No one asked, but I kinda wanna give a crash course on how to engage in better media literacy cause i keep seeing…

No one asked, but I kinda wanna give a crash course on how to engage in better media literacy cause i keep seeing posts like this. The best thing you can do to improve is simple: meet a story where it's at, ideally without preconceived notions. 🧵

hayden@haydensbakery · Sep 30, 2026

the worst part about the literacy crisis is already thinking you are dumb as shit and knowing you arent even the worst of it

While not mandatory, knowing the theory & concepts will help. Plot structure, character arcs, themes, setting, symbolism/imagery & how they all interplay in the creation of a work. A story is not simply What Happens, but also what those events *mean* in the larger picture.

Different mediums require different knowledge. For books, it's things like the Point of View of the narrator, the prose, etc. In visual media like movies and games, it's understanding cinematography, colour choices and other visual imagery.

In animation specifically - an incredibly expensive media to produce where every second counts - why did they choose to include this scene within such constraints? What is that trying to tell us about the characters or plot as a whole?

Some examples: - what do these characters colour schemes tell us about their relationships? why is one standing in shadow while the other is in light? - what does the setting tell us about what's going on in this scene? - why does the word "destiny" keep getting mentioned?

People are quick to blame the defunding of the arts education for the dip in media literacy. This is a huge contributor. But culturally speaking, we've also stopped treating stories as experiences and started treating them as products. This is the reason why so many people

treat "problematic" narratives, themes, characters, or relationships as "endorsement" of immoral behaviour. It's also why so many think it's okay to harass creators when the gamble they took on a story doesn't give them the reward they were expecting.

As if it's the equivalent of talking to the manager or leaving a 1 star review because you got the wrong beverage at a coffee joint. You didn't commission this story. It likely was not made with you in mind at all. It is good and important to bring your own personal experience

to a work, but that cannot be your starting place. That cannot be the primary metric against which you judge a story. Because no single person's experiences - even when marginalized - is universal.

You cannot engage in "good" media literacy if you open a book or throw on a first episode already with an image in your mind of what you're expecting to receive by the end (barring genre conventions). It's a disservice to yourself, to the author, and to the story as a whole.

You must give the story a chance to exist on its own and meet it where it's at. If a story upsets you in some way, ask yourself why. Is it because it was intentional or is it because you got your hopes up about something? If something doesn't pan out in a way

that makes sense to you, retrace however far back in the narrative you need to see if there's something you missed. Sometimes you won't and the story is just mid. It happens. But sometimes, you'll realize there were hints sprinkled throughout that fell right under your nose.

So much of media literacy is simply paying attention. It's "mindfulness". The act of noticing what is right in front of you and expanding on what that means. Asking questions, looking up words you don't understand, or - if you've given it an earnest try and can't figure it out -

looking to see what other's have said about it. Pro tip: if people are using really aggressive, emotionally charged language about a story on the internet, that's likely not coming from a place of earnest observation and isn't going to help you fill in the blanks.

Lastly & perhaps most importantly, engage with as many stories as you can. Much of what i learned about media literacy didn't come from school. It came from growing up in a house where we watched so many god damned movies that i couldn't help but start noticing patterns.

When you've seen 200 romcoms, you get a pretty good idea of tropes and story beats. When you've revisited a work 2-3 times, you're gonna start to understand how foreshadowing works. It's like any other skill, it all gets easier with practice.

getting off my soapbox now, ty for listening and happy reading/watching/whatever you fancy <3

Addendum: when sharing your arguments, you need to use what you notice in the source material to back up your claim. Quotations, screencaps, etc. This is your evidence. If your claim is rooted in and supported by the text, then it is a credible analysis.

This way, if someone disagrees, they must also provide evidence from the text to support their counter argument. A lot of people making big claims about stories online today do not do this and then get big mad when you try to counter them. Okay done for real now. 💦