What are the 5 steps in the critical process? Which one is the most important?
The five steps in the critical process are description, analysis, interpretation, evaluation and engagement. I have the utmost amount of trouble determining which of these five steps is the most crucial in a media sense. I ruled out description and analysis simply because most of those steps are just flat-out observance and the deeper thinking is done in much later steps. The last three steps seem to all have important implications that I would consider crucial. The third step, interpretation, is when all of the observances made and patterns found combine to form a deeper meaning. It begs the question “so what?” which is often difficult to answer. This step could also have a different answer for every individual. Multiple viewers could watch the same piece of media, find the same patterns, and still have differing opinions on what it all means. That creates arguments, bias, and intellectual discussions about the media. The step of evaluation brings a more personal involvement into the critical process. This is where each consumer gets to determine how they feel about a piece of media, whether that is good, bad, or somewhere in between. Personal likes and dislikes also come into play in this step which feeds directly into the last step of engagement. Many could label engagement as the most important step because it involves action. When someone likes the media they comment good things, press like, or share it with others. When someone does not like the media, they comment hateful things or bash the creator. This could also lead into self-esteem issues, for example, many teenagers obsess over their amounts of likes on Instagram. I have fallen prey to this too many times. Interpretation and Evaluation are important for the consumer to make their own opinion of what they see, while evaluation is the most important for the involvement of others and the spreading of information.