Dante Estrada | Long Beach Current
I’ve always loved the capital “A” Arts.
Growing up, I was a voracious consumer of just about anything I could get my hands on: books, comics, TV, movies and music. As arts and life editor, it should come as no surprise that I find joy in discussing art, its implications and the grander topics art can spark.
Lately, media literacy has been on my mind.
Put simply, media literacy rates are down, especially among high school and college students.
A Media Literacy Now national survey found that only 38% of respondents reported being taught how to analyze media messages in high school—whether in advertising, television or news—and how those messages can shape people’s beliefs or actions.
Some might ask: What’s the problem? Isn’t entertainment supposed to be fun?
Sure. But that’s also how we end up with people confidently telling guitarist Tom Morello to stop raging against the machine.
Art and popular media should be fun.
But when we lose the ability to look past the surface—whether in classic literature or even in the pulpiest or trashiest media—we end up with a less curious, less informed public. Media literacy isn’t about finding the “correct” interpretation. It’s about asking basic questions: Who made this? Why? What’s the context?
Without getting too serious (this isn’t that kind of column), a population that can’t break down media or consider intent with context becomes easier to mislead. The more shallow our engagement, the easier it is for misinformation and propaganda to pass as truth.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is that people want to engage. The same survey found that 84% of respondents support increasing media literacy in education, along with broader critical thinking instruction. The interest is there.
The even better news? The fix is fun and easy.
Consume more art.
College used to be seen as the time when students experimented with ideas, perspectives and forms of expression they’d never considered before. Many of those ideas live inside art. Sometimes they are the point.
Now’s the time. Read the weird book. Watch that indie movie. Go to a museum. See a play. Engage with media that does not align or possibly even clashes with established views.
It’s a big, strange, exciting world of art out there. Let’s go exploring.
Delfino Camacho is a returning student who came back to school in 2021. After completing his Associates degree at El Camino College he transferred to CSULB last year and served as an Arts & Life assistant and returned this year as the Arts & Life Editor for the Long Beach Current. Delfino hopes to work professionally in entertainment, arts, features or photography. He currently lives in Compton in a multi-generational home with his wife, sister, mother, two huskies (Gohan and Robin), and his red-eared turtle, Fishy. When not busy with photos or journalism, he loves to watch movies, haunt thrift shops for old vinyls or comics, or hang out with his wife.