During the last 20 years, a greater and greater attention was paid to the problems of media literacy, more precisely to the vaster domain of the media pedagogy, a domain that we consider developed because of the interest and researches undertaken in this area of speciality and that evolved from mere literacy to a true pedagogy.
Media pedagogy includes, subsumes the use of new information and communication technologies (NICT). In other words, media competency has a vaster area of signification, including information competence that corresponds to the capability of using NICT. However, information competence, of using NICT, represents our point of view, the first necessary stage to have access to training and exercising media competency. The relation is one of subordination, similar to the one between the signification of the concept of communication and the signification of the concept of information.
Media literacy refers to:
- competence of accessing and using media;
- critical thinking of the media content;
- creating communication in a multyplying contexts.
Media literacy is defined by competences of knowledge, information and thinking, critical understanding. These competences can be achived and developed spontaneously.
Media education is a process that extends the critical understanding of the media content to creative participation and to media production. It underlines the personal development and the person’s necessities according to the context and demands of the contemporary society. It is a process that takes place during the entire life.
Media includes: TV and film, radio and recorded music, prints, internet and other digital technologies.