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Media and Power
The media is the primary (if not the only) vehicle for the diffusion of political and economic self-interest, and the more media literate a society becomes, the less likely it is that individuals and groups will be seduced by fallacious information.
The relationship between communication and power is well established. It has always been that those who control the flow of information and the form that it takes have always been powerful. Paradoxically, the power that the media confers has been largely underestimated in the past and it constitutes an increasing concern for many national and international institutions.
Politicians and public bodies are now in a position to be held accountable for their actions as never before, mostly by citizens who are enabled by new media to put public figures under scrutiny, to broadcast their own message, to disseminate otherwise unknown information, and to combine their efforts and energies, often trans-nationally, to affect change.
If the control of information is power, then new media is a tool for democracy like no other. The speakers – Angel Garcia Castillejo, Jorje del Corral and Josep Carles Ruis – spoke of the crisis of journalism and the lack of trust in the media.
The free media has transformed media literacy into a pressing issue, and one of the key competences in the education system of many European countries. However, the pedagogical methods are still heterogeneous and their effectiveness has not yet been demonstrated. Access, comprehension and communication are the goals for all participants. For this reason, it is extremely important to change educational systems in order to include this new subject.
Questions raised included the organization of a determined media education policy, the function of the different actors; families, media, providers, civic entities, authorities, etc, and how media literacy and active citizenship may be promoted as mutually beneficial. During the discussion, the panelists gave their opinion about the issue in relation to their own experience of Spain, Finland, France and Portugal. All of the speakers agreed that media literacy is a fundamental component of active citizenship.
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