Cognizance of Media Literacy in Higher Education

Abstract

There is rising unanimity for better transparency in the process for determining the promising education system in the country. In this respect, the role of higher education system is very critical in the current scenario. It is all about enabling youth’s critical and imaginative capabilities when it comes to the media. Democratic values and civil obligations are two of the leading aspects of it where information dissemination emerges out to be important as information is the currency of the new age. It is possible only through awareness about media and with rapid globalization, the distances have decreased significantly. As the mediums of information dissipation increase, so does the amount of information. The superhighway is jammed with news from around the globe. In such an inter-connected world, an earthquake in Japan affects a Tsunami in the Indian Ocean. A major Cancer research in Moscow affects millions in Delhi. The sources of information are varied according to nature, availability and impact. With information, people associate freedom; the freedom of having an opinion which requires information as a precursor. The concept of informing people of the incidents and news from far away took its birth as a consequence of human curiosity and care. With the discovery of radio waves by Marconi and other contemporaries, the watershed moment had arrived. Today’s media is all pervasive as it has touched everyone’s life. It has not only changed the pace of dispatch but more critically the content for the consumers. A piece of information has become a product and it is offered 24x7 worldwide. The Breaking News format is the most exploited news presentation technique by news channels which are on the air the whole day. The format boasts of speed, exclusivity and news of immediate relevance. The reality of it is something quite different. More recently, news of questionable relevance, news without official confirmation and news without in-depth analysis, are presented as fresh and exclusive "Breaking News". Media is both mirror and torch of the society. Bagchi and Rath rightly observes that news media, whether it is newspaper or news magazine or news bulletins or news channels, works like a mirror. But a mirror should work like a plain mirror which should reflect the exact picture of the society. But many a time media works like a concave or convex mirror which reflects the enlarged or reversed or imaginary picture of the society.1 To bring back media education into the mainstream of the education system, there is a need for proper application of media literacy in education.