Media Literacy

Discurso de Tessa Jowell, ministra da Cultura, dos Media e do Desporto do Reino Unido,
no Seminário sobre Media Literacy, esta semana realizado (muito gostaria de ver o nosso ministro da Educação ou da Cultura a ir por este caminho):

"Because it is not good enough just to say that media literacy is about giving people the ability to access, analyse, evaluate and use the media. In my view that definition must be developed to embrace at least three separate strands:

First, that people have the means to understand the potential of all the new communication technologies that are rapidly becoming available. To have a modern population able to take advantage of modern technologies is good for individuals, good for the economy and good for our wider society.

But technology and hardware by themselves have little value. It is the content delivered that matters to people. We live in a society where large corporations, and other institutions are becoming ever more sophisticated and powerful in the way they use the media to promote their products and shape the way that people see the world. (...)

But thirdly, we recognise that people are more than consumers. They are citizens, and to be citizens they need to have an understanding of the world around them and how they engage with it. Most of the information they need to be able to act as informed citizens does actually come from the media. It therefore matters that people can get the information they need, know what degree of trust they can put in it, and how to "aim off", to take account of the inevitable bias that flows from the viewpoint and interests of the organisation or individual who is delivering the information."

Why does Media Literacy Matter?

"People do need to know what Media Literacy means in their real lives. So let me illustrate the definition with a few recent examples:

Firstly, there is the debate about obesity in young people and the impact of food advertising.

Secondly, there is the concern about paedophilia and the use of the Net for inappropriate contact with young people.

Thirdly, take the debate about Europe. Is it really possible to understand what is written about the EU without knowing about the deeply felt passions of the owners and editors?
And what about those owners and editors? There is a debate about who might buy the Telegraph titles. Is that a private debate amongst big companies who might be interested in buying, or is there a legitimate public debate, which should be properly informed by an understanding of both plurality and diversity?"

(O discurso completo: AQUI)

Comunicação, tecnologia, educação: textos

Um conjunto de textos da base digital da Organizacion de Estados Iberoamericanos: Biblioteca Digital de la OEI.Medios de comunicaci?n

Semana dos Jornais na Educação
E em Portugal? Alguém sabe da semana dos media?

NIE Week 2004: "Newspaper In Education Week 2004, March 1-5, brings excitement and passion to the celebration of literacy, reading and NIE programs. The Goal of NIE Week remains to reinforce a positive and relevant lifetime reading habit in students by engaging them with an authentic text-the newspaper. "

Jowell: TV as Important as Maths

By Sherna Noah, Arts Correspondent, PA News


Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has sparked controversy by saying that learning to watch television should be as important as maths or science.

Ms Jowell said she believed that ?decoding? the media will become as important in life as understanding great literature.

The Culture Secretary was speaking last night in advance of a conference on media literacy organised by the UK Film Council, Channel 4, the British Film Institute and the BBC, which she will address next week.

She said: ?I believe that in the modern world, media literacy will become as important a skill as maths or science.

?Decoding our media will be as important to our lives as citizens as understanding great literature is to our cultural lives.?

She added: ?As the electronic media environment grows and diversifies, we need to ensure that we give the public the tools they need to make their way through the electronic world.

?Everyone needs to be able to decode the way the media works, questioning everything in order to understand everything.?

Ms Jowell has given Ofcom, the new communications watchdog, a specific duty to promote media literacy, but she has also appealed to the communication industries to play their part.

She believes that if consumers take more personal responsibility for what they watch it would ?lessen the need for regulatory intervention?.

Ms Jowell said: ?We need to make sure that people are equipped to understand and interpret this mass of communication: to differentiate between opinion and fact; to make sense of what they see and hear; and to challenge and question it.

?And it is important that we know when we are watching ?accurate and impartial? news coverage and when we are not.?

People should be equipped to protect themselves and their families from material they might find harmful or distasteful, she said.

The comments were criticised by the Campaign for Real Education for encouraging students to turn their backs on ?hard subjects? such as maths and science for ?soft? subjects like media studies.

Chairman Nick Seaton said: ?Studying literature helps to understand exactly what something is about, and this skill can then be applied to other forums.

?There is a serious deficit of young people carrying on with individual sciences, maths and foreign languages.

?Remarks like this encourage youngsters to study the sort of subjects like media studies when they would be better spending their time studying ?hard? subjects.?

Revistas da Sage em acesso livre até 31 de Março: uma mina !

O António Granado traz-nos hoje uma notícia que, além de utilíssima, é um verdadeiro "furo": a Sage dá acesso livre e gratuito, até 31 de Março deste ano, a todo o conteúdo das revistas científicas por ela editadas. Ou seja, para os que se interessam por media, acesso gratuito às seguintes revistas na área da comunicação:
- British Journalism Review,
- Communication Research,
- Comparative American Studies,
- Discourse & Society,
- Discourse Studies,
- European Journal of Communication,
- Gazette,
- Journal of Business and Technical Communication,
- Journal of Communication Inquiry,
- Journal of Language and Social Psychology,
- Journalism,
- Media, Culture & Society,
- New Media & Society,
- Television & New Media,
- Visual Communication
- Written Communication.

Crianças espanholas passam mais tempo frente ao televisor do que na escola

Esta é a conslusão do "libro blanco sobre La educación en el entorno audiovisual", que foi apresentado pelo Consejo Audiovisual de Cataluña (CAC). A notícia é do El Pais e diz o seguinte:

Un niño español está de media más horas delante del televisor que en la escuela. Los menores de entre 4 y 12 años dedican 990 horas anuales a ver la televisión frente a las 960 que se destinan al colegio y los estudios. Es la conclusión más llamativa del libro blanco sobre La educación en el entorno audiovisual, que ayer presentó el Consejo Audiovisual de Cataluña (CAC). El CAC alerta de que desciende la programación destinada a los menores y que el momento del día en que más niños ven la televisión es entre las 21 a las 24 horas, fuera del horario protegido. "Lo que hace la escuela durante el día lo deshace la televisión durante la noche", comentó ayer José Manuel Pérez Tornero, profesor de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona y responsable del informe.
Si a las 19 horas semanales dedicadas a la televisión se le suman los minutos destinados a los videojuegos y el ordenador, un menor pasa de media 30 horas semanales frente a la pantalla. El consumo audiovisual infantil se realiza mayoritariamente fuera de cualquier control adulto y no se contemplan espacios dedicados precisamente a este tipo de público (Operación Triunfo, Ana y los siete y Gran Hermano son los espacios preferidos por los niños).
Entre un 43% y un 50% de los alumnos de ESO dispone de una televisión en su habitación, "especialmente para liberar al uso adulto el televisor de la sala de estar", señala el informe. Resalta también que a menor nivel económico, mayor tiempo se dedica a la televisión, ya que hay menos alternativas de ocio. "Si la escuela enseña el valor del esfuerzo y la constancia, la televisión potencia una visión del mundo en que cualquier deseo parece estar al alcance de la mano", añade el libro blanco elaborado tras un centenar de entrevistas con representantes de padres, educadores, pedagogos, psicólogos y productores audiovisuales.

Analfabetos audiovisuales
"El problema no es cuánto se mira, sino qué y cómo se mira", señaló Victoria Camps, vicepresidenta del CAC. Camps apostó ayer por la responsabilidad compartida entre padres, profesores y cadenas de televisión para hacer frente al excesivo y mal uso de los medios que hacen los niños. El CAC promueve así que la escuela eduque a los menores para que tengan "una mirada crítica" frente a la pequeña pantalla y no crear "analfabetos audiovisuales". Apela a los padres "para que controlen la dieta televisiva de sus hijos igual que controlan la alimentaria", en palabras de Camps.
El consejo audiovisual tira también de las orejas a los operadores, especialmente a las televisiones públicas, y les insta a producir más espacios infantiles de producción propia que promuevan los mismos valores que se aprenden en la escuela. Entre sus propuestas destaca la creación de canales infantiles y educativos en abierto, la redacción de la carta ciudadana de derechos ante los medios y códigos de autorregulación sobre contenidos de riesgo.

Referências sobre videojogos:

- GROS, Begona (2002) Los videojuegos deben estar también en las aulas.
- GROS, Begona (2000) La dimensión socioeducativa de los videojuegos. Edutec. Revista Electrónica de Tecnologia Educativa, núm. 12/Junho.
- LAFRANCE, J.P. (1995) La epidemia de los videojuegos. Epopeya de una industria. Telos, n.42
- LICONA VEJA, A. Lilian, CARVALHO LEVY, D. P.(1999) Algumas reflexiones sobre los videojuegos.
- MOLINA, F. (2003) Los videojuegos. Jugando com outra vida.