Marvin L.
Trinidad Grade 12 - Iris
Media and Information Literacy
(Week 6)
Opportunities, Challenges and Power of Media and Information
Learning Task 1: Answer the following questions
1. What forms of payment are accepted in online shopping?
2. If customers have concerns or inquiries about the product, what support mechanisms are
provided?
3. How will the customers receive the purchased product?
4. How did the mind map help you to understand the concept of online shopping?
Learning Task 3: Write an essay about: “The Power of Media and Information to Affect Change,
and the Responsibility of the Users.” The essay must have an introduction, body and conclusion.
The number of words must be 450-500.
The Power of Media and Information to Affect Change, and the Responsibility of the Users
Media and information have a big impact on people’s lives. It can even influence every
different aspect of everyone’s life. We will not be able to live without media and information. From
the moment we wake up to the moment we do before sleeping involves media and information.
That is how powerful it is in affecting each of us. As we all know, media has the power to provide
information to people, especially the whole society itself. Everyone uses media to access
information, to be keep updated on what is happening on the society, and to find information that
they needed. Hence, it has the capability of influencing, informing, and shaping our whole life.
Without deep observation, we will not be noticed how media and information play the big
role in shaping our minds including our personality. Remember that media includes television,
phone, radio, newspaper, internet, etc. These things have been with us ever since we were born.
When we are child, we are all entertained by television by watching cartoons. Without
knowing, we are being influenced by the videos that we are watching. This is the main reason why
cartoons have good lessons and meaning because they want it to put in young people’s minds. As
we grow up, we are now having our own mobile technologies which is also powerful because it
contains a lot of information by just clicking what you need. Social media has also been there in
playing role of shaping our minds. Because of the information we see each day while scrolling, we
are also being influenced. For example, if you have read information about a debate and you only
did read one perspective then you will likely also have that opinion. This is how powerful a media
can be. It can affect political, economic, and social view of each person.
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Having the mobile technologies, we have, we can acquire a lot of information. In short, the
power of media lies in the hands of the user. This is where we can put the quote saying, “with great
power comes with great responsibility”. It all matters on us on how we will use media in accessing
information. This is the reason why media and information can either have a positive or negative
impact in their life.
For some, media has influenced them positively. They use this to be updated on what is
happening in the country like watching news and articles and reading online news outlets. Addition
to that, with media they can voice out their opinions on issues that is going on the country such as
online rallying, voicing concerns about law, posting their opinions regarding the policies
implemented by the government, etc. Media has become the bridge for the government to hear the
public’s opinions. Also, some people also use media in sharing information that could also help
people like campaign advertisements, information video, educational videos, and documentaries.
With these, people can be educated about controversial issues. It also serves as a powerful tool in
education young people. Media are used nowadays to learn something about their lesson which is
also a big help in the education industry. They can teach young people how to communicate
effectively, work with someone, and have fun with learning.
However, some people use media as a tool to harm, scam, insult, and negatively influenced
people. This also matters on users. As I said earlier, the power of the media lies on the hands of
the users. If the users itself are bad influence, then we should also expect that media can be also
used to negatively influenced many people. Some uses this for sexual harassing someone, scam
people, to blackmail someone, or to humiliate someone publicly. One big example for this is cyber
bullying, it has millions of victims around the world.
In conclusion, media and information’s influence lies on the hands of the users. Its up to us
on how we will be using media in spreading and accessing information. This also concludes how
important media and information are. Media helps us to be updated on what is going on and to be
informed on controversial issues in the country. And again, despite of thousands of benefits we can
gain in media, it can also negatively influence us. So always remember that we should think before
we click.
