[iDC] mediawisdom

[Rob van Kranenburg]

Hi list,

Not quite a program, but Dutch policy advice from the Council of  
Culture, for which I acted as external expert, which I think is  
interesting as a broader educational and media-cultural umbrella,

Greetings, Rob


Council for Culture 2005 Advisory Report on Mediawijsheid .

Excerpts from the letter by the Council for Culture (Raad voor  
Cultuur), accompanying the 2005Advisory Report on Mediawijsheid  
(literary: ‘media wisdom’).   The letter and report were submitted to  
the Minister of Education, Culture and Science (Dutch: OCW) and the  
Chairs of the Houses of Parliament. The Advisory Report was entitled  
Media Wisdom: The Development of New Citizenship (Mediawijsheid: De  
ontwikkeling van nieuw burgerschap).

Background

The 2005 Advisory Report follows on from the 1996 Council for Culture  
advice which was concerned with Media Education and the policies for  
ict and education. At the time the Council for Culture concluded that  
the government plans were one-sided, placing too much emphasis on the  
instrumental and technical use ict, and the Council adviced to  
introduce of media education in schools. The recommendation was well  
received and generated a great deal of discussion, but the most  
important recommendation – integrating media education into the core  
goals and final terms of school education – was not implemented. […]

Nine years later, in 2005, the Council for Culture signalled a  
growing number of organisations and institutes active within the  
field of Media Education. Nonetheless it concluded that in practice  
media education was characterised by a lack of transfer of knowledge;  
limited continuity in development and an abensence of a coherent  
(policy) perspective.

The 2005 Advisory Report: ‘Media Wisdom’

In the 2005 Advisory Report, the Council for Culture proposes to  
broaden the term Media Education into to term Media Wisdom. This  
shift in perspective is prompted by social and cultural changes,  
acknowledging that we see an increasing ‘mediatisation’ of society  
and culture. Media are affecting almost every corner of society. The  
media are becoming context, content and intermediaries of  
information  knowledge and experiences.  Media affect how people  
communicate, what about, what they value and the extent they feel  
connected. Media, whether old media or new, analogue or digital, play  
a significant part in all of those ways. Media have become our  
environment, rather than being just elements in our surroundings .

The growing influence of media also has an impact on democratic  
institutions and the meaning of modern citizenship. Citizens are  
becoming more responsible for themselves and the role they play in  
society. This is partly an autonomous process, which they choose  
themselves, and partly a process instigated by measures taken by a  
receding government. This is possible thanks to the media, and in  
particular the possibilities opened up by the internet.

Media-wise

To allow citizens to participate fully in a media-saturated society,  
it’s crucial that they are media-wise. Citizens who are not media  
competent will find themselves excluded from parts of society.

The council prefers the term ‘media wisdom’ to ‘media education’  
because the latter focuses on everyday practice, in addition to the  
government exclusively acting on school education, children and  
adolescents, supply and protection.

The most significant consequences of the Council’s proposed change of  
focus are:

‘media wisdom’ goes beyond school education: because citizens need  
wisdom in the fields of health care, politics and safety
‘media wisdom’ does not exclusively concern children and adolescents:  
in order to function as well as possible in modern society, everyone  
needs to be media-wise
the aim and necessity of media wisdom is not a matter solely of  
dealing with the media, but of being able to participate in society
‘Media Wisdom’ puts more emphasis on creating and producing media  
content and attitude as an aspect of media wisdom, i.e. citizens  
should be aware of how they use media and the effects of using it,  
both for themselves and for others.

The shift in perspective argued by the Council for Culture implies  
that wherever media are being produced or used, media wisdom should  
be promoted. This means that making people and society media wise is  
relevant for a wide range of social and policy domains  – from health  
care to housing to politics, as well as education […]. The public  
media should play an important role: they should behave as an  
immaculate examplars. Their products should be a benchmark of  
reliability, pluriformity, accessibility, quality and transparency.  
Media professionals should offer their knowledge and skills more  
often to the new social middle segment, and supply citizens with the  
tools to play a more active role in society.

In terms of school education, the Council does not propose a separate  
discipline teaching ‘media education’ or ‘media wisdom’, but rather  
the implementation of certain aspects of media wisdom as part of  
‘citizenship education’. It also pleads for appointing ‘media  
coaches’ within schools. They will guide and inspire the media  
educators in schools, safeguard continuity and develop projects with  
extra-curricular partners.

Cultural institutes involved in media education should focus more on  
production and attitude and – together with all other institutions  
that use media – focus more on sharing knowledge, cooperation and  
working on demand. Public libraries will play an important role in  
the promotion of ‘media wisdom’, because of their accessibility and  
range. They will however have to reconsider, and possibly adjust,  
their role.

Policy recommendations.

The council has formulated some recommendations for government  
policy. The key recommendations can be summarised as follows:

*The national government will consider the necessity of promoting  
media wisdom and will provide the necessary financial means.
Promoting media wisdom is a responsibility of the Cabinet and should  
be the concern of  the minister of OCW who will strive for an inter- 
departmental approach.
Promoting media wisdom deserves a prominent place on the ICT  
innovation agenda of the national government.
The government will develop the instruments to stimulate the sharing  
of knowledge and cooperation in the field of media wisdom and to  
enable the translation thereof into concrete activities.
This perspective on media wisdom should be incorporated into  
citizenship education. The government should stimulate schools with  
which to appoint media coaches.
Cultural institutions should consider this vision and should –  
through conditions for subsidy – be stimulated to develop activities  
which promote media wisdom. The role of public libraries in promoting  
media wisdom should be expressed in agreements on the formation of  
basic libraries and in the policy of the Union of Public Libraries.
Promoting media wisdom should be a structural part of media policy  
and should be formulated as a task of the public broadcasters.



Council for Culture, July 2005
English version /excerpt September October.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/attachments/20061217/3f87549c/attachment-0002.htm