Critical Thinking and the Media Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking and the Media

Critical thinking is a skill that enables us to evaluate information from our sources. Today, the majority of information we process comes from some types of media, including television, radio show, newspapers and the Internet. The relationship between critical thinking and the media is an important one, as it helps us to decipher what is true and what is not. Critical thinking helps us assess information that may be deliberately misleading so that an accurate conclusion can be made on a subject or issue.

The relationship between critical thinking and the media is strongly influenced by media literacy, which refers to being literate about forms of media and understanding how to watch and listen carefully and think critically. Critical thinking skills are necessary in today's media age in order to be able to "read" all the media messages that are informing, entertaining and selling to us every day.

According to Robert Ennis (1962), critical thinking refers to a body of intellectual skills and abilities that enable us to decide rationally what to believe or do. It also includes a set of values: the pursuit of truth, fairness or open-mindedness, empathy, autonomy and self-criticism. "A strong sense critical thinker is one who strives to live in accordance with the values of critical thinking and who is able to think dialogically. A typical mass-media issue involves a blending of intellectual, affective and moral responses. Many issues carried in the media demand that we move back and forth between opposing points-of-view."

Questioning and challenging our media sources are key components to critical thinking (Canola, 2002). Because we are exposed to media sources that may be influenced by advertising revenues, biased reporters and more, the critical-thinking process goes beyond just making a decision on an issue. It also evaluates the impact our choices have on various factors, including environment and society. Evaluating the impacts of your decision is a significant step as we often change our ideas once we've considered the long-term effects of the issues.

Critical thinking is important to the well being of our society. However, because many people rely on the media to do their thinking for them, critical thinking is not used very often these days. If more people used critical thinking, society would be a different place. People might not say ignorant and offensive things based on what they heard on television. Also the media would not as easily influence people because they would think about the message behind what they are hearing.