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This evening John Coster and I were joined at the Documentary Media Centre by Jurian Visser, a BA Communication Arts student at De Montfort University. We discussed the role of media literacies in our education system, following the governments’ response to the Cairncross Review. We considered how the role of media literacies might need to be reframed, given the narrow and functional view that is being taken in UK policy and commercial practice. We asked why we aren’t seeing a stronger pushback from the media studies community against this compartmentalised and prescriptive view of media literacy? And we considered what the alternatives might be that go beyond the skill-focussed form of media training that now dominates media courses. Can community media principles of participation, access and inclusivity offer as a corrective model to the one-sidedness of the approach that’s prevalent at the present time?
