• ME is a serious and significant endeavour. At stake is the empowerment of majorities and thestrengthening of society’s democratic structures.
• ME is a lifelong process. Student motivation therefore, must become a primary objective.
• ME aims to foster not simply critical intelligence, but critical autonomy.
• ME is investigative. It does not seek to impose specific cultural values.
• ME is topical and opportunistic. It seeks to illuminate the learner’s life situations. In so doing,it may place the here and now in the context of wider historic and ideological issues.
• The central unifying concept of ME is that of representation. The media mediate. They do not reflect reality but re-present it. The media are symbolic or sign systems. From this principle all other principles in media education flow.
• ME’s key concerns are analytical tools rather than an alternative content.
• Content in ME is a means to an end. That end is the development of transferable, analytical and production skills.
• The effectiveness of ME can be evaluated by just two criteria:
  
  A. the ability of students to apply their critical thinking to new situations.
  B. The amount of commitment and motivation displayed by students.
  
  
• ME consists of both practical criticism and critical practices. It affirms the primacy of culture criticism over cultural reproduction.

“ If we do not change direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.” UNESCO Declaration on Media Education. This declaration was issued unanimously by the representatives of various nations at UNESCO’s 1982 international Symposium on Media Education at Grunwald, Federal Republic of Germany.

We call upon the competent authorities to

1. initiate and support comprehensive Media Education programmes from pre-school to university level, and in adult education the purpose of which is to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes which will encourage the growth of critical awareness and consequently, of greater competence among the uses of electronic and print media. Ideally, such programmes should include the analysis of creative expression and effective use of and participation in available media channels.

2. develop training courses for teachers and intermediaries both to increase their knowledge and understanding of the media and train them in appropriate teaching methods, which would take onto account the already considerable but fragmented acquaintance with media already possessed by many students;

3. stimulate research and development activities for the benefit of Media Education, from such domains as psychology, sociology and communication science;

4. support and strengthen the actions undertaken or envisaged by UNESCO and which aims at encouraging international cooperation in Media Education...

The significant problem we face can not be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. Albert Einstein Omnipresent Media

We live in a world where media are omnipresent: an increasing number of people spend a great deal of time watching television, reading newspapers and magazines, playing records and listening to radio. In some countries, for example, children already spend more time watching television than they do attending school.

Need to accept significant impact of media
Rather than condemn or endorse the undoubted power of the media, we need to accept their significant impact and penetration throughout the world as an established fact, and also appreciate their importance as an element of culture in today’s world. The role of communication and media in the process of development should not be underestimated, nor the function of media as instruments for the citizen’s active participation in society. Political and Educational systems need to recognize their obligations to promote in their citizens a critical understanding of the phenomena of communication.

Steps towards Media Education
Media education will be most effective when parents, teachers, media personnel and decision-makers all acknowledge that they have a role to play in developing greater critical awareness among listeners, viewers and readers. The greater integration of educational and communications systems would undoubtedly be an important step towards more effective education.Media Education is a deeper concept. Briefly, it is a process of education to become aware of the ways the various media influence our thinking, affect our value system and change our society; that we in turn become critical and discerning receivers of media messages, and become able to respond to media creations and manipulations in a creative way that will help the education and development of our society. Hence, in Media Education the thrust has to be on how media affect various issues in society. The attitude of media towards major social issues is a major subject of media education.

Media Education is the Quality Life Education
The regular education system is a linear, predominantly one way movement from the teacher to the student, where the learning process is initiated and triggered off by the teacher and not the student. QLE, through me instead, is cyclic-from life to reflection and back to life. The educator and the educand are partners on a journey both entitled to their respective points of view. Media Education also includes the exposure to the power of media to reconstruct the way we interpret the world, how we define what life is, and how society is motivated to accept one world-view rather than another. The dynamics of perception is a key factor in media education, which is not circumscribed by value education alone.

Workshops on Media Education

Becoming fully aware of the power of media to build and also to destroy, a compact course package has been developed to understand, analyse and also to use the media skills. The course is ideal for 36 hours.

Course Fee : Rs.

For Media Education Workshops & Training contact: vjcoc@vjcoc.org

Promoting Value Education

Art is the mirror of life. An artistic play on the society is capable of manifesting to the students the power, the evil and everything of the society. It is more powerful than many more lectures in inculcating values on students as they see facts live before them. PKM has conducted such value education in the cities of Varanasi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Agra, Nainital, Hathras, Shahjahanpur, Patna, Guwahati, Shillong, Delhi, Ambala, Karnal, Shimla, Jammu, Mumbai etc. And many more smaller towns and villages. Through the discussion which follows the play, the students are encouraged to make an action plan individually and as a group. The response has been very good.