Media awareness is important for one and all in the society. All the magnificence of our eyes is limited. They are limited because our eyes see only those in our immediate vicinity. We can't see what is happening 15 km. away and we cannot detect the colour of
corals in the bottom of the ocean. In other words, our eyes save us only to the extent that we can see what is around us. Nowadays, we can see what is beyond our vicinity.
We can see what happens in 15km. or farther away from us. And we can see what is happening at the other end of the globe. Today we can see how corals look like at the bottom of the ocean. Yes, we can see them through media. In newspapers, magazines, televisions, and comics and even in books, the world of far away is
brought in front of us. If you are in Tanzania, the happenings in France or Japan can be brought before you.
Thanks to media, we are to experience parts of reality that could otherwise not have known.
But sometimes, the media deceive our eyes. We forget at the media products are just man made. Sometimes, when we watch or witness a sad movie, we use to cry or weep at the sad part. We just can't help ourselves from burst into tears or weeping because the scenes look very real Because of this, we accept it as true, flawless. What we do not know is that what we see in media is not always a real. Media recreate reality.
By ërecreateí, we mean how media capture a certain part of a reality and put it into a certain kind of medium such as film, paper or video tape. For example, when a photographer takes your picture, he does not put you into the camera and bring you out again on the paper. Instead, he captures the image of you, and through some photographic process, that image is frozen on the film. The film is then developed and printed to give shape to that image of you on the photo paper.
So, it is clear that a picture is not reality itself, but just a representation of reality. When printed, your
picture becomes a symbol of you. In a way, it freezes reality and becomes a memory-mirror that is whenever you look at it, you can recall that event in which the picture taking occurred. Thus, media recreate reality.
The writer of this Article is the eminent educationist and erudite scholar. Recipient of National and International Awards and Honours.
