What's the Difference?

"For two concepts that are almost alike, what would be their differences?"

If you have two concepts that share a similar role and purpose, how would you distinguish them? If you aren't heavily familiar with both concepts, this would be a difficult task to perform. That's what happened for the past two meetings in my class. At first glance, you'd say that media literacy and information literacy are alike. Sure, they both have the word 'literacy' engraved with them, but what's the difference between the two? Is there something more different other than the words themselves?

Of course, there is. While both concepts tackle about comprehending and validating information, both concepts are both sides of the same coin. Media literacy focuses more on the people-output. See that ad in your television? That can be examined through media literacy. Heard the news over the radio? You also need media literacy. Read a gossip on the internet? Same thing. That gives us the impression that media literacy covers all forms of media. Media literacy is all about analyzing and looking through media forms. 

What about information literacy, the other one? If media literacy encompasses through all media, then what's left for information literacy to be called unique? Simple. Information literacy would be all about the analysis of information itself. You determine the appropriateness of information, whether it applicable for the problem or not. Think of it as the ability to decide whether the information you obtained is needed or not.

Of course, you can't just know all that if you don't have a gist of both concepts. If you barely have an idea of either topic, you can't just go around and shoot in the dark. You have to be more informed before you draw conclusions. For topics like these, it is easiest to look around, ask, or even look them up at the internet. That's the easy part. The harder part starts to roll in once you have to comprehend the information. Whether the topic gets confusing or if it provides too much information at once, one is bound to overlook things and misinterpret data.

That's where you have to employ good reading strategies. Get used to active reading, or at least learn how to interpret information properly. Once you have a proper goal in mind while reading, things will start to get clearer. You'll be able to focus more with your reading goal. You don't really have to overdo it and attempt to absorb everything at once. You just have to be smart at choosing which ones to absorb first.

Same goes with life. You can't take everything at once. You have to prioritize those you need more, then slowly branch into the less important ones.