By Yiting Wang, Ph.D. | Feb 02, 2025
Media literacy is about how much people are conscious of the medium they consume, and whether people are aware of the impact of it. As voiced out by media scholars John Pavlik and Shawn McIntosh (2019) and as it is easily unnoticed: If media is this pervasive, it should be studied and educated just as other mandatory subjects in education—such as history, mathematics, or literature. The call for media literacy exists, but attitudes remain convoluted: media literacy is considered essential; yet seemingly unmanageable.
Literacy is used in many terms without precision (e.g., information literacy, media literacy, or digital literacy). Clarifying definitions can reduce confusion. As Wuyckens, Landry & Fastrez (2021) put, information literacy emphasizes the search of information using tools and the ability to assess, organize, and disseminate information that is found. Media literacy generally emphasizes media, and the creation and analysis thereof. Most commonly, conversations around media literacy center with detecting fake images or videos or understanding persuasive messages in advertisement using color. Digital literacy was first used in computer science; but it gradually blurred its distinction with media literacy. Nevertheless, digital literacy points to the ability of using tools digitally and a synonym for it can be digital competency.
Teaching media to the public can be difficult. Communication researcher Cuihua Shen highlighted this during the Visual Media Symposium in 2024, noting that even trained visual researchers face challenges. She stated that although education of media often leaves people confused; it remains the most directly influential area—that is, the social cognitive facet—unlike the less-accessible facets: one on the content generation side (e.g., government, media organizations, platforms), the other the information propagation side (e.g., influencers, perpetrators).
One of the most prevalent forms of media today is short-form contents, especially videos. Short videos are widely used by regular social media users, online vendors, and even politicians. These contents are dynamic, fast-in-change, ephemeral yet hard to eradicate. Many treat such contents as news. Students have cited TikTok and similar platforms as early as 2020 as their primary news sources.
As a researcher studying short video platforms, I analyze visual patterns and content strategies. I point out common video expressions, styles, or recipes, to show people what they are getting out of when seeking visual information. Visual information, too, can be manipulated as how people play with words. How a camera is positioned, how modes in a video are prioritized, are critical to the future of visual communication and media literacy. Sometimes a visual cue, as minor as a smiley emoji, can become major: Meanings can be changed, and the contexts can be skewed.
Healthy media habits begin with awareness. When scrolling, check who uploaded the video, says Kelley Benham French this March—a narrative accountability editor of the Washington Post—during the Women’s History Month. Review profiles: Are they selling a course? Is that why their content subtly undermining tech skills of users? Are they beauty influencers offering ideal body figures? Knowing context can reduce passive influence and unaccountable impression.
Passive influence and unaccountable impression impact the population of women greatly. Girls, young female adult, and women often become the “selling point” online, with camera angles imitating male gaze, scanned up and down of a body. This is prevalent in game designs as well, as Shuvo, Nabi & Hossain (2025) introduce. One video example spelt out in Wang (2025) is a young woman teaching her mom to dance, while the attention of viewers was on her hairy arms. Knowing the existence of such media expressions will enhance the literacy of a designer, a player, and a viewer whenever encountering such message.
Unknown impact seeps in via self-help videos as well. For instance, a TikTok trend: To stopping intrusive thoughts, users are told to snap a hairband on their wrist. Given the design feature of short-form videos, there is not much room for citations or contexts. What is the origin of such advice? Is it grounded in behavioral science, or neuroscience? While the practice may seem harmless, it raises a concern: Users may seek mental health advice from short videos.
Some users employ short videos for medical diagnosis, in particular, ADHD and depression, stated by biology specialist Sara Hendrickson during an in-person conversation in 2023. Nevertheless, short video did bring forth awareness to people which may lead to a professional evaluation.
Studying short videos requires a dialectical mindset. Short videos exist and the task is to engage critically. The crux is, how to handle it logically and reasonably? My current recommendation is to examine the versatility of media consumption on a day-to-day basis. If someone’s media consumption is built around one medium, then diversifying the types of mediums may be beneficial. Explore different formats: print media (books, newspapers, magazines), audio media (audiobooks, podcast, radio), and visual media (videos, photo essays, graphic novels). The stated media may overlap but each builds different relationships, offers distinct cognitive and emotional experiences.
Minimally, one should exercise less blame but more open-mindedness, when encountering issues with one medium. Be mindful that each time when a new medium was born, anxieties occur. Understand that literacy is an inherent part of everyday life now, and it is still an inflated term to define, and people may treat emerging media, such as short-form videos very differently, the crux is to have an awareness of media habits and diversify everyday medium.
Reference
Shuvo, Nabi & Hossain (2025). Exploring the Cultural Misrepresentation of Bangladesh in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s “Masquerade” Map. 2025 International Communication Association.
Pavlik, J. V., & McIntosh, S. (2019). Converging media: A new introduction to mass communication (Sixth edition). Oxford University Press.
Wang, Y.T. (2025). Multimodal Analysis: The Performativity of Short-Form Videos and Their Affordances. ProQuest. Dissertation. University of Hawaii at Manoa. https://hdl.handle.net/10125/110212
Wuyckens, G., Landry, N., & Fastrez, P . (2021). Untangling media literacy, information literacy, and digital literacy: a systematic meta-review of core concepts in media education. Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/jmle-preprints/20
*This writing was first published in March 2025, last updated on September 30, 2025.