Media Literacy is a misleading term.
First of all media “literacy” is a partial oxymoron. While you can become “literate” in chirographic (alphabetic) or print media, by definition you cannot become “literate” in electronic media and if you are only “literate” in digital media, you are only partly “literate” in digital media.
Second, Media Ecology is actually a call to inaction. I mean that in the best possible way. Media Ecology asks us not to be unreflectively responsive to the influence or bias of any given medium, but rather to understand the implications of those influences and biases in order to decide whether they should be embraced or resisted.
Personally, I prefer Media Quantisation. Neil Postman used to tell the story of the three baseball umpires.
The first umpire says “I calls ‘em as I sees ‘em.”
The second umpire says “I calls ‘em as they are.”
The third umpire says “They ain’t nothin’ until I calls ‘em!”
We can’t address the impact of a medium until we can see it AS a medium. The act of seeing it changes it into something else. Until then, we are all just Neo stuck in the Matrix.
