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Resolution 2314 (2019)
Media education in the new media environment
1. The Parliamentary Assembly notes
that digitisation, mobility and online communication have brought indisputable
benefits for the public, who today can enjoy a wide range of sources
of information and unprecedented access to cultural, historical,
political, economic and technical information. Furthermore, the open
nature of digital platforms facilitates participatory, transparent
and effective democracy.
2. At the same time, threats to fundamental rights, democracy
and the rule of law are increasing in the digital age. Large segments
of the public, especially young people, are turning to social media
as their main source of news, but they are vulnerable to information
disorder. Hate speech and incitement to violence hamper social peace.
Disinformation and propaganda can influence not only elections and
referendums, but also daily life; they have a negative effect on
citizens’ political commitment and on their trust in traditional media.
3. People have the right to be properly informed in order to
make informed choices, and member States must protect this right.
In this context, media education is a key tool for strengthening
media pluralism and the quality of media content, which are essential
for the safeguarding of our democratic societies.
4. Action must be taken to raise awareness among members of society,
in particular among young people, regarding the challenges and risks
brought by the new media environment to increase their ability to
distinguish information from opinion and objective facts from propaganda
or false news; to make them conscious of possible manipulation,
disinformation or hate speech; and to immunise them against indoctrination
and radicalisation. It is equally necessary to improve the training
of journalists: responsibility and professional ethics should be
a priority for journalists in their work, as they are prerequisites
for people’s trust in the media and in quality journalism.
5. Media education should address all members of the public.
It should start at school and continue as part of a lifelong learning
process, aiming to enable all individuals to exploit the potential
of media for access to culture, entertainment, learning and intercultural
dialogue; to help them acquire a critical approach to media as regards
both quality and accuracy of content, to develop their digital skills
and knowledge of existing protection tools; and to improve their
online behaviour.
6. Although media education is part of the school curriculum
in several member States, it is not always clear exactly how this
education fits into the syllabus. Often there is no consistency
in the methodology and objectives pursued. Media literacy needs
are evolving at a rapid pace, sometimes faster than media literacy curricula
are developed and delivered in classrooms. Teachers need more support
and training, because initial or in-service teacher training in
media literacy is not always provided or updated.
7. Moreover, the promotion of media literacy is not a task that
the education system and teachers, or the media themselves, can
perform alone. States’ policies should not be limited to the educational
sector, but should take a cross-sectoral, multi-actor approach,
seeking to involve other relevant stakeholders that could play an
important role, for instance, media regulatory authorities and social
media. All relevant stakeholders in the process of media education
– public institutions, ministries, schools, universities, media
(in particular public service media), media regulatory authorities,
civil society, private initiatives, internet intermediaries – need
to enhance co-ordination of their strategies and actions, and engage
in a multi-actor collaboration. However, effective co-ordination
is hampered by the lack of comprehensive, up-to-date information
and overviews of member States’ policies and best practices in the
field and by the absence of platforms which could facilitate cross-sectoral
co-operation at national level.
8. Funding is usually “heterogeneous”, with a complex interplay
between different types of financing, and it often lacks transparency.
Sometimes there is no entity or person with the overall responsibility
for the whole process, which can make it difficult to secure long-term
funding for media and information literacy projects and can make
it hard to see which sectors or organisations should be providing
leadership. Funding initiatives by tech giants are welcome, but
they are wholly voluntary and random. The focus of these initiatives;
the selection of applicants; and the amounts, frequency as well
as terms and conditions of the financing awarded are decided according
to corporate interests. These initiatives should be complementary
to, rather than a substitute for, structured systems and non-commercial
funding schemes. Without adequate resources, media education will
remain contingent on private and voluntary endeavours, whereas sustainable
solutions are needed.
9. In this context, the Assembly recalls to member States the
Committee of Ministers Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)1 on media pluralism
and transparency of media ownership, Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)2 on
the roles and responsibilities of internet intermediaries, and Recommendation
CM/Rec(2018)7 on Guidelines to respect, protect and fulfil the rights
of the child in the digital environment. Building on the guidelines
therein, the Assembly recommends that member States:
9.1. develop a co-ordinated national
media literacy policy and ensure its operationalisation and implementation
through annual or multiyear action plans and adequate resources
for these purposes;
9.2. support the creation of a co-ordinated national media
literacy network comprising a wide range of stakeholders, or the
further development of such a network where it already exists;
9.3. actively exchange and promote, in relevant international
forums, positive practices developed within national networks;
9.4. encourage internet intermediaries to support media and
information literacy strategies;
9.5. create, together with relevant actors at national level,
a map of media literacy practices, ensuring that this is repeated
periodically, is promoted accordingly and that its outcome is made
available online;
9.6. promote media education at all levels of formal education
and continuing education, integrating media literacy into educational
establishments and curricula;
9.7. ensure adequate training for teachers, particularly as
regards initial and in-service training;
9.8. support journalism education and training programmes through
an independent and adequate funding mechanism while ensuring an
equitable distribution of financial support and fully respecting professional
and academic independence in organisational matters;
9.9. introduce in the mission of public service media, where
this is not yet the case, the duty to provide media literacy, to
combat the digital divide, and to ensure safety for young audiences
in the online environment; in this context, allocate to the public
service media the resources necessary to develop media education
projects and integrate them in their programmes;
9.10. enlarge the mandate of media regulatory authorities, for
the latter to be more actively involved in the field of media education,
notably in the promotion of media literacy in the audiovisual sector;
in this context, ensure that media literacy becomes an integral
part of the mandate of media regulatory authorities, taking as a
source of inspiration the Guidelines on how to establish Media Literacy
Networks, adopted by the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities
in May 2018;
9.11. support national campaigns for media education as a complementary
means to raising awareness of the importance of this issue and boost
co-operation among various stakeholders.
10. The Assembly calls on public service media organisations to:
10.1. follow the guidelines on media
literacy developed by the European Broadcasting Union, notably in
its News Report 2018, and take inspiration from extensive examples
of media literacy and education initiatives;
10.2. develop media literacy projects individually and in co-operation
with other stakeholders such as community or private media, newspapers,
civil society, internet intermediaries, and in this context, share best
practices with national and European partner institutions;
10.3. provide specialist educational content addressed to children
and teenagers, also using new techniques adapted to the behaviour
of young audiences, in order to develop with them critical approaches
to information and the media in general, provide advice and tips
about digital safety and ethical behaviour online, using young presenters
to explain how to distinguish opinions and facts; how to spot disinformation,
manipulation and propaganda; and how to check sources, to enable
young people to act responsibly as both consumers and creators of
content in the digital space;
10.4. develop online video news services suitable for use on
mobile devices, using formats that appeal to and engage specific
target audiences, especially young people;
10.5. develop focused programmes offering guidance to teachers
on how to make, interpret or decode content;
10.6. provide in-house training to journalists and other media
professionals on various topics, including ethical aspects and quality
journalism.
11. The Assembly calls on the European Broadcasting Union to:
11.1. continue to promote its guidelines
regarding media and information literacy, and encourage European
public service media to fully apply them, keeping in mind their
particular role with regard to the public of all ages and social
categories;
11.2. further develop innovative collaborative media literacy
initiatives among its members, looking for synergies with other
quality news partners;
11.3. provide its members with advanced strategies regarding
media and information literacy in their projects and encourage active
co-operation between them;
11.4. organise systematic workshops and training programmes
for its members on media literacy and encourage the exchange of
good practices in the field;
11.5. actively take part in, and contribute to, targeted studies
focusing on media and information literacy.
12. The Assembly calls on the Association of Commercial Television
in Europe to:
12.1. encourage its
members to consider the crucial importance of media literacy and
to develop specialised programmes targeting young audiences in particular;
12.2. develop, in this field, co-operation with public service
media and other types of media and exchange good practices that
may be fruitful and useful.
13. The Assembly calls on professionals and organisations in the
media sector to:
13.1. consider complex
challenges faced today by journalists and other media professionals
in the multimedia ecosystem, and develop professional training focused
on legal, digital, ethical, verification/fact-checking, security
and other dimensions, organised either by media organisations themselves
or by journalists’ unions or other partner organisations;
13.2. ensure that professional training, organised by journalism
schools or as specialised programmes offered by universities, is
available for journalists on a permanent basis;
13.3. co-ordinate efforts between the main journalists’ professional
organisations, such as the European Federation of Journalists, the
European Journalism Training Association, the Ethical Journalism
Network, the European Journalism Centre and the Global Editors Network,
in order to enable members to collaborate on exchanges and teaching,
and research projects in the field of journalism education, and
to draft a clear, accurate, detailed and up-to-date overview of
journalism education and training programmes at national and European
levels.
14. The Assembly calls on internet intermediaries to:
14.1. actively co-operate with public,
social and private entities to promote and support media literacy, notably
to counter disinformation; hate speech including sexist hate speech
targeting women and online misbehaviour;
14.2. support the development of appropriate programmes and
tools in the domain of media and information literacy and, in particular
of specific tools to be used in the process of media education in schools
and during journalists’ training;
14.3. further expand support for independent networks of fact-checkers
and tools to encourage quality journalism.