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Recommendation 1466 (2000)
Media education
1. With the advent of the information society,
the individual of today lives immersed in a world of media messages. Seemingly,
there are no limits to the amount of information available.
2. However, new challenges are arising. Firstly, the new media offer
countless sources of information and in an unprecedented way allow anyone to
send messages out into the public space. It is becoming increasingly difficult
to orient oneself in the huge mass of information. Problems derive not merely
from the sheer mass, but from the very nature of communications. Media reality
is not the “real” reality. But, in a world dominated by media culture, the
boundaries between fact and fiction often become blurred.
3. For many children and young people, modern media and especially the
Internet are more than just a means of learning about the world. They are their
world, their “virtual reality”, where everything, the best and the worst, can
be done and undone. Young people often are much more eager than adults to
handle new technologies and are more at ease with them, whilst their discerning
capacities and their ability to make value-based judgements are not yet well
developed.
4. Teachers and parents are often helpless when trying to reconcile their
own living and professional experience with the media experience of their
children. Many adults find it increasingly difficult to cope with the pervasive
change brought about by modern communications.
5. On a broader scale, the media, by their nature, are capable of
influencing attitudes and behaviour in society. There is enough evidence in
Europe that free and independent media are a real power in promoting democratic
change, while in the hands of totalitarian forces they can become tools for
inciting ethnic hatred and imposing stereotypes. It is also often claimed that
there is a strong link between the increase in violence in society and the
violent images conveyed by television, the Internet or computer games.
6. Globalisation and media convergence, along with all the formidable
possibilities that they offer, also give rise to new concerns: the overflow of
information; uniformisation caused by the unequivocal dominance of one language
and one culture over the new media; and increasing commercialisation. There is
also a serious risk of a new form of social exclusion for those who cannot
communicate through the media and/or are unable to assess its content
critically.
7. European democracies have many tools at their disposal to respond to the
challenges posed by this changing society. The present situation, however,
shows that there is an urgent need also to develop more decisive and radical
educational measures promoting active, critical and discerning use of the
media: in other words, developing media education.
8. Media education can be defined as teaching practices which aim to develop
media competence, understood as a critical and discerning attitude towards the
media in order to form well-balanced citizens, capable of making their own
judgements on the basis of the available information. It enables them to access
the necessary information, to analyse it and be able to identify the economic,
political, social and/or cultural interests that lie behind it. Media education
teaches individuals to interpret and produce messages, to select the most
appropriate media for communicating and, eventually, to have a greater say in
the media offer and output.
9. Media education allows people to exercise their right to freedom of
expression and right to information. It is not only beneficial for their
personal development, but also enhances participation and interactivity in
society. In this sense it prepares them for democratic citizenship and
political awareness.
10. Although media education is part of the curriculum in several European
countries, its practical application is still problematic, even as far as the
traditional media are concerned. Qualified teachers and teaching material are
the basic elements in media education and therefore constant attention should
be paid to both initial and continuing teacher education. Uncertainty also
persists as to the place media education should have in the curriculum, the
methodology of teaching, the objectives pursued and the evaluation of the
results. Furthermore, most schools have not yet adapted to an educational
pattern where both pupils and teachers place themselves in the situation of
learners.
11. Media education should be aimed both at the adults of today and of the future. It should not only allow them to keep up with the pace of modern development, but also help them to perform better their role as parents. In this sense it is vital to develop media education as part of the concept of life-long learning. Such non-formal education should be given more means and the work of the relevant NGOs should be facilitated in line with Assembly Recommendation 1437 (2000) on non-formal education.
12. It is also essential to seek the co-operation and the involvement of
media professionals. They should in particular be encouraged to produce high
quality educational and cultural programmes.
13. The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
13.1. consider media education as an important
area for the work of its competent bodies in the fields of education for
democratic citizenship, new information technologies and non-formal education,
along the lines set up in the above-mentioned Assembly recommendation;
13.2. ensure a co-ordinated, inter-sectoral approach to this issue;
13.3. examine existing practices in media education in member states with a
view to promoting the most successful of them;
13.4. promote an integrated European approach to media education, possibly
through the creation of an international office for media education,
responsible for co-ordination and networking, in close co-operation with other
international organisations such as the European Union and
Unesco.
14. The Committee of Ministers should also call on governments and the
appropriate authorities of member states to:
14.1. encourage the elaboration and the development of media literacy
programmes for children, adolescents and adults;
14.2. promote the elaboration and the development of teacher training
programmes in the field of media education;
14.3. involve educational bodies, parents' organisations, media
professionals, Internet service providers, NGOs, and so on, in an active
dialogue on these issues;
14.4. examine ways of sustaining an offer of educational programmes by the
different media that is satisfactory in both quantitative and qualitative
terms, and of promoting media education in them.