Educating in the media

The information society and the media represent a crucial economic sector for the prosperity and quality of life in the European Union. Their importance involves not only the infrastructures and technical means of communication, but also the contents and consequently the access to information and to all the services that telecommunications in general can provide. Caring for people’s health and offering ever new opportunities for education and culture help increase the degree of democratic participation of the population and represent a real exercise of citizenship. All these concepts were underlined by VIVIANE REDING , European Commissioner for the Information Society and the Means of Communication, during a briefing she gave to journalists in Rome, promoted by the European Press Club (EPC), on 9 October. INVESTING IN RESEARCH. “Telecommunications (tlc) represent 60% of European economic growth. In the USA this percentage rises to 80%”. Viviane Reding started out from this datum to underline one of the main weak points of contemporary Europe. The European Commissioner stressed, in particular, the need to “invest in education in the media and in education in the field of telecommunications” that represent two of the main means “to increase the economic and cultural growth of the EU”. At the present time – said the Commissioner – annual per capital investment in Europe in the field of telecommunications is around 70 euros, a good deal less than the 210 euros spent in the USA. So we need to invest in research. In the years ahead we will need some 615,000 engineers and technicians in Europe: these are essential roles to develop studies and research in the field of tlc. Businesses, research centres, universities and governments need to work in synergy in this strategic field”. On behalf of the European institutions Reding announced that she would present in the Commission a “platform for research” by the end of the year”. A QUESTIONNAIRE ON THE MEDIA. Simultaneously, to promote and improve education in the media, the Commission began this month a consultation on “good practices” at the European level. A questionnaire has been prepared to obtain and assess the public’s opinion on the media in relation to the digital technologies and to gather information on measures relating to commercial telecommunications, audiovisuals and the world on line. The questionnaire is divided into four parts: the first contains general questions on education in the media, while the other three are devoted to information on initiatives and projects relating to commercial communications audiovisual works and the world on line. Replies should be sent in by 15 December (for further info: http://ec.europa.eu/comm/avpolicy/media_literacy/index_en.htm). The consultation, which will complete the current work of the group of experts chaired by the European Commission, will remain open until 15 December. The results will help guide discussions and lead to the adoption of a Communication of the Commission in the second half of 2007. The consultation is open to all interested parties: organizations in the media sector, educational institutions, producers and suppliers of media contents, cultural institutions, research institutes, regulatory authorities and associations of citizens and consumers. PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP. “Education in the media, which embraces all the means of communication, from television to cinema, from radio to music, from the press to videogames, the Internet and the new technologies of digital communication, is of vital importance to be able to exercise full and active citizenship, just as was literacy at the beginning of the nineteenth century”, said Viviane Reding. “It is of crucial importance for knowing how to move in the new world of media contents accessible to everyone, at any time and in any place. I therefore hope that the consultation launched by the Commission will enable us to define good practices at the European level and gather ideas for future initiatives”. The new technologies of information and communication “enable anyone to publish, diffuse or communicate, so it becomes ever more important for the active exercise of citizenship and democracy that citizens be able to gauge the real value of the contents of the media and to make conscious choices. Grasping the significance of the various media messages thus becomes a skill of crucial importance”. “This type of education – concluded Reding – develops the critical sense of citizens and their capacity to solve problems in a creative way, turning them into informed consumers and judicious producers of information. Education in the media improves freedom of expression and helps to build and support democracy”.