According to the European Charter of Media Literacy , there are seven areas of competences related to media literacy:
Dynamic history of literacy
The acquisition of media literacy from the end of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st, is the fruit of a continued and significant historical advance of very distant origin, which has been at times, sinuous, and always subjected to the pressure and tensions deriving from conflicts of interest and power. Literacy processes have always been influenced and sometimes interrupted by inequality in every sphere: economic, social, sexual, ethnic, geographical, etc. On the contrary, it has been these factors and their self-interested use which have made literacy a privilege of the few.
The first great milestone in this continued development was the appearance of alphabetical writing. Both the Renaissance and Humanism in their day aided the expansion of writing, which with it brought printing. Similarly, the industrial revolution was accompanied by the progressive expansion of reading and writing, which in turn led to the introduction of obligatory literacy. However, inequality which has existed through the ages and still exists means that literacy has been and still is a privilege of the few. Literacy depends mainly on access to education and one of the greatest obstacles has been and continues to be today the economic factor.
The table below highlights the most important phases of this evolution.
The most important recent milestones in this communicative and technological development are: the appearance of electronic media (telephone, film, radio and television) paving the way for mass communication – dominant since the 1950s – and the later emergence of digital media, the paradigm of which is the Internet – since the 1980s.
The emergence of digital media, which have expanded at a speed and an extent never seen before in history, has led to, in the context of the information society, a new intellectual, semiotic, communicative and cultural climate, which has had a marked effect on both personal, work-related and social development. This new climate has led to a qualitative leap, and to a certain extent a rupture, in
the systems of mass communication that dominated almost the whole of the second half of the 20th century.
The table below compares the principal characteristics of the two dominant paradigms; that of mass communication and that of digital media, or multimedia communication. 
The features that the new media have brought into the new communicative environment:
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a) Multimediality in reception and multimodality in production;
b) Portability and connectivity – which promote the autonomy of users in relation to the media, make the consumption and use of new technologies more transversal and layered, and promotes multitasking.
The table below illustrates these characteristics:
Media literacy must respond to these new challenges in the communicative environment, which require new creative and critical approaches and which highlight the need for media appropriation by individuals, groups and society as a whole.
To understand fully the nature of this new media literacy, one should bear in mind the historical milestones in the literacy process:
· Classic literacy (reading-writing-understanding) was dominant for centuries and corresponded to the process of reading and writing, and in which primary schooling has played an essential role.
· Audiovisual literacy, which relates to electronic media such as film and television, focuses on image, and sequential images. It is the beginning of different educational initiatives early engaged but not sufficiently supported by a real policy.
· Digital literacy or information literacy stems from computer and digital media, which brought about the necessity to learn new skills. This is a very recent concept, and is often used synonymously to refer to the technical skills required for modern digital tools.
· Media literacy, which is needed as a result of the media convergence – that is the merging of electronic media (mass communication) and digital media (multimedia communication) which occurs in the advanced stages of development of information society. This media literacy includes the command of previous forms of literacy: reading and writing (from understanding to creative skills), audiovisual, digital and the new skills required in a climate of media convergence.
Media literacy, which is needed as a result of the media convergence – that is the merging of electronic media (mass communication) and digital media (multimedia communication) which occurs in the advanced stages of development of information society. This media literacy includes the command of previous forms of literacy: reading and writing (from understanding to creative skills), audiovisual, digital and the new skills required in a climate of media convergence.
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The conceptualisation of media literacy:
Media Literacy is the term that describes the skills and competences required to develop, with autonomy and awareness, in the new communicative environment - digital, global and multimedia – of the information society. Media literacy is considered the result of the process of media education.
According to the European Charter of Media Literacy , there are seven areas of competences related to media literacy:
· Use media technologies effectively to access, store, retrieve and share content to meet their individual and community needs and interests;
· Gain access to, and make informed choices about, a wide range of media forms and content from different cultural and institutional sources;
· Understand how and why media content is produced;
· Analyse critically the techniques, languages and conventions used by the media, and the messages they convey;
· Use media creatively to express and communicate ideas, information and opinions;
· Identify, and avoid or challenge, media content and services that may be unsolicited, offensive or harmful;
· Make effective use of media in the exercise of their democratic rights and civil responsibilities.
Media literacy should not be treated as an isolated or independent skill. On the contrary, it is a skill that involves and encompasses other skills and forms of literacy: reading and writing literacy, audiovisual literacy (often referred to as image or visual literacy) and digital or information literacy.
Elements of media literacy:
In order to create an operational chart on media literacy, the following essential elements must be highlighted:
· Contexts: Physical and institutional spaces in which determined players interact in order to achieve a functional objective. A distinction is made between the personal context – which relates to the individual activity of a person as part of his or her private and personal life; family context, at the heart of family relationships, and generally in a family setting; educational context, corresponding to institutional spaces, schools, and formal teaching activity; media context, space created by the interaction of individuals with the media, its messages and its uses; and civil context, in which citizens exercise their public activities according to their rights, duties and responsibilities. Each context determines specific conditions of access and use, and occasionally, regulation, of the media.
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· Actors: People, groups, institutions with a precise status and specific role in a given context. These players are defined by different parameters: the nature of the person, the roles, the situation and institutional characters and their social function.
· Competences: Set of skills and abilities, which allow appointed actors to carry out a specific function. There are specific skills for each actor and for each area.
· Processes: Activities linked to all of the previous elements.
· Areas: Areas of activity and processes, which, in a given context, bring together different actors with specific aims.
The table below illustrates how all of these elements relate to each other:
Emerging trends and good practices in the development of media literacy in Europe
Traditional media literacy used to deal separately with existing media: film, television, radio, etc. Now the trend in all European countries is to deal globally with all media in an integrated way, considering, first and foremost, the new characteristics of interaction and interactivity presented by the new context. For example, several recent studies looking into the relationship between young people and the new digital environment have been highlighted. For example, the Mediappro project 51 has described the relationship between digital media and young Europeans and has held the opinion that there is a trend among them of appropriation of new digital media, via interactivity and interaction. The study describes the existing difference between the conditions of the new media environment and those of the mass media: “The Internet (and following technologies) is a new media, specifically characterised by interactivity (human to machine) and interaction (human to human), which put the (young) user into an active place. The comparison becomes clear if we consider other electronic media, like radio and television, and in a certain way, games, where all the contents are previously put by editors”. One of the conclusions of the study highlights that Internet, in these times of media convergence, is becoming “the first public medium of expression by and for young people”. This medium still has limitations and restrictions, but it constitutes an advance in what may be the new media environment in which citizens can become appropriated.
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It is precisely this experience of appropriation which is turning into a central theme of media literacy, and which has been the subject of various recent studies . Many of these studies describe the new multimedia environment, and when faced with the question of media literacy, support the encouragement of the critical abilities of communication users, and their abilities of appropriation in the new environment. This is an emerging orientation in recent studies on media literacy in Europe.
There is no doubt that the inclusion of the media in the curriculum has risen with the educational reforms of the 1990s and 2000s. Until then, the media was rarely and unsystematically approached via different subjects, but the situation seems to have changed over the last decade. Many countries have included the acquisition of media and digital skills as among the final objectives of their curriculum (Finland, Slovenia, France, Spain); and some have linked these skills to civic education and active citizenship (France, Spain). Some have created optional subjects (Some in Spain and France) on the media. Others have established evaluation systems for such skills (France). In general, there is a clear trend for linking skills related to new digital media with critical and creative skills related to mass media (film, radio, television and press). Technological evolution has an important effect on this evolution, though it does not wholly determine it. Cultural and political attitudes are also huge influences. When examined functionally, in fact, computer literacy constitutes an instrumental field of knowledge that allows the implementation of new tasks in the information society. But media literacy is something more than an instrumental, practical education. It involves acquiring awareness; it allows the construction of meaning, and in this way it guides the operative abilities that information society requires.
Finland: Media education and digital literacy have been central in the Finnish educational approach to dealing with new technologies and communication skills in the 21st century. In early 1996, the Finnish Ministry for Education published a report by a small committee on cultural and media literacy. It emphasized the importance of the new civil and professional skills and competence in the use of the media and net. The report, among other things, pointed out that the field of the media is integrating and becoming interactive while audio-visual communication becomes a central issue. This cultural change requires transforming traditional literacy into media literacy or in broader terms into cultural literacy where it is of central importance to understanding how images and meaning are created.
Germany: There is no general curriculum for Germany’s educational system – the curriculum depends on the Federal States, in which media education is not a specific subject, and in which media literacy is not yet explicitly included as a compulsory school subject. However, the inclusion of ICT is closely related to media literacy through the concept of media competence. Furthermore, there are a lot of different activities in the German Laender to raise awareness on the importance of media literacy and to integrate media education into the different curriculums. It can therefore be assumed that the Federal States do include media education in curricular frameworks.
United Kingdom: Media literacy isn’t a specific subject, although there are many options related to ICT, which can be part of an integral approach to media literacy.57 However in the school curriculum58 in all four UK nations there are some requirements for learning about the media as part of mother tongue (i.e. English, Welsh or Irish) learning and as part of Citizenship. Media Studies and other mediarelated subjects are offered as options for students in the 14-18 age range in some schools and further education colleges: these are taken by about 7% of this agegroup.
Slovenia: Since 1996, media education has been an official and formal part of the Slovenian educational curriculum. Media education is defined as a process of teaching about and with the media. By attempting to develop and create a critical understanding and active participation in classrooms, media literacy is seen as a final result of media education. “Media education provides the ability to critically analyse media messages, and the recognition of the active roles that audiences play in making meaning from media messages” (Curriculum for Media education, 1997: 2).
Hungary: In 1996 the “Moving Image Programme” was accepted by the Hungarian Government to aid the introduction of a new subject entitled “Culture of the Moving Image and Media Education”, into the new National Curriculum. The new subject became part of the Curriculum between 1998 and 1999. Teacher training programmes started in 1994. Now there are more initiatives in progress all over the country. Media Education is a compulsory subject either on its own or as an integrated part of other curricular areas, such as Information Technology, Art, etc. There are textbooks with different aspects of media work, readers, manuals, CDs, videos and more. In the Hungarian curriculum, information and communication culture means finding, capturing, understanding, selecting, analysing, evaluating, using, transmitting and creating information developing cognition, orientation, learning, knowledge, human relations, co-operation and social interaction. Key objectives include the development of cognitive skills, in particular the skills of observation, decoding, interpreting, justification and verification, as these skills are an organic part of the information and communication culture.
France: The new law of 23 April 2005 set out the basic skills and objectives in education, among which media studies was established as part of the compulsory education curriculum. It was introduced in subjects dealing with the development of children’s abilities of analysis and skills required for living in a free society where technology plays a fundamental role, so as to learn how the technological system works, the laws that govern its operations, and the way technological advances affect their environment. Since October 2006, media education has been a specific objective in the teaching of general skills related with social and civic participation, and is aimed at developing a critical approach to the media. It is important to point out the existence of IT and Internet Certificates, known as B2i, granted to elementary school students who demonstrate competence in ICT.
Spain: Regarding the Spanish Educational System, the compulsory school curriculum (Primary and Secondary) contains digital literacy (and media literacy), as a part of the skills that students must attain but currently there are no specific subjects, teaching Media as information sources or tools for learning.
Ireland: Currently, media education seems widespread and vibrant within the school curriculum, particularly at primary level. Therefore, its implementation is open to interpretation by individual teachers, head teachers and boards of management. Currently, media studies are ‘stranded’ into subjects such as English, rather than as a ‘stand-alone’ subject.
Italy: The Italian educational system - which has recently gone through a period of reform – has been through different phases related with media: during the fifties and the sixties, the educational system focused on film, during the seventies, mainly on TV and finally in the eighties and nineties mainly on computer science education, multimedia and new technologies. In any case there have been no official and systematic policies created by the Ministry of Education, and development in media education and its application has only been provided by some scholars in the universities and by teachers in the schools. ICT skills were included as a primary goal in the National Plan for New Technologies in the School (1995), but only from an instrumental, non-critical perspective, with little reference to mass media. In other words, ICT and media education are still not included as a compulsory part of the curriculum, despite the fact that the use of media and the analysis of the mass media has long been normal practice for Italian teachers. The mass media and technology are also considered important support tools for the development of other subjects, such as Italian (language), history, music or art and image.
Portugal: Although Media literacy is present in the Portuguese education system, it has only a discrete presence in the curriculum. There are some references to media studies. ICT is seen as an important subject and a skill to be acquired by all students. In the “Orientações do Ministério da Educação para a Disciplina de TIC” it is said that ICT is undoubtedly embedded in the national curriculum and that the subject should not be considered part of IT, but as a subject where skills in informatics are linked with those specific of other areas of learning. ICT is a core subject for the 8th, 9th and 10th years and is also present in the national curriculum as a basic cross-curricular subject, related to general skills, specific methodologies and acquiring general and specific competences (in handling information, working methods, communication, etc.)
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