This quote is from the novel Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis. So much is made about batting .300 in Major League Baseball. Only 11 players were able to achieve that in 2022, which is one of the fewest totals in the last few years. Batting .300 means a player gets a hit 3 out of every 10 times at the plate, so a .275 batting average would equal 2.75 hits out of every 10 – you could see how that would be hard to differentiate just by watching a player in the batter’s box.
Media Literacy is about being able to decipher what we see online, and deciding whether or not it is truthful before passing it along through likes, reposts, retweets, etc. Just as the example of the .300 batter versus the .275 batter, appearance of truth versus fiction may be very similar – especially with so many technological advances (what people can do with Photoshop amazes me!)
Understanding where information is coming from is of utmost importance. As referenced by the ASU News Co/Lab’s Principles of Ethical Media Creation, the source of a story could be anyone. “The named sources whom journalists quote in stories are a far cry from the semi-anonymous people, whose existence is often impossible to verify, who pop up in social media shares.” Items shared online get copied from so many places, it’s extremely difficult to determine the origin. So it’s up to the reader to ensure its authenticity before believing it as truth.
Gone are the days where we waited for ABC, CBS or NBC News to provide the news of what’s happening across the country and around the world. We are living in an age of immediate information. Everyone with a smart phone or computer can post information online, which is both good (getting the word out about a potentially dangerous situation) and bad (spreading misinformation and causing unnecessary widespread panic).
The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) recognizes in its Core Principles “that media are a part of culture and function as agents of socialization.” Many of us are part of that function now as media creators, and it is our responsibility to post with a sense of truth and integrity.
