“To be a functioning adult in a mediated society, an individual must be able to discern different forms of media and know how to ask basic questions about everything we see, read or hear. “
E.Thoman, founder of the Center for Media Literacy
Media Creates Reality – They are responsible for the perspectives and experiences we bring to everyday life, where we create our views on the society in which we live.
Media literacy is most often defined as the ability to understand, read, understand the core of media texts, or the ability to view, analyze, evaluate and create media messages in different ways.
This means that a media literate should be able to think critically and analyze the most varied forms of expression, that is, by acquiring skills that involve media education or media literacy, the skills that have the widest applicability and are crucial for the quality functioning and expression in modern culture.
According to a 1998 UNESCO document, the media literacy education program has a role to play in “Protecting minors and human dignity through audiovisual and information services”. This document also indicates that media literacy is not an isolated knowledge, it “binds” the lessons learned in mother tongue teaching, sociology, history, psychology, fine arts, civic education, etc.
In Serbia, the curriculum for mother tongue and civic education classes provides for students to become familiar with the media and media genres. Since 2005, media literacy has appeared in three curricula within the curriculum in civic education and the mother tongue in the curriculum.
The Media Strategy of the Republic of Serbia for 2016 finally recognizes media literacy as a necessity that we, as a society, must begin to deal with, because so far we have not, at least not enough. The results of recent research on media literacy of Serbian citizens show that, despite the initiative to teach media within their mother tongue and civic education units, Serbian citizens remain under-literate.
“Low level of media literacy can be noted and the state must do more in this field. In the process of accession to the European Union, it is necessary to raise the level of media literacy of Serbian citizens ” (Media Strategy 2016 of the Republic of Serbia).
