. They should know everything, but at the same time we have to safeguard our value system. What is good from the west should be taken, what is not good should be described. Unfortunately it appears that a particular section of youth, highly urban, they are becoming influenced by the western media. It is not really the intelligence level or reception level of our young people. And once objectivity is lost, everything is lost. But in today's journalism, is objectivity their myth? Long ago I wrote an article, the myth and death of objectivity in journalism. Is it true the media, as the both states, if they start overruling the other three states, what will happen to democracy? Today trial by media has become calm and people have started drama, their reputation are extinct, their family life is extinct because rumors are manufactured and they are distributed without impunity. Now the whole question is what should be done? There are three vulnerable sections in the society we have to understand. One is the children. The children get attracted to the audio-visual medium very quickly, television. Television impact on children has been discussed, debated even in the west. And unfortunately again we are taking whatever the west has already experienced as a new passion in our country. I think it is better to scrutinize everything before accepting whatever the west gives. And the second section is women. Women are considered to be a vulnerable section and commoditization has taken place. The stereotype that is very important we have to tell people that a new stereotype of women, women with self-respect and independence should be projected. And the third one is the weaker sections of the society which we talk of inclusivity. Inclusivity that is social, cultural, inclusion is very important. We have to give adequate space for all these sections in the media and project them as human beings but not as people who can be used and thrown. And here comes the real power of media. Media prompted violence is another area of concern where media literacy comes into play. When media are scrutinized this aspect should also be considered because media should promote peace and harmony and not violence. Unfortunately in the rat race for making money media are projecting too much of violence and they are becoming immune to violence and it appears the society has accepted violence as part and parcel of daily life. And this is another area of concern which we will have to talk about. And the most important point here is we have to de-glamorous the operations of media. For many people media are glamorous. There is something called as celebrity syndrome even in our media where we make people celebrities over mind and at some point of time they are thrown into the dustbin of history. I believe that the time has come for us to evaluate the media role, media operation and media performance so that we can portion the media to be on the right track. This is basically the main objective of media literacy. UNESCO has made media literacy as one of its prime areas of operation, prime areas of concern. It has joined hands with the University of Watenburg and Nordic.com and every year mass media literacy group is published by these three organizations together. And it covers the entire view of research articles, case studies and yeses of opinion are published. And in India also UNESCO has given the media literacy drive to a public trust which is spearheading in different parts of the country. The most important point is once again we have to involve children and students in media literacy programs. In many universities where mass communication or communication or journalism whatever they do not stress much on media literacy but in a country driven by violence, driven by sectarian affiliations I think media will have to play a constructive role, a role which has to play the entire world on a path of justice, equality, peace and harmony. And that is the main objective of media literacy and that is the objective of UNESCO also. In India I personally think at least a few identified university departments of mass communication should teach media literacy, should also engage themselves in research on media literacy so that people will understand media. Yet another important point which I would like to stress is the world over there is a new culture emerging that is the prosumer culture. Media are operated by common people and they produce contents for themselves that is producer, consumer culture that is what we call as prosumer and it is already making waves in European countries and we should also bring such a method into India where common people themselves will become media operators. And citizen journalism is one point in such a direction but it is done by the major media houses and the professional angle of citizen journalism is always talked about because many people think that citizen journalism does not have the professional aspect in it but we must understand that mass communication is communication by the masses for the masses and of the masses not by a handful of professional minority who can dictate terms and tell what they know is what the world should know it cannot be, people know, impact, people know better. Let us all join in popularizing the concept of media literacy especially in India, a country which is multi-Indian, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural I believe the time has come for this to be. Let me also tell you that mass media are a cultural institution and mass media when they put out their programs they are reflecting the culture of the society in which they operate the other three institutions are school, family and religion but all of them are intertwined in a way because culture is not a product of a single institution it is a collective production of all the whole institutions which we call as institutions of culture mass media they not only produce culture but also reflect culture and here media literacy is intertwined with culture because people see everything through their own eyes I mean the cultural eyes because their socio-cultural background gives a definite perception of the content each individual with a different socio-cultural background may perceive everything differently that is where I think media literacy has to be investigated in conjunction with the other three institutions we can't ignore the pre-European influence which happens in the school we can't ignore the influence of the teacher or the envoys, we can't ignore the impact of religion and all these the family the family has got perhaps even greater impact than other three institutions media will have to work in tune with what people want but it does not mean that we should give all bad things because we have the human instinct of asking for better products we have to be the signpost, we have to be the guidepost of the society here media literacy plays a role because we are telling what exactly is the role of the media in a society like ours one additional point is the emergence of new technology new technology has made this world very small time and space have been conquered today an alien culture can be seen on the internet I mean on the computer screen because of the influence and availability of the internet so the world is coming closer but how to use this new technology for the welfare of the old mankind unfortunately the new media particularly social media are being used for bad purposes also particularly the youngsters are using it to attack others cyber bullying that is becoming common across the country young children, children who are not even eight to nine years they have their own social media accounts and they keep on attacking their classmates, their friends and particularly girls are being attacked, ladies are being projected in a different way which is not very decent I believe that the time has come for media people to have perhaps a social media brigade watchmen to see cyber bullying and such obscene projections are stopped I know that the digital world cannot be controlled but it can be managed and it is the responsibility of the entire society not of one individual because we are talking about people themselves becoming media persons they should not only become media persons they should also become media watchers or commit the size they should become watchdogs of media so that media particularly in sensitive situations will not use it for making money and not of the misery of the common people particularly the vulnerable sections of the society this is very important in the sense that media literacy will be taking care of all dimensions all dimensions of mass communication whether it is conventional media or whether it is a new media there should be a guarded filtering of the media contents so that our young generation will not get influenced by such bad contents media conventionally they were considered to be with a mission of guarding the freedom of the people the value system of the people and supplementing those underprivileged and deep privileged sections of the society but in the rat race for making profits there is slight deviation in the whole process the question again pops up what should be the exact role of media the role of the media ultimately is to be part of the social aspirations and the cultural signposts will have to be created or recreated for the benefit of the entire mass this is where media literacy has to become very prominent and people should be told that they have to evaluate, analyze and pass judgments about media performance it is again a function where making people educated about the media comes into question and it is the responsibility of all the people in the society to think of media literacy and fortunately some groups of young people they have taken to media literacy and they have taken to express their opinions in a violent society where they say we want peace, we want education, we want good life and this is where media literacy is important