I Really Wanted To Ask You About This:

I really wanted to ask you about this:

Do you have any advice of how to develop critical thinking and media literacy?

There are many, many ways you can practice critical thinking, evaluation and media literacy. At its most basic, you can access student resources for lower levels of education like earlier high school years and look at the examples and guidance given there. Rehashing this will often give you a good foundation to build off of and apply.

One of the main aspects of critical thinking involves discerning what is fact and what is opinion. A good portion of media analytics is opinion. What is 'bad' by one person's standards is 'sub-par' or even 'great' by another's. Similarly, the majority of fandom space is opinion-based. The main pitfall of fandom spaces is that everyone wants their opinion to be taken as fact, which is where critical thinking and even basic communication begin to fall away.

"I'm right and you're wrong" and "this is the way it should be, if you do it or think differently, you're wrong" are common roadblocks people run into when engaging with things like media analysis and even basic fandom activities like fanfiction.

'Mischaracterisation' is fanfiction is one popular topic, especially here on Tumblr. What people often fail to recognize is the true creative depth of fanfiction and using someone else's pre-existing characters. Characters as they are in the source material may not make the choices or behave in the ways necessary to activate or validate certain plot material or author intentions in fanfiction. Which is, inherently, one of the main points of fanfiction. Exploring the alternate.

While you might immediately recoil and say "he'd never do that!" you then have to sit back and recognise that that's exactly the point. That this iteration of that character is not meant to directly reflect the source material. Its a re-imagining, a re-interpretation. That doesn't mean its bad. Its simply different.

'Mischaracterisation' is only actually applicable in fandom spaces when someone is trying to insist as a blanket fact that a character would do something or behave in a way that blatantly contradicts their canon behavior, opinions, morals and perspective or deliberately interpreting an action in biased bad faith. It is not actually applicable to fanfiction where creative liberty dictates you can do whatever the fuck you want with a character because you're not trying to claim it as part of the source content.

Questions To Ask Yourself

Am I reacting to [media] emotionally instead of rationally? Is my emotional response to [media] blinding me to the rational or critical approach(es)?

Am I allowing my expectations to get in the way of me understanding [media] fully? Am I forming a biased negative opinion of [media] because it isn't meeting my expectations?

Even if I disagree with [media], do I actually understand it? Can I recognise the reasoning behind choices made or actions even if I don't agree with them?

Am I searching too hard to hidden meaning or purpose in absolutely everything? Can I recognise what is simply passive information/detail and what is active information/detail? (E.g; English tutors saying a character's curtains are blue because they're depressed when throughout the literature its passively reinforced that blue is the character's favorite color.)

Even though I disagree with the statement or opinion shown, is it necessary to argue against it? Is there any benefit to making my counter-opinion known or is it simply a no-end argument? Am I just using arguing as a means of release/fulfilment? Am I treating this person poorly because of their opinion/statement?

Resources

Critical Thinking Exercises & Explanations #1 The Critical Thinking Activity Workbook Early Stage Critical Thinking Games Five Media Literacy Activities Six Media Literacy Ideas

Just a quick not friendly reminder: someone who has apologized for past mistakes, made amends for past actions, and clearly no longer holds past beliefs, is a far better person than one who digs up old dirt and uses a person's past that no longer exists against them.

I hate it when some anti's preech about "listen to poc voices" yet get mad and call the same poc's racial slurs when they do something they deem as "irredeemable". Heck even Xenophobic too when ppl are callingout artists, almost 50% they'll say stuff like "Oh ofc its a _____ "

I don't strictly think that racism is solely an anti pitfall or mindset. I know plenty of people who identify as proship who have the same "listen to X!" battle march until X are no longer in harmony with their thoughts and opinions.

Racism, in my opinion, should never be classed as something that is simply 'fandom.' Racism is down to the individuals. And those individuals are everywhere. Antis just happen to correlate their racism with their other personal beliefs and values.

That said, you can always report racism you see on online platforms. While it may never truly silence those people, its certainly a pleasantly annoying inconvenience to them to experience chat bans or having their accounts removed. Even however temporarily; its one less racist voice in the sandbox.

Wait...is there a way to make "book covers" in ao3?

No, the typical way is just using the first chapter as the "book cover" and uploading the image within the first chapter. There's no current way on AO3 to make a "book cover" and believe me, its a fucking godsend.

Wattpad is so disgustingly rife with stolen fanart because people just blindly believe they have an inherent right to anything uploaded on the internet and that the original creators can just "let them know if they want it removed" or "it was posted online so its fine for me to use."

Its abhorrent and selfish.

E.g; do you report it or alert the original creator?