Libro

MEDIA LITERACY AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE
Strategies, Debates and Good Practices
Media Literacy: The cultural Heritage of our time
José Manuel Pérez Tornero
Director
Milid Week 2012
Media literacy is a symbolic capacity on the one hand and a pragmatic one on
the other. It involves languages and practice therein which implies at least two
disciplines: semiotics and pragmatic media – shall we say, communication
theory 1 . However, as will be seen in this book, media literacy goes far beyond
its conventional definition. Media literacy is about education and pedagogy and,
ultimately, is all about education in media. It is also associated with cognitive
psychology and psychology in general. It is related to media studies and all its
derivative disciplines and touches on sociology and “social engineering;” it is
connected with educational and social policies, but also with the theory of
software and programming. Media literacy has a lot to do with the humanities,
social science and cultural anthropology. Consequently, media literacy deals
with the study of cultures and looks at the problems relating to hybridization,
interconnection and cross-cultural issues between societies and peoples. In
other words, media literacy is all about intercultural dialogue.
This books deals with all of the above issues either directly or indirectly but all
the articles have a precise recurring theme. Apart from being rooted in specific
disciplines and theoretical approaches, each text deals directly with the practice
of media literacy and with how knowledge based on scientific method is applied
to specific empirical studies pursuing specific ends. So we have subtitled the
book: Strategies, Debates and Good Practices. We are interested in identifying
the aspirations, concerns, problems and examples of action that arise in today's
world of media literacy from an international perspective. Therefore, we present
several approaches and various cultural contexts which highlight the essence of
media literacy in all its manifestations.
The book contains a selection of texts discussed at conferences, seminars,
debates and meetings held by the Department of Communication and
Education within the UNESCO-UNAOC Global UNITWIN Chair on Media and
Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue (especially during MILID WEEK
in 2012 and 2013, but also at events and discussions that have taken place
between 2012-2014). The texts reveal the breadth, diversity and richness of a
field that is constantly expanding and changing media and educational practice;
a field which is at the threshold of the new knowledge societies and forms part
of the cultural heritage of our time.
1 Obviously, pragmatics is a dimension of semiotics, but when we say "pragmatic media" we
refer to language in the physical situation, in contact with instruments that allow interconnection
and give support to the "significant".
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