Concerned Prosumers

We can't deny that media has become part of our life. It is hard to know sometimes how our life has changed until we stop for a moment and look at how different it is from ten or even five years ago. 

       We attended a seminar at the auditorium entitled "Philippine Media and The Millennials" and the guest speaker is Mr. Toni Tiemsin from GMA news network. He started his talk saying this, "The millennials are a generation that has hope for the future." He said that today's generation have a big part in media because we have all been programmed since birth to believe the great lie to be the true reality. Family, society, religion, culture, the media, state schools, science and many more tentacles have all programmed us from every angle. So we are caught in the big lie. He said that we should know what is the difference between a truth and a lie. He said that we should learn to analyze things that we hear or see. 

     He keeps discussion relaxed as he asked us casually; he takes the pressure off to us to get the “right” answer. He draw out our ideas and guide us to critically examine what we see and hear in the news or the social media. He said that we must remember to keep probing the answer, as this helps us to expand our thoughts and perception on the things we see and here. He helps us focus and to understand how others perceive what they view. He said that it doesn’t matter so much what questions we ask; the important thing is to get we express and challenge us what we see and hear. 

Mr. Tiemsin aslo said that as a person, we should be a better prosumer, stay relevant, be responsible, learn how to maintain sensitivity and be intelligent. All in all, we should always be informed and well rounded.

       As one of the blogger said, "Media literacy is not media bashing; the goal is not to ridicule the media. Media are dominant forces in our culture and an important part of our teenagers’ lives. Media should be evaluated fairly, not denigrated. Media literacy is also no silver bullet or magic wand; it will not instantly solve all of our problems. But it is our best defense in resisting manipulation and keeping a perspective on the images and messages that are a part of media and youth culture."