Essays from eight countries within Europe chart the fast changing subject of media education. The contributors also look at possible future cooperation in the discipline and future difficulties.

Education in and about the media is expanding across Europe and, like the industries it studies, is changing rapidly. The future of media education is a matter of live concern in all European countries, as educators and practitioners throughout the continent come together to learn from each other and to plan for the changes to come. Media Education Across Europe identifies the exciting developments now taking place within and across the boundaries of European nation-states. Essays from eight countries - the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands - explore the development of courses and approaches to the subject in each country. The contributors also consider the prospects for European collaboration in media education; the possibilities opening up for graduate employment and the future conflict - and co-operation - between media teachers and media employers.

Media Education (ME) has come a long way. Today, it can no longer be considered a field of study reserved for semiotic and communication researchers. Nor can it be regarded as a privileged practice of those teachers, who for some reason consider media of fundamental importance. On one hand, ME is now part of the agenda of international organizations, which consider the development of media competences a necessary requisite to fully exercise citizenship in the current contemporary society. On the other, ME practices are becoming increasingly widespread in schools involving a growing number of teachers. Notwithstanding, teaching the media still seems to be a rather solipsistic task where «everything is fine». Indeed, in ME there is a tremendous lack of research concerning the educational practices' quality and effectiveness. This book tries to cope with these issues by providing a set of instruments to design, develop and evaluate ME activities in schools, and supporting the enhancement of media educators' knowledge and skills.

Public Policies in Media and Information Literacy in Europe explores the current tensions in European countries as they attempt to tackle the transition to the digital age, providing a comparative and cross-cultural analysis of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) across Europe. This book takes a long-term perspective over the development of media education in Europe, and includes an appraisal of media, information, computer and digital literacies as they coalesce and diverge in the public debate over twenty-first-century skills. The contributors assess the various definitions of media and information literacy as a composite notion whose evolution as a cross-cultural phenomenon reveals various trends and influences in Europe. Throughout, this volume offers an in-depth coverage of MIL with all the different dimensions of policy-making, from legal frameworks to training, funding, evaluation and good practices. The authors propose modeling current MIL governance trends in Europe and conclude with a call for alternative and collective frames of research that they hope will influence policy-makers and other stakeholders, especially in terms of MIL governance. This collection is ideal for students and researchers of MIL, as well as policy makers, educators and associations interested in MIL in the digital age.

Public service media (PSM) have been the mainstay of Western European broadcasting for a number of decades. Yet despite a general political consensus in favour of PSM, recent technological, economic and political changes have led to a questioning of their value. This new collection of essays explores the history of PSM in selected European countries, from their early establishment as the main media in many countries to charting their transformation and evolution in recent years. The contributions consider the political, economic and market-integration issues that impact PSM, while also highlighting the importance of the ideology that originally accompanied PSM in its initial years, to see how relevant they are in the contemporary world. The book consists of two complementary parts: Part I: Theoretical Aspects and Global Influences on Public Service Media in Europe Part II: A Comparative Analysis of Public Service Media across Europe With contributions from leading experts, the first part offers a thorough examination of the current concepts and conditions that influence PSM in Europe. The second offers a comparative study of PSM in several European countries including France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden. Offering the most comprehensive study of the field to date, Public Service Media in Europe will be useful for students and researchers in public media, political communication, international and comparative media.

This book explores the state of media literacy and media education in several Central and Eastern European countries. The main argument centers around the connection between media literacy and media education on the one hand, and liberal democratic values on the other. Data collected through a European Union funded project shows that diversity is the key word when it comes to how countries prioritize media literacy and integrate media education into school curricula. Although national governments have been fairly active in reforming the education system to include media education, civil society is the most impactful actor through the implementation of various projects linking media literacy with democratic values.