Why is media education relevant for promoting social cohesion?

“The world beyond our immediate experience reaches us almost entirely on screens.” Roger Silverstone

Faced with the increasingly close connection and interdependence between everyday life and use of the media, reflection and action in the educational field having as their main purpose the raising of the level of awareness of the younger generation become fundamental. The conscious use of the media is nowadays an inescapable element for realizing a full and real democratic citizenship, not unlike from what happened with the conquest of mass literacy.

Dealing with media, and particularly with television and Internet, is today the most important thing for those who hold an educational role and the most direct route for those seeking the explanation of the profound changes that have arisen in recent years in our society. Indeed there is no aspect of reality that might continue to exist outside of the media and this trend is amplified by the increasing pervasiveness of mobile devices in receiving and creating media content.

Therefore, media education holds a pivotal role for the future, being the most effective tool enabling citizens to know and defend their rights, and become active agents of communication rather than passive target of its messages and technologies.
Experts who will talk during this debate will enable the public to understand the strategic importance of media education for a future of democratic and sustainable social cohabitation. The subjects which will be at the center of the session will cover the main aspects of the relationship between education and the media: the demands from below and the role of the institutions; the behavior of adolescents in the digital environment; the characteristics of an effective education to the media; the making of media education as a corporate social responsibility.

Lorella Zanardo, writer, documentary director and activist

Speakers:

– Francesca Borgonovi, OECD 
– Cesare Cantù, Director of “Nuovi Occhi per i Media” project
– Matteo Lancini, President of Minotauro Foundation 
– Daniela Mori, President of Unicoop Firenze
– Giovanna Boda, General Director of the Department for Students’ integration and participation, MIUR (invited)

Facilitator: Raffaele Barberio, Director of Key4biz