Media Manifesto, Y.Maezono

Yuta Maezono

Manifesto

My manifest focuses on how to deal with media and information that it reports—about media literacy. Media literacy is a competency that enables people to analyze, evaluate, and create messages in media modes. Today this manifest advises you what you should keep in mind when you watch TV, read newspaper, or surf the Internet.

Be alert to information media reports to you! When we try to report one news to someone we more or less need to cut or edit one fact and create our truth. It is physically impossible to report all information about the fact because of limit of time and money so the happening someone actually sees is different from the happening media reports. Media sometimes report not only the distorted truth but also false things. Please be aware that all information that we can get in any media forms is done with the media’s editing and choosing.

Guess purposes of media telling you information! Media is also business, and gains profit from companies, organizations, or personal customers. When media discovers a truth that benefits or harms business partners of the media, it tries to exaggerate or hide the truth. For example, when deceptive camouflage of places of food Disney Resort hotel serves was revealed, few mass media nor newspapers reported this issue. That’s because Disney companies were one of the biggest ad rate customers for media and newspaper so that they could put pressures over the media. Even the media cannot oppose to its customer for the business. Please take into account the business connections of media.

Concretely, I offer three suggestions about ways to deal with people. Get information from as many media as possible so that you can get closer to facts. Be aware that even media has something that it cannot report. Think of purposes of media reporting.