The Child’s Rights,Media Literacy & New Media

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tuğba ASRAK HASDEMİRGazi University Faculty of Communication

İstanbul-2014

Media literacy: Why and How?

• The interest in media literacy education has been developing in the U.S. and Europe since at least the first quarter of the 20th century.

• For the case of Turkey ?

For the case of Turkey →it can be argued that the studies and discussion on media literacy have been encouraged by the project to include media literacy course into the elementary school curriculum.

Official actors in this story

• The Radio and Television Supreme Council(RTSC) &

• The Ministry of National Education (MNE)

• Beside elaborating the related information,documents and official websites,

• the interview with the authorities of the MNEand the RTSC to have information aboutformal prospect drawn for this course

Brief history of media literacy course

In “The Platform to Stop Violence” established in 2004,

The Radio and Television Supreme Council(RTSC) suggested for the first time that the media literacy course should be included in the curriculum of the elementary schools.

The RTSC mentions about two steps of medialiteracy:

• the first “is the ability to use the technology to access media content; and

• the second is about not only understanding the content but the ability to evaluate it.”

For this purpose, the Council contacted with the Ministry of National Education (MNE)

“The Cooperation Protocol” between

The Radio and Television Supreme Council and

The Ministry of National Education

on media literacy course

• The elective course on media literacy was added to the curriculum by the MNE,

• The course was planned to be taught at the 6th, 7th or the 8th grades of primary schools.

• Only for the 2006-2007 term, the course was advised to be taught at the 7th grade in five pilot schools.

• On 31 August 2006, “Syllabus for the Media Literacy Elective Course in the Elementary School” was accepted by the MNE-Board of Education.

• According to the protocol, the MNE-BE has been obliged to determine who taught the course and which of the schools were appropriate for this course.

• As a consequence of the cooperation between theRTSC and the MNE-BE, the cadre to educate teachersin media literacy course was formed.

• At this sequence, “Educator Training Program” wasconducted in Ankara at 7-10 September 2006.

At 25-28 July 2007, 103 teachers, selected bythe MNE-BE from across Turkey received in-service training within the “Educator TrainingProgram” in Ankara.

Following year, 83 teachers received thistraining in Van.

Main course materials (2007-2014)

The kit on media literacy contained only Handbook

and Guidebook for teachers, there was no student book.

The reason explained by authorities of the RTSC

not accustom students to memorize, but to helpthem think freely and express themselves and tomake the media literacy course different from otherclassic courses.

Units of the course (2007-2014)

• Introduction to Communication (communication, the process and content of communication, types of communication),

• Mass Communication (mass communication, mass media, the relation between communication and mass communication),

• Media (media, the main functions of media, the economic aspect of media, media and ethics, the concept of media literacy, its purpose and significance),

• Television (television as an effective mass medium, television broadcasting in Turkey, types of television programs),

• Family, Child and Television (the habit of watching television, the negative effects of television, the analysis of television programs, warning signs),

• Newspaper and Magazine (principal notions about newspaper, the importance and comparison of news and pictures in the newspaper, the application e.g. newspaper preparation, types of magazines and their characteristics),

• Internet (the features and functions of the Internet, the points to be taken into account by the Internet users)

Certain criticisms and recommendations

• C: The source books has been prepared with the notion ofprotecting the child from the media.

• R: For a critical literacy , students should be informed about the organization and mechanism of media.

• In this way the student may acquire the necessary skills to decode, criticize and contextualize printed and visual information and messages in the media.

• C: The content of Teacher’s Handbook is not suitable for student-centered education.

• R1: Different materials such as newspapers, radio and television news and the Internet can be used in thiscourse. It is suitable for supporting the students to participate actively in the course through observation and research. Also students should be encouraged to create their own media products as a part of the course.

R2: As stated by the curriculum development expert in MNE-BE, the syllabus and source books of the lessons are controlled and renewed for every five years. The course materials of the media literacy should be rewritten in the light of the criticisms.

Certain units of the syllabus and source books should be renewed and enlarged e.g. the unit on Internet as a more referred medium by youth.

• C: Time allocated to media literacy is not sufficient to elaborate issues augmented over the time in relation to media.

The media literacy course can be elected by the students at the 6th, 7th, and the 8th grades of primary schools, but these students can take this course only once during these years. The course duration is 40 minutes a week.

• R1:Instead of one course, it can be taken for two orthree years consecutively.

• R2:As suggested by a member of RTSC, medialiteracy education is not limited to the students ofprimary schools, it can be part of preschoolprogram.

• C: Teachers’ competency on the issues of communication is called into question.

At the beginning, it was decided that classroom teachers who had graduated from communication faculties or communication high schools and who work in the system of National Education as well as social science teachers could teach media literacy course.

According to the data of the MNE-BE, there are only 812 classroom teachers graduated from faculties or high schools of communication in the cadres of the Ministry of Education

Media literacy courses all over the country are taught by teachers not directly educated in the discipline ofcommunication

R1: Graduates of communication faculties or high schools can be employed, with the requirement of having pedagogical formation, to teach media literacy courses.

R2:In-service training on the issue of communication should be provided to the teachers who currently give this course.

Table 1. Number of students taking elective courses at the 6th grade

Years All elective courses Media literacy

2010-2011 956.357 97.895

2011-2012 1.254.306 185.108

Table 2. Number of students taking elective courses at the 7th grade

Years All elective courses Media literacy

2010-2011 916.357 50.577

2011-2012 1.191.130 117.253

Table 3. Number of students taking elective courses and at the 8th grade

Years All elective courses Media literacy

2010-2011 997.781 150.251

2011-2012 1.171.842 254.478

Table 4. Number of students taking elective courses (5th-8th grades) and media literacy (6th-8th grades)

Years All elective courses Media literacy

2012-2013 7.936.006 624.809

2013-2014 5.960.826 310.565

Table 5. Number of students taking some courses on new media

Years Computer(5th-8th grades)

Communication Technologies

(7th-8th grades)

2012-2013 3.131 1.687.715

2013-2014 10.688 328.362

Units of the media literacy course (2007-2014)

Television�“Television” ve “Family, Child and TV” in two units (13 class hours, %39,5)Radio�one unit (3 h., %8)Newspaper and Magazine� one unit (3h. , %8)Internet� in one units (approximately %14)

According to a research concerning

internet usage of youth in 25

European countries including

Turkey,

of the children at the 9-16 years,

nearly all the children are online

min. once a week (93% ), more than

half of the children (60%) are online

everyday.

Frequency of internet usage

Everyday or almost everydaySeveral times a weekSeveral times a monthLess frequently

Another reserch from Turkey

With the decision of National Board of Education (23 May 2014)

• The curriculum of the media literacy course was renewed and

• a student’s book was prepared

Units:

1.Media as the medium of entertainment

2.«I ask question directed to media» (Media as the source information)

3.

Units

• Media as the medium of entertainment,

• I ask question directed to media- Media as the medium to have information,

• Let’s think about it-Media as the medium to have information,

• My media- Media as the sphere of participation.

Throughout the book, some practices related with the old as well as new media were made.

Last but not least…In the story of media literacy course in Turkey, it can

be said that vision, content as well as the elective status of the course need to be questioned and necessary changes should be made by taking into account the criticisms., e.g. To enlarge the units related with new media;

New student’s book aims at active participation of the student, this not an easy but attainable task for the media literacy course in Turkey…

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