Media Education around the World: Brief History

Overview & Synopsis

UNESCO defines media education as the priority field of the cultural educational development in the XXI century. The article presents the development of media education since the beginning of it up to our days. The sections of the article are the main periods for the development of the media education. In each section more countries are mentioned. The first movements in media education were made in 1920s in France. The media education in Great Britain and Russia is also old, dating back to 1920s. Nowadays media education became important in many countries. Along with Britain, France still remains one of the most active European countries to develop the media and ICT education. Recently quite a few books, collections of articles textbooks and other publication have been published in Great Britain, and translated into foreign languages. Schools in Germany began their media education practice with its integration into the required curriculum and media culture is taught in the majority of German universities. Canada, Australia and USA have a developed media education. In spite of the difficulties in the 1990s, media literacy has good prospects in Russia. We can also see the fast progress of media education in other Eastern European countries. Hungary became the first European country to introduce obligatory media education courses in secondary schools.