29.5.2010   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 141/16

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points out that in many cases, local and regional authorities are responsible for introducing media teaching at all levels of formal education. An appropriate procedure should therefore be sought to support local and regional authorities in backing media literacy projects.

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emphasises that Media literacy should be one of the areas covered in the new phase of EU cooperation on education launched by the strategic framework.

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highlights that a clear and substantive distinction must be made between the main components of media literacy, because the development of each component requires its own strategy, players and resources.

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wants to point out that consumers too need better awareness of what media use means. Greater respect for consumer rights is also essential in the media too.

Rapporteur

:

András Szalay (HU/ALDE), Representative of the Municipality of Veszprém

1.

The Committee of the Regions welcomes the European Commission and for setting out not only why training policy is so important, but also its fundamental principles and objectives as per the definition of media literacy (1). It also took into account the opinion adopted by the CoR at its 8-9 October 2008 plenary session (2).

2.

The Committee of the Regions hopes that the European Commission will continue its efforts to pursue the consistent development of the media literacy policy launched in 2007. It urges the Commission, while in so doing, to incorporate the CoR's opinion with due regard for the subsidiarity principle and the specific remits of local and regional authorities. The CoR also calls on the Commission to continue to develop the media literacy action plan in cooperation with the other EU institutions, UNESCO, and the local and regional authorities. In so doing, it should take the following factors into account.

3.

The Committee of the Regions therefore, calls for media literacy to be made the ninth key competence in the European reference framework for lifelong learning set out in Recommendation 2006/962/EC. There is no need to release major Community resources for this purpose, and this type of change to the key skills centre would greatly help the authorities responsible for formal education in the Member States and regions to take the necessary decisions to incorporate media literacy into curricula.

4.

The European Commission should make a clear distinction between Internet-assisted learning – online or e-learning – and moves to foster media literacy, in other words, the ability to assess the Internet critically as an online medium. It should be made clear that e-learning is not the same as media education and that ITC and digital skills are not the same as media literacy. The media literacy, has to enable people to play an active role and to maintain cultural diversity and regional and local identity (by creating new opportunities for people to voice their opinions, for example, and by giving those who are marginalised and minorities the chance to express themselves in the local public arena).

5.

The CoR would point out that developing media literacy, combined with adapting teaching methods to the media in schools and beyond is particularly important for Europe's future. Adaptation will also involve promoting the teaching of new communication technologies, which are vitally important to social and professional integration.

6.

Developing media literacy is a key aspect of protecting minors and young people and safeguarding human dignity in the media. Indeed it leads to an informed use of the media and the development of self-regulation and co-regulation within the content industry (6). Nevertheless, the improvement of media literacy can only complement national and supranational monitoring and the legal protection afforded to young people (in relation to the media). This skill brings citizens into the debate on the responsibility of all components of society, thereby fostering the emergence of active and media-literate citizenship. As such, it is vitally important to European cultural policy and the active participation of EU citizens. This is why we need to raise the profile of EU media education policy in all Member States and at all administrative and political levels.

7.

Education for young people living in a media-saturated environment requires qualitatively new approaches that also take into consideration the different socio-cultural roles played by the media and schools in disseminating information and values. The teacher's role must reflect the fact that students are unconsciously socialised into a world of ready answers where simplistic media debates provide them with an interpretation for every issue. As a result, developing basic skills must also cover the interpretation of media content since developing a critical mind mainly concerns models presented by the media and ingrained since childhood, which unconsciously determine how we see the world.

8.

When applying the open method of coordination to the definition of new indicators and benchmarks for teaching and training, the following points should be borne in mind.

9.

One of the main reasons for current slow progress in media education is the fact that the link between media literacy and digital literacy in European educational practice has not been clearly established. In practical teaching, ICT is used mainly as a means of securing access to the digital world and promoting equal opportunities. Nowadays, young people do not have the slightest difficulty in acquiring the knowledge they need to use IT tools and basic software or to master simple applications. At the same time, teachers do not have – and have little time to develop – the necessary skills to give a critical interpretation of media content available in digital form (among others) and engage in creative production, albeit these are the key components essential to media literacy.

10.

There is an urgent need to rethink the link between computer literacy and media literacy, to ensure that confusion in distinguishing these skills does not lead to shortcomings in the educational system. In addition to digital skills, young people must be helped to develop greater critical capacity and skill in relation to media content, so as to teach them to take account of concerns relating to security and to be aware of the need to respect people's private lives and of problems relating to data manipulation.

11.

In consultations on media literacy education and training policy, the following factors are important:

12.

Media literacy should be one of the areas covered in the new phase of EU cooperation on education launched by the strategic framework.

13.

While endorsing the European Parliament resolution, which emphasises that media literacy is an absolutely crucial skill for everyone living in an information and communication society (7), the Committee of the Regions considers that the goal should be to achieve a society that has taken media literacy fully on board, and that media education is the way to attain this. It therefore notes that it is absolutely essential to ensure equal access to the Internet for all European citizens, especially those at a disadvantage because of geographical separation or remoteness.

14.

A clear and substantive distinction must be made between the main components of media literacy, because the development of each component requires its own strategy, players and resources. It is therefore essential to:

15.

The CoR, whilst not questioning the crucial importance of the areas addressed by the EC when referring to the good practices (commercial communication, audiovisual production and online content), considers that it would be desirable to give these thematic priorities a substantive base in the upcoming recommendations. Otherwise, media literacy could, in practice, be confined to these three areas.

16.

The development of skills such as intelligent information searching, critical content interpretation and creative Internet use may be expected to help protect minors and young people and secure respect for human dignity in the media. In tandem, therefore, with the regulatory provisions adopted by the public authorities, priority should be given to stepping up measures to boost media literacy in these areas.

17.

Consumers too need better awareness of what media use means. Greater respect for consumer rights is also essential in the media too.

18.

The Committee of the Regions wishes to emphasise that moves to foster critical media literacy will not, of themselves, be enough to eliminate the various detrimental aspects of content provision, such as gratuitous violence in the media, the breach of consumer rights by media services, the lack of authenticity and validity, and manipulation). Moreover, media literacy only has a limited or no influence on trends such as media convergence or the development of, access to and interlinking of digital archives, copyright reform, regulation in this field, and even online administration (9). Media literacy addresses these trends, puts them in context and prepares users to be citizens who are aware of what is produced in the public sphere and in the media. Regulation at the appropriate level, with due regard to the competencies and experience of local and regional authorities, is therefore necessary in addition to the development of media literacy.

19.

Any future recommendations and action plans should make provision for schemes to foster the main elements of media literacy. These schemes should also be of practical use in Member States' education and training systems (including media education), taking due account of Member States' different educational and cultural traditions, the major disparities resulting from different types of training within the various regional set-ups and the provisions in place within each system to make economies of scale.

20.

It is crucial, when drawing up recommendations and action plans, to take account of best practice; in this context the Committee would draw attention to its opinion (10) in which it commends the stepping-up of Commission action aimed at harnessing the know-how acquired through local and regional programmes on media literacy issues throughout the EU by promoting platforms for dialogue, events and networks for exchanging best practice.

21.

The Committee of the Regions wishes to express its concern, however, at the following aspects:

The appropriate organisational and professional infrastructure thus needs to be put in place: to this end, steps could, for instance, be taken to establish media literacy desks could be along the lines of the media desks in place under the MEDIA programme (alternatively, the scope of these existing desks could be extended), or to enhance or even expand the professional consultative remit of the media literacy group set up by the European Commission.

22.

Whilst abiding by the subsidiarity principle and respecting their independence, the European Commission can help the Member States when necessary, to draw up their own national media literacy strategies, taking due account of the main elements involved; where possible, this should secure the involvement of the media regulation authorities, education policy decision-makers and representatives of local and regional authorities, civil society, the content industry and media literacy innovation in drawing up this national strategy.

23.

Given the differing circumstances in the Member States and regions, media literacy under the relevant recommendations and action plans must be pursued in such a way that it can also be applied within the local socio-economic context. This will, however, require a more detailed study of the national and even the regional position in order to secure a clearer picture, not least as regards the motivation and practical stance of local authorities, the institutions' funding bodies and media literacy teachers.

24.

Given the rapidly changing nature of the media environment, media literacy should be subject to ongoing research and assessment, involving authorities in the various Member States responsible for regulating audiovisual and electronic communication and fostering cooperation between them to improve media literacy.

25.

The Committee of the Regions calls on the European Commission to encourage the establishment of regional research and information departments, within the administrative structures of local and regional administrations, tasked with examining media literacy issues.

26.

Local and regional authorities are the key players in fostering media literacy, since they are the closest to grassroots concerns, not least given their involvement in the organisation of many educational establishments, in running local media and other cultural institutions (such as libraries, community cultural centres, etc.) and managing European or other development funds. There are thus grounds for launching information campaigns aimed at the regions and local authorities, underpinned by EU recommendations and best practice, and for boosting opportunities for media literacy cooperation in the Euroregions and cross-border areas.

27.

Local and regional authorities must be encouraged to support the media literacy projects, programmes and charters, primarily with the following aims in mind:

28.

The Committee of the Regions calls on the European Commission to put the arrangements for funding training policy, supporting pilot projects and fostering research in the field of media literacy on a new footing, since media literacy can benefit from better funding under existing schemes (such as Comenius regional cooperation projects) or under future initiatives. As targeted and multicentre resources have to be available from the outset if the goals set are to be achieved, the Committee of the Regions agrees with the European Parliament (11) and considers that a media literacy sub-programme should be incorporated explicitly and in a targeted manner into other EU support programmes, especially the Comenius, Education and lifelong learning, eTwinning and Safer Internet schemes and European Social Funds programme.

29.

Especially welcome is the fact that the European Commission has, with a view to long-term promotion, started to draw up media literacy indicators. At the same time, however, the Committee of the Regions hopes that these media literacy indicators will not simply provide figures on the form and duration of media use, since assessing media literacy also means working out ways of measuring an individual's skills (although in this area, a degree of scepticism about the use of figure-based indicators is understandable given the difficulty, in quantative terms, of expressing creative and critical knowledge and the skills needed to ‘rank’ content in measurable yardsticks).