Cover, Media Literacy 내부교정 4

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Now, Media literacy

by Lee Hyeon-ju, Culture Editor, twohj1218@mju.ac.kr

Today, modern people live among a flood of information. But as technology developed and the amount of information increased, it has become more and more difficult to pick-out the exact information that people really need. In this era, 'Media Literacy', which is the ability to interpret and understand various kinds of information from the media, has become an indispensable capability.

[What is 'Media Literacy'?]

You havve probably heard about media literacy at least once. This term refers to the ability to access, analyze, understand, eval‎uate, and communicate messages in various media. Nowadays, with SNS activated, this concept includes participation and shares ability through media. In UNESCO, media literacy is defined as a basic competency for living in the 21^st 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 unnecessary information in floods of information.

The National Association For Media Literacy Education(NAMLE) published and distributed single-sheet material describing media literacy. They defined media literacy as 'the ability to approach, analyze, eval‎uate, create, and act on all kinds of communication means'.

Consider one situation as an example. If you are planning a trip in the autumn, you will find information by putting search terms such as 'Autumn Trip' or 'Autumn Spot' on a particular search engine. Then, using technology such as smartphones and computers, selecting specific portal sites and entering search terms into the portal is regarded as an 'access' capability. Travel information will be presented in a lump. There will certainly be commercial advertisements in the form of blog postings. The process of distinguishing useful postings from advertisements and selecting the information you need corresponds to 'analysis' and 'eval‎uation'. In this way, you can make plans based on the information gathered, go on a trip and share your experiences again. This corresponds to 'creation' and 'action'. In this way, when we meet with media in daily life, various abilities are exerted. If such media literacy is lacking, communication and various activities may be difficult.

Media literacy is not the ability to emerge naturally through experience. Social and educational support should be accompanied by the necessity to raise media literacy.Although it may be different for each individual how much they use the media and mainly depends on the media, they think that they enter the category of the media user once it is common sense to modern people. In the past, media existed. Books, newspapers, radio, television, and other media that many people still use include those that have a long history of thousands of years, and a decade of history. So the question of whether the media is straight-forward, whether it can be used properly, and whether it is properly equipped with media literacy, was important in the past. But many media experts say that the importance of today's media literacy skills is not comparable to the past.

If so, why is the importance of media literacy greater than in the past? The quantitative growth of media due to technological development has increased people's media usage time, and it is obvious that the media dependence has increased. It can not be overlooked that the media is expanding quantitatively, but there is a need to pay attention to a more fundamental cause. Technology has not only increased the number of media, it has also contributed to changing the way of communication that occurs through the media.

If communication technology development was limited to creating another type of mass media represented by newspapers and television, today's media environment could not have been created. Mass media is characterized by the fact that content is produced by a small number of producers transmitting unilaterally to a large number of media audiences, and at the same time a large amount of content is transmitted to an unspecified number of people, rather than a specific target audience. For this reason, in a communication environment in which mass media are central, it is common to distinguish between a person who produces and a person who consumes contents, thereby giving the producer an initiative of communication.

However, the Internet and SNS and blogs are characterized by 'interactivity' rather than unidirection, in which the boundary between content producers and consumers have become blurred. In the past, media viewers who only watched and listend to the contents now directly or indirectly contribute to the production and diffusion of content. The new word 'prosumer', which is a combination of producer and consumer, was not familiar term in the past. However, it is an overly technical deterministic view that media audiences have been passive in the past and now have become active.

In the past, some media viewers who played active roles in reporting to broadcasters and newspapers, made their own contributions, and protested against the news coverage. However, as the media environment changed, there has been an easy way for the viewer to participate in content production and distribution, thereby increasing the actual participation. If online services based on openness, participation, and sharing, which are typical characteristics of the Internet, did not provide various convenient functions (eg, online bulletin board, comment function, link sharing, retweet, empathy), it is likely to remain as a part of a very active tendency. It is difficult to classify the behaviors that generate and share information through keyboard and mouse operation in front of the computer, based on the level of aggressiveness. Technology has changed how viewers, not the viewer or their activities themselves, lead to the active participation of viewers.

Today, some countries have been trying to recognize the need for media literacy education and to reflect it in public education. Countries that emphasize media literacy are recognized as equivalent to major basic subjects such as language, history, and mathematics, and they have been organized into regular education courses. 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. Germany and Finland are countries that have emerged as a media literacy powerhouse. Both countries emphasize media literacy education and invest in it. How does media literacy education take place in Germany and Finland?

1. Germany

In the case of Germany, media education was promoted by the Ministry of Education's policy for the reform of the school education system in 2000, as well as projects for improving the media capacity of teachers, schools, and parents. 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. Above all, media education, which encourages newspaper subscriptions, also plays a significant role in young people's use of newspapers compared to other countries. 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.

Germany also has a total of 16 provinces, and each province has its own media literacy education program. The Rheinland-Pfalz province, in the western part of Germany, has a media literacy education program offering 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 and opportunities to meet media workers by opening youth media camps for school classes. As such, Germany is a media literacy powerhouse in which students, teachers, and parents all have diverse media education tailored to their individual needs and circumstances.

2. Finland

The next country to look at is Finland. According to the report analyzing the current state of media literacy and trends throughout Europe, which was announced by the European Institute of Audiovisual Studies in late March 2017, Finland has the largest number(101 organizations) of media literacy organizations in Europe. In light of the fact that the average number of media literacy organizations in the 28 European countries surveyed is 24, we can see how media literacy education is activated in Finland.

In particular, Finland is rapidly advancing the digitization of the learning environment in recognition of its reputation as an IT powerhouse. In Helsinki, the government has implemented an extraordinary policy to support students in the 7th to 9th grade per laptop. It also provides more ICT (Information & Communication Technology) equipment to students in other grades. In addition to supporting teachers' ICT training, they will support 37 million euros to promote the digitization of in-house schools.

The reason why Finland builds up its ICT infrastructure by spending huge amounts of money is because they 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 designated 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. It has invested in media education contents and infrastructure 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.

[Current Status of Media Literacy Education in Korea]

Unlike overseas cases, Korea 's media literacy education is still in stage of infancy. 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. The majority of Koreans have been exposed to a lot of media since childhood, but because they did not receive any media education, they could not systematically acquire media capacity. As public education in Korea was aimed at university entrance, reading and discussion were hard to find.

Korea's elementary and junior high schools have been obliged to provide software education through the 2015 revised curriculum. However, because it focuses on software thinking and literacy, there is limited education on students' critical thinking, production and use of media information represented by YouTube. It is necessary to strengthen education on media literacy as well as software education that will become essential in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. These media literacy educations should be included in all curriculum contents other than elementary and middle level information curriculum, but intensive education is also needed through clearer time security.

"Being able to read and write can (help to) understand culture. It is difficult to truly understand modern politics, society and culture without understanding the media."

Professor Andrew Hart, who is studying media education in an English-speaking country, said this. Looking at his remarks, media literacy education reflects the politics, society, and culture of the time. It is not the story that has been discussed in the world for 100 years but it has been less than 40 years since it was discussed in Korea. In the 1980s, when media education began to be discussed in Korea, it was under the dictatorship regime.

In the field of education, information technology has been developed rapidly and the use of technology has been emphasized without discussing 'media literacy'. According to the survey by the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Media in 2017, "awareness of media literacy education" is low, while teachers' "media literacy education rate" is high. This supports the social background of media literacy education.

Nevertheless, the Korea Media Foundation's media education team is actively studying media literacy and making efforts to practice it in the educational field. When you visit 'FORME', which is operated by the foundation, you can see that the accumulated information and the others available in actual education field are available. Today, media are playing a leading role in producing culture beyond reflecting and expressing the influence of society and culture. Nowadays, children need media literacy more than ever.

The economic loss to the Korean society by fake news is known as '30 trillion won'. That means 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 in the 21st century. Like the advanced media literacy education environment in Germany and Finland, we hope that the systemized media literacy education will be implemented in Korea as soon as possible.