Analysis of Manipulative Media Texts: World Media Literacy Education Experience

The 21st century brought a kind of media explosion: every day more and more people of different ages are becoming involved in interactive multimedia processes (which have been radically influenced by the development of satellite television, the Internet, mobile telephony and smart phones), access to information has become almost unlimited, moreover, in many more formats. As never before, the audience began to spend a significant amount of time on access to new multimedia opportunities, on creation, consumption and distribution of media texts of various types and genres, on interaction in a variety of media environments. Against this background, it becomes clear to a much larger number of people and organizations that media illiteracy can lead to very real negative political and social consequences. Of course, false news and other misinformation have been around before, but it is now that media manipulations have acquired a truly global scale. That is why audiences of any age need media competency. Numerous studies prove that media education can give positive results in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes in terms of analysis and critical reflection of media and misinformation. At the same time, one should not forget that misinformation originators, groups conducting political campaigns using data from social networks, extremists and agents of the “troll factories” have a high level of media competence. Therefore, citizen’s media competencies alone are not enough: in order to resist media manipulation at a democratic state level, it is also necessary to develop the activities of media agencies of various levels and state structures.