MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY

ROLES AND FUCTIONS OF MEDIA IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY

Looking back at our history, there have been instances when people had been restricted to express their ideas and fight for their rights.

Pen names

 Dr. Jose Rizal – Laon Laan and Dimasalang

 Marcelo H. Del Pilar- Plaridel

 Graciano Lopez Jaena- Diego Laura

ROLES AND FUCTIONS OF MEDIA IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY

In the United States, on the other hand, novels like Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1851, have been banned
as it expressed the abolition of slavery, which majority of the people did not support at that time.

Banned Book Awareness

 Due to anti-slavery themes

 Subtheme- moral authority of motherhood

 Popularize a number of stereotypes about black people

The Philippines’ 1986 and 2001 People Power revolutions perfectly show the importance of the role of media in today’s society.prior
to People Power I, local newspapers, such as Manila Times and sister-paper Daily Mirror, Manila Chronicles, Philippine Press, and
many others, reported about the pervasive protests of people against the government because of its inability to respond to issues
regarding labor, poverty, and education.

Hence news reporters from TV and radio stations exposed illegal abductions of citizens who were tortured for criticizing the
government.

As a result, in September 21, 1971, President Ferdinand E. Marcos declared Martial Law in hope of restoring the peace and order in
the country.

During the tenure of President Joseph Estrada on the other hand, the media reposted about his involvement in illegal gambling and
adultery.

Three reason for impeachment trial

 Plunder
 betrayal of public trust
 culpable violation of Constitution (Article XI)

ARTICLE XI

ACCOUNTABILITY OF PUBLIC OFFICERS

 Section 1. Public office is a public trust. Public officers and employees must, at all times, be accountable to the people, serve
them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency; act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.

 Section 2. The President, the Vice-President, the Members of the Supreme Court, the Members of the Constitutional
Commissions, and the Ombudsman may be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, culpable violation
of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust. All other public
officers and employees may be removed from office as provided by law, but not by impeachment.
 Known figures, like Cardinal Sin, expressed their dismay in public and called on the people to unite and gather at EDSA to start a
peaceful revolution.

With the growing number of people encamped in EDSA and the majority of President Estrada’s cabinet members leaving their
posts, President Estrada had no choice but to step down from office

3.1 HOW TO BECOME A WELL-INFORMED INDIVIDUAL?

 Reading books and other printed materials, such as newspapers or magazines, can make you well informed student.

 Check out the trending topics in social media.

 Listening to the radio or watching news on television.

 Asking questions from reliable resource person.

3.2 PEOPLE WHO ACCESS INFORMATION

Listed below are some of the people who need to have access to information:

1. Students- They need to access information to broaden their knowledge about the different subjects they study in school.

2. Teachers- The role of teachers or educators is to facilitate learning and enhance their students’ knowledge and skills.

3. Scientists- A research becomes substantial, rich, and meaningful when scientists seek new information by conducting series of
studies, tests or experiments to validate their findings, such as finding cure for HIV and AIDS.

4. Medical Practitioners- Doctors and other medical practitioners keep track of their patient’s health. They require physical or
laboratory tests so proper treatment will be administered to their patients.

5. Lawyers- If relevant and complete information about the case is on hand, lawyers can defend their client strongly in court. Lack of
evidence is the common reason why most cases are dismissed.

6. Journalists and reporters- Different coverage, such as issues, organizations, or institutions, are assigned to journalists and reporters
but their common task is to secure information for the news or articles they are developing.

False information  libel

7. Artist- Most of the artists’ works are based on their creativity and artistic interpretation. At times, they do their own research to add
meaning and depth to their masterpieces.

3.3 ACCESSING INFORMATION USING CARD CATALOG

 Card Catalog- contains the information about the material you need such as the author’s name, title of the book, and the
selection of the library where you can find the material.

Described below are the three basic types of card catalogs.

1. AUTHOR CATALOG

 The entries for the author are listed by author, editor, compiler, translator, or other parties considered to have responsibility
for the creation or assembly of the work specified.

2. TITLE CATALOG

 The title catalog has entries which are listed by title only. Title that starts with an article like “A, An, and The: should be
ignored in searching for the title of the book.

 In the title catalog, the name of the book is found on top followed by the author’s name, publishing information, and the
related subjects.
3. SUBJECT CATALOG

 A subject catalog lists books or other materials under the subjects treated and arranged alphabetically or by classes.

 It organizes all of the library lists of titles by the main subjects.

 Some libraries prefer having multiple entries for the same book while others list single maid subject in capital letters on the
top of the card for each book in the subject card catalog.

Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC)

 Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC)- enables the student to access the library’s database installed in selected desktops of
the library.

 Using OPAC, the student can type the title of the material needed. But if details such as author’s name or book title are not
specifies, other key words may be entered to locate the desired book.

3.4 CLASSIFICATION OF BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY

 The following are the two classifications used in the library:

1. The Dewey Decimal Classification and the

2. Library of Congress Classification.

1. Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)

 Created by American librarian Melvin Dewey in 1876.

 This classification allows a library to categorize the books according to subject, and shelf it according to relative location and
index.

 The Dewey Decimal Classification System used numerical hierarchy to order information into categories. Each of the 10
below main categories (classes or fields) has 10 secondary categories(divisions) within which there are another 10 tertiary
subcategories(sections).

 10 Unique Main Classes

 100 Unique Divisions

 1000 Unique Sections

Libraries which do not have large volume of book in their collection apply the DDC as shown below:

Dewey Decimal Classification

 General Works, Computer Science, and Information
 100- Philosophy and Psychology
 200- Religion
 300- Social Sciences
 400- Language
 500- Pure Science
 600- Technology
 700- Arts and Recreation
 800- Literature
 900- History and Geography

Library of Congress

 Founder: John Adams

 Founded: 24 April 1800, Washington, D.C., United States

2.Library of Congress Classification (LCC)

 Created by George Herbert Putnam was an American librarian.

 He was the eighth (and also the longest-serving) Librarian of Congress from 1899 to 1939.

 He implemented his vision of a universal collection with strengths in every language, especially from Europe and Latin
America.

 Classifies books using letters and numbers that are correlated with the subject, title, and author information.

 Categorizes the books into 21 branches of knowledge.

3.5 SECTIONS OF THE LIBRARY

Below are some sections of the library where you can find the materials you need:

1. General Reference Section

 You can find general reference books in the General Reference Section.

 Examples of these books are encyclopaedias, dictionaries, thesauri, and almanacs.

2. Circulation Section

 Books in the Circulation Section are mostly textbooks that cover different subject areas.

 Pocketbooks and novels are also found in this section.

 In general, both fiction and non-fiction books are found here.

 Books are arranged either DDC or LCC.

Nonfiction books

 are based on facts and real-life situations

Fiction books

 are products of imagination and creativity, like literary works

3. Periodical Section

 Newspapers, magazines, and journals are found at the Periodical Section.

 Periodicals are not for library use only.

4. Filipiniana Section

 Are printed materials written by Filipino authors about the Philippines and published in the Philippines.

3.6 OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION

1. Theses and Dissertations

Thesis- refers to a scholarly or academic research of either an undergraduate or a master’s degree student.

Dissertation- refers to the scholarly work of a doctoral student

 2. Interviews

 Interviewing a resource person who is an expert in a specific field is another way of getting accurate and reliable information.

Below are some guidelines which researcher should remember before conducting an interview.

a. Prepare the questions ahead of time and skim thorough them before commencing the interview.

b. Observe professionalism by setting an appointment at your interviewee’s convenience.

c. Be punctual to show courtesy to the interviewee.

d. Ask for the interviewee’s consent before taking photos or recording the interview so as no to invade his privacy.

e. If the interviewee is a minor, ask for parental consent before conducting the interview.

f. During the interview, pay attention and listen carefully to the interviewee.

g. Thank your interviewee for his time. You may consider giving him a token of appreciation.

3. Museum

 Primary sources are original materials that we produced during a particular period in history.

Examples: relics, artefacts, documents or recordings, and other original sources of information.

 Secondary sources are documents made after an event has occurred. These are second-hand accounts about an event, a
person, or a topic.

 Secondary sources may render different perspectives from another person, who can also be the researcher.

4. Internet

 Instead of browsing several books, the researcher can just type the key word o the search engine.

 The search engine will provide a list of websites where the information can be accessed for the key word entered.

3.7 THE SEARCH ENGINE

 Search Engine is a program capable of searching documents in the web using specific key words.

The figure below shows the top five search engines according to www.ebizmba.com.

Useful URL Information

 URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, which refer to a web page’s address.

 The table below shows some useful URL information.

 “edu” stands for an educational institution

 “gov” represents government agencies
 “org” pertains to an organization
 The ending two-letter code refers to the country where the website is located. For example, “ph” means Philippines. The
code “kr” refers to (South) Korea, while “au” refers to Australia

3.8 FINDING SOURCES OF INFORMATION IN A BOOK

1. Table of Contents
  To help you locate a specific topic in a book, check out the table of contents (TOC), which displays the page number opposite
its topic title.

 The TOC is found on the preliminary pages of the book.

2. Index

 You can search for a specific concept, term, or name in the index.

 These key words are presented with the page numbers where they are mentioned.

 Entries in the index are arranged alphabetically.

 Some of them have subtopics that are related to the main keyword.

3. Glossary

 Some books have a glossary found at the back matters.

 The glossary provides a list of concepts or terms with its corresponding meaning.

 It is arranged alphabetically.

4. Bibliography

 The sources which the author used in writing a book appear in the bibliography.

 Each bibliographical entry contains the author’s complete name, title of the material, and other publication details.

 Almost always found at the book’s last page.

 It is also arranged alphabetically.

3.9 PROPER CITATION OF SOURCES OF INFORMATION

 There are different format and style guides which an author can use to present these information, including citations and
references.

1. American Psychological Association (APA)

 Contains rules for the preparation of manuscripts for writers and students in social sciences, such as psychology, linguistics,
sociology, economics, and criminology, business, and nursing.

Below is a sample bibliography for a simple book entry.

Duncan, G. J., & Books-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1997). Consequences of growing up poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

2. The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS)

 Contains rules on preparing the manuscript for publication including grammar, usage, and documentation.

It has two documents styles:

1. The Notes-Bibliography System (NB) is used in literature, history and the arts.

2. While the Author Date- System is preferred in social sciences.

Below is a sample bibliography for a simple book entry.

Faulkner, William. Absalom, Absalom!, New York: Vintage Books, 1990.

3. Modern Language Association (MLA)

 Commonly used in writing papers and citing sources within liberal arts and humanities, such as English studies, language and
literature, foreign language and literatures, literary criticism, comparative literature, and cultural studies.

Below is a sample bibliography for a simple book entry.

Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin, 1987. Print.

3.10 IDENTIFYING RELEVANT INFORMATION

Below are some guidelines on how to analyze if the information from these sources is useful or not.

1. Printed materials- Check the author’s profile at the back cover of the book to know if he expertise on the material written. You can
also check the preface to have an overview of the book’s framework.

For theses and dissertations, you can check the abstract or a brief description about the study. You can also verify information about
the book’s publisher.

2. Films – Apart from checking out the reviews for a film, you should also check the profiles of the director and scriptwriter.

Example: The 1993 movie Schindler’s List, directed by Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg, can be considered reliable source
of information about World War II because of the director’s esteemed reputation.

3. Interviews- When interviewing people for a feature article, look for experts who have actual experience to ensure that the
information you will acquire is accurate and reliable.