When Media Education is State Policy

Abstract

One of the specific challenges faced by media education in Latin America is to narrow the divide and promote more equitable, fairer access to cultural and technological commodities among young people from the poorest families. Although the obstacles are more than a few and the challenges are by no means negligible, the first step toward facing them is to insert media education as a public policy, as State policy. Fortunately, we have always had teachers who have used the media and taught others to analyze, interpret and use them creatively. The idea, when media education becomes part of public policy, is to move beyond individual initiatives and turn these private efforts into a State commitment. This is the only way to overcome the huge obstacles and materialize the major challenges posed by media education in the 21st century.