Final answer:
To become a more responsible consumer of mass communication, one should question information sources and practice critical thinking by employing methods such as the SIFT to distinguish facts from misinformation.
Step-by-step explanation:
To become a more responsible and thoughtful consumer of mass communication, one should not trust everything they see, avoid critical thinking, or ignore media literacy. Instead, one should question information sources. Critical thinking involves examining the claims from multiple perspectives, considering the expertise of the person making the claim, potential motives, the evidence presented, and other researchers' views. A responsible consumer should also recognize the existence of cognitive biases, such as confirmation bias, and practice epistemic humility by acknowledging the limitations of human knowledge and the conditioned nature of our understanding.