What is the meaning of media education?

What is the meaning of media education? This is my 20th academic year as a lecturer. A few sentences about the winter semester.

I first taught an academic class in 2004/2005, which was Introduction to Journalism. After that, I mainly taught media education, which became my main academic field. Nowadays, I’m mainly looking for answers about its religious inspiration. But I’m also thinking about the role of popularization of science – the so-called education through media. Media education is not only the acquisition of media competence. It is a much broader scope that includes the use of media in education.

In both the winter and summer semesters, I teach a master’s seminar Media education and professionalization. Mainly these are the study of media audience and professional groups, and the analysis of visual and audiovisual media messages. This semester for the sixth time I will give a lecture Educational challenges of media technologies. Lecture on new media technologies, their impact on education, labor market, journalism and mass media.

Media education and professionalization

The research work in the diploma seminar is carried out using qualitative methods, including the in-depth interview technique. As well as the following methods: semiotic analysis and analysis of films and television series as media messages. The latter is an original methodological proposal developed at the Institute of Media Education and Journalism at CSWU in Warsaw. Covering historical, symbolic and ethical aspects in the qualitative analysis of the content of media messages.

By media education we mean the acquisition of media literacies. By narrowly defined – socially and age-wise – audience groups, inquiring into their specific media use. Media professionalization, on the other hand, refers to the analysis of media professions and their functioning in the modern labor market. The required media qualifications and competencies, as well as motivations and professional responsibilities. These studies primarily use the in-depth interview technique. When analyzing professional groups – a variation of it, referred to as expert interviewing.

Another option for research is qualitative content analysis of contemporary media messages, visual or audiovisual – posters, magazine covers, movies and TV series. By media education we mean here, more broadly than in the case of the competence approach, the study of forms of education through the media, inquiring what media messages teach us as a society, what relevant contemporary problems they touch, what image they present of certain social and professional groups. The aforementioned methods are helpful in this work: semiotic analysis with the commutation test technique – especially in the case of posters or magazine covers – and the complex and multifaceted method of analyzing films and television series as media messages.

How we work at the graduation seminar?

As part of the course, students prepare a bibliography, select the methodology proposed in the seminar, conduct their own media studies, and compile further chapters of the thesis on research topics they propose. They also learn how to use scientific electronic databases (Scopus, Google Scholar), work with Zotero bibliography manager or QDAcity qualitative data analysis software. Topics of our meetings below. More on my university’s student service system page.

1. Introduction to the seminar. Thesis Archive
2. Qualitative research methods. Audience and professional groups. In-depth interview.
3. Semiotic analysis. Sign, paradigms and syntagma, commutation test, myth.
4. Analysis of films and television series as media messages. Historical, symbolic, ethical
5. The graduation process. Preparation and submission of the thesis
6. Determinations of thesis topics/Planning of empirical research, part I.
7. Determinations of thesis topics/Planning of empirical research, part II.
8. Mid-term credit. Topic/Study plan
9. Google Scholar. Scopus. Using electronic databases in academic work.
10. Footnote styles of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University Scientific Publishers. Footnotes and bibliography
11. Introduction and plan of chapters/Chapter 2. methodological, part I.
12. Introduction and plan of chapters/Chapter 2. methodological, part II.
13. Introduction and plan of chapters/Chapter 2. methodological, part III.
14. Introduction and plan of chapters/Chapter 2. methodological, part IV.
15. Credit. Introduction and chapter plan/2. chapter.

Educational challenges of media technologies

Lecture on new media technologies, their impact on education, labor market, journalism and mass media. During the meetings we will focus on selected contemporary problems of the information society and media education. As part of the course, students prepare media studies essays and participate in academic discussions on topics given in advance and selected readings. The whole course ends with a knowledge test. Topics of our meetings below. More on my university’s student service system page.

1. Introduction to the lecture
2. What do you mean by media? Defining media technologies
3. What is the history of media? The transformation of media technologies from antiquity to the 2nd decade of the 21st century
4. What are the main functions of the media? From information to entertainment to education
5. What does a journalist do? Media technologies in professional practice
6. What is the history of journalism? Media technologies and the transformation of the journalistic profession
7. What is the main function of journalism? Observation, intervention, socio-political control
8. Mid-term credit. Media studies essay
9. What is the definition of science? Technological progress and education
10. What is the history of science? Past achievements and contemporary challenges
11. What is the best definition of education? Motivations, goals, methods, content and means of learning
12. What is the best definition of work? Professional qualifications and competencies
13. When did the idea of professional work emerge? Specialization and professionalization of the labor market in the media
14. What are the functions of professional work? New media technologies and the challenges of the labor market
15. Final test