OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Maryland Public Television (MPT) has been the home for locally-produced, informative content for decades. Now it's taking an unprecedented leap into tackling an institution that affects all our lives: media.
"The Maryland Center for Media Literacy and Education was established to support Maryland citizens in navigating the media saturated world that we live in today," said Betsy Peisach, vice president of education at MPT.
MPT officially launched the center in November, with a mission to educate people from 2 to 92 about the importance of media literacy.
"Media literacy is all about making sure you have access, that you analyze, that you evaluate, that you create and then you act on the media that you're engaging," said Dr. Kimberly Moffitt, a member of the center's advisory board. Moffitt is also a media scholar and Dean of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at UMBC.
She said they're not trying to dictate what people should or should not be watching and consuming, rather be aware of where it's coming from, is it AI-generated, is it true and verified, etc.
"This is still very much around you still having agency and control, to say what am I going to do with these messages? But it does require you to do some work," she said.
That work, said Moffitt, is taking the time to evaluate and analyze the media, ask questions and engage in a range of media to make well-informed decisions.
"If we're only residing in those echo chambers and talking to one another, because that's the group that sounds like and agrees with me, there's no learning that's happening. For an academic, that's the worst place to ever be," Moffitt said.
"What's at stake is a very divided society in which we can't even hear or talk to each other."
While the center's work will be across age groups, there will be a big focus on the younger generations that often use social media as their source of news, information and entertainment.
"Right now a lot of work is centered with early learners, so working with libraries across the state. We're building our network of Early Learner Media Ambassadors to train others to deliver workshops," she said.
"If they are more critical about the way they're consuming media, they'll grow up to have better habits."
Both Peisach and Moffitt acknowledge the complexities and fast-pace of media, making it virtually impossible to keep up with every new technology and its flaws. But they also believe that when armed with a few essential skills, anyone can confidently dissect what they're seeing and make the best decisions for their life.
"Why it's important is not because you're conservative or liberal, but because you're a human being that's complex and deserves to understand more about the world that you live in," said Moffitt.
To see the center's step-by-step guides to navigating media literacy by age group, click here.
