Podgorica, (MINA) – Media literacy course, in its existing design, contributes to development of critical thinking, said executive director of Juventas Ivana Vujovic, and added that introduction of some parts of this course in kindergartens and early years of elementary schools should be considered.
She said that educational role in raising media literacy among the citizens is on the educational system above all, led by the relevant Ministry, with the goal of implementing media literacy at various levels of educational system, followed by the NGO sector, and media, which contribute to improvement of media literacy by respecting ethical and professional standards and through their educational function.
Vujovic told Mina that it is necessary to align activities of all those social actors so that the goal would be efficiently reached.
Speaking about the problems and obstacles in raising media literacy awareness, she said that it can be observed in the decline of respecting ethical standards by media combined with the lack of media literacy education in general population.
She added that there is also lack of promotion of media literacy programs within educational system which, according to her, brings to lack of interest among the students for that elective course.
According to Vujovic, children are exposed to media since very young age, today in higher intensity than ever.
The biggest challenge, according to her, is the Internet, in particular when parental control is not provided in regard to the contents their children access.
She believes that introduction of some parts of media literacy course in kindergartens and early years of elementary schools should be considered, with methods adjusted to children’s age.
Professor of the Faculty of Political Sciences from Ljubljana Ilija Tomanic- Trivundzija explained that media literacy has been studied in Slovenian elementary schools since 2006 as an elective course.
He told Mina that the strategy of Slovenian Ministry of Culture is to make that subject mandatory, but added that the contents of the course have not been changed since 2006 and are more focused on traditional than online media.
He believes that media literacy studies should be introduced in elementary schools and continued in high schools and later on.
This article was published with the financial support of the US Embassy available within the project “Rereading – Rewriting. Improving media literacy in Montenegro”. The Mina agency assumes full responsibility for its contents, which do not necessarily reflect the position of the USA. The article can be used with mandatory citing of its source.Longer version of article is available on a link MINA ENGLISH SERVIS
