Media literacy is a skill that should be taught during this time of technological revolution. Technology seems to control and effect people’s lives and not necessarily in a good way. This era makes people stay alert at all times. People who are literate in the world of media are able to identify what information is real and important for them and which is not. However, it happens not at all times, there are occurrences when even people who are literate may take down their guard and it may influence them in a negative way. More researchers start a discussion about the automaticity and its connection to media literacy. In order to reach automaticity, one should practice a specific activity over and over again. It can be compared to taking the same route to work every day. A person no longer concentrates on the process of thinking how to get to work, but he or she simply performs the activity of driving or walking to their job. Therefore, if you are listening to the radio on your way to work that has also become a part of your everyday routine. However, you also listen to the advertisements on the radio which has also become an unconscious activity.
Automaticity takes our guard down. We do not comprehend fully the information that we see or hear because at the same time we are engaged in routine action. A person becomes less aware of the content that he or she is exposed to. As a result, media is able to send the message that it wants to deliver to the audience. But in this case of the automaticity, the audience is not aware of this fact. Therefore, in this situation, the level of media literacy does not matter anymore because a person does not have enough focus in order to apply all the media literacy skills that he or she has. Automaticity has a negative influence of media literacy since a person does not focus on the message in detail but in fact, he or she is still being influenced by it.
References
Automaticity: A learned advantage. (2007). Johnnie Perry. Encyclopedia of Educational
Technology. 27 January 2017.
