The purpose and significance of developing media literacy mainly lie in: 1. In terms of cognition, it helps citizens to improve their ability to understand the nature and form of information carried and disseminated by the media, be familiar with the methods of seeking information, and have the ability to evaluate, explain, distinguish, select, organize and summarize information; 2. In terms of emotion, it is legal and ethical to help citizens realize the value and power of media information and judge its appropriateness; 3, in terms of skills, to help citizens have and improve the basic ability to operate media tools, including the use of computers, media systems and networks for information retrieval, processing and dissemination; 4. In creating the environment, we should help citizens pay more attention to the scientific use of media, actively participate in creating a suitable and healthy media ecological environment and atmosphere, promote the reform and development of the cultural media industry and journalism, and promote the mass media to improve their own quality and social benefits, so that the media with good social benefits can obtain better economic benefits and have more development potential.
Due to the rapid development of mass media in China, it has even become the fourth pillar industry of the national economy. According to the viewpoint of development communication, media will play a great role in the transformation from traditional society to modern society. It not only provides all kinds of economic information and other public resources directly to the public, but also helps to eliminate the gap between the rich and the poor and the public's "knowledge gap", and can build a community form with the public as the core in the information age.