Cover, Media Literacy

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Media Literacy

by Lee Hyeon-ju, Cultrue Reporter, twohj1218@mju.ac.kr

Today, modern people live in the flood of information. But as technology has developed and the amount of information has increased, it has become more difficult to select the exact information people need. In this age, Media Literacy, the ability to interpret and understand media information in a subjective manner, has become a necessary competence. Nevertheless, few countries are systematically educating them.

Germany and Finland are already countries that have emerged as a media literacy powerhouse. Both countries emphasize media literacy education and invest in it.

Media Literacy refers to the ability to access, analyze, understand, eval‎uate, and communicate messages in various media. Nowadays, SNS is used as a concept including participation and sharing ability through media. In UNESCO, media literacy is defined as a basic competency for living in the 21st century. In the modern society, it is more common to communicate through the media than in the past, and it means that it is necessary to have the ability to filter out the necessary information and the right information in a flood of information.

However, media literacy education in Korea is still in its infancy stage. Smartphones and Internet penetration rates are among the highest in the world, but consciousness of usage and ability to interpret media are far below that level. As the 'fake news' debate is growing, there is a growing demand for media capacity, but the measures are not clear. I have been exposed to a lot of media since I was a child, but because I did not receive any media education, I could not build up the capacity of media storage systematically. When I was studying only grades with the goal of being a university entrance exam, I avoided reading, and it became hard to find discussions.
On the other hand, a country that emphasizes 'media literacy' recognizes it as a major elementary school, such as language, history, and mathematics, and even organizes it into a formal curriculum. Systematic programs are organized to allow students to learn various aspects of the Internet, including SNS, as well as traditional media such as newspapers and TVs. How does media literacy education take place in Germany and Finland?

In the case of Germany, media education was promoted by the Ministry of Education policy for reforming the school education system in 2000, and projects for improving the media capacity of teachers, schools, and parents as well as students were promoted. National media curriculum has been created. In particular, Germany's media education focuses on developing technical skills from a practical point of view. It aims to efficiently access new information, improve IT skills that are important in vocational training, and promote new media use.

In Germany, there are more than 1,000 media education programs in public broadcasters. In addition, Germany still has a high rate of newspaper submissions in Europe. It is also a cause of high trust in traditional media, but it is also important that young people use newspapers as a part of media education to encourage newspaper subscriptions. It is known to encourage newspapers to subscribe to newspapers because they are able to increase their capacity to hold media by touching long texts that are difficult to access through the Internet.

In addition, Germany, which has a total of 16 provinces, is characterized by its own media literacy education program. The Rheinland-Pfalz education program in the western part of Germany offers a variety of content, including a computer literacy program, a smartphone & app & tablet education portal, media and learning materials, and a free online learning platform. .

In addition, there are programs for parents to participate in media education so that both schools and families can be educated. In addition, there are opportunities to meet media workers by opening youth media camps for school classes. In this way, it can be said that Germany, where students, teachers, and parents have diverse media education at their own individual level and situation, is a media literacy powerhouse.

The next country to look at is Finland. According to a report released by the European Audiovisual Observatory at the end of March 2017 on the status and trends of media literacy across Europe, Finland has the largest number of media literacy organizations and organizations in Europe (101) . In light of the fact that the average number of media literacy organizations and organizations in the 28 European countries surveyed is 24, we can see how media literacy education is happening in Finland.

In particular, Finland is rapidly becoming an educational digitalization program in keeping with its reputation as an IT powerhouse, keeping pace with changes in the learning environment. Helsinki City is implementing an exceptional policy to support students in the 7th to 9th grade (Korea's middle school 1st to 3rd grade students) per capita. It also provides more ICT (Information & Communication Technology) equipment to students in other grades. In addition to supporting teachers' ICT training, it plans to support 37 million euros (KRW 48.3 billion) to promote the digitization of schools in the city.

The reason why Finland builds up its ICT infrastructure by spending huge amounts of money is because it considers the ability to use ICT equipments to be appropriate for smart age in the development of media literacy capacity. It is similar in the same context that ICT utilization ability was selected as the 7 main competencies in the newly organized national curriculum that was organized from September 2017. However, Finland does not only invest in media education on the hardware side. Since 1970, Finland has recognized the importance of media literacy so much that it included media education in the school curriculum. And has been investing in the contents and infrastructure of media education at the same time.

Lastly, it is important to note that non-governmental organizations are working hard to promote media literacy. Finnish companies actively empowered government policies in their own way. Finnish newspapers have created direct newspaper education, while Finnish broadcasting has continued to invest in various media education projects. Online companies have also activated not only the game industry but also the media education sector. And it is the third institutions that are inevitable. This includes various media associations and NGOs. To the extent that it is beyond the reach of the government, these institutions have been vigorously educated, and all Finnish students have done a very important job in raising the capacity of media literacy. Finland has become a powerhouse of media literacy through such endless educational policy research and advanced infrastructure.

We examined the concept of media literacy and the media education environment in Germany and Finland. The economic loss to the Korean society of fake news is known as '30 trillion won'. This represents a huge figure of 7.5% of Korea's annual GDP. In the age of confusion filled with indiscreet information, media literacy is a necessary competence for the Korean society that lives in the 21st century. Like the advanced media literacy education environment in Germany and Finland, I hope that the systemized media literacy education will be implemented in Korea as soon as possible.