resources
You will find excerpts from the mediamanual in English here:

Dietmar Schipek, Renate Holubek Model for Successful Media Education
Findings from the analysis of the practice of the media literacy award [mla]: Since the 2001/02 school year, the media literacy award [mla] has been awarding prizes to best practice projects from European schools. We have evaluated and archived for research purposes around three thousand media projects that have been sent in since then. Every year the most creative teams are given a media literacy award [mla]. We have constructed a model for successful media education from these years of experience and would like to present it here.
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Magdalena Tschautscher: Participants in the [mla] as opinion leaders in school media education.
Participants in the [mla] as opinion leaders in school media education.
Results of the study “Media literacy in school media projects”
In the theoretical part of the study on the importance of the media literacy award [mla] various approaches and phases of development of media literacy are thematized. This examination forms the basis for the empirical part for which a quantitive online survey was made with teachers that had taken part in a media competition of the Federal Ministry of Education, Art, and Culture. Data was collected on theoretical knowledge about media literacy, the self-assessment of one’s own media literacy, the importance of the competition in the process of dealing with the subject, and the personal opinion about media competitions of this nature. The study showed that, in the main, teachers who took part in the [mla] knew a great deal about media literacy and that they also used this knowledge in practice.
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Renate Holubek, Dietmar Schipek: Medienbildung – Media Literacy
Personality development and individual abilities to cope with life are closely connected with media and their communication domains. Digital media infl uence young peoples’ everyday life in many diff erent ways. This raises the question as to which skills young people have to acquire in order to be able to orient themselves in our democratic society.
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Renate Holubek - A critical analysis of media education practices in Austria
Since 1996 the project work done within the framework of the Media Education Department has been collected,
archived and evaluated (media literacy award). What can be clearly seen from these project works are the
transformations that have taken place in the school culture, the learning culture as well as the general
diagnostic changes in our society. It is less the aspects of contents and themes that have been affected -
we will return to that in a moment - rather what can be observed is that there is a less formal way of
dealing with everyday cultural phenomena that are apparently also an important part of a learning culture
in transition. At the other end of the spectrum, from the presentations to the public as 'best practices'
at different events and media festivals, it seems that an almost virtuoso level of dealing with media
technology, media aesthetics, culture and politics has emerged over the years.
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Dieter Baacke: From Reading Aloud to the Web
From Reading Aloud to the Web
The media worlds of young children.
The generation of young children (between 0 and 5 years old)
grow up in media worlds that do not only differ from those
of previous generations but also transport quite different
learning and experiential conditions from the children’s
room into the class room. The children of today live with
books to be read aloud and computers on an equal basis; here
there is no competition but rather a relationship of complementarity.
When they are encouraged appropriately children grow up in
comprehensive “media worlds” in which neither
reading aloud nor the children’s programme nor even
communication via internet can be excluded. Through self-socialisation
and the family young children today learn important elements
of their communicative and interactive being-in-the-world.
The task of the school will be to process these new experiences
psychologically but also didactically.
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Barrie McMahon: Combat, Castles
and Culture: An Alien’s View of Austria
Combat, Castles and Culture: An Alien’s View of Austria.
(No. 14, December 1995)
In 1973 the Australian family McMahon tours Europe. Austria
was one of the stops. Even before he arrived Barrie knew what
awaited him in Austria – he had already put himself
in the picture—through the media—before he left
home ...
Starting from the impressions gained on this trip, the author,
manager of the Cross Curriculum Branch of the Education Department
of Western Australia, analyses the roll of media in the construction
of reality and creation of meaning.
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Rebecca Taub: Snapshots from Spain: Spanish impressions about Austria
Snapshots from Spain: Spanish impressions about Austria (Heft
Nr. 55, März 2006)
"It is my understanding that Austrian media contribute
to the formation of a somewhat erroneous or simply one-sided
self-image of Austria and its role within the European Union.
Spanish impressions and views about Austria challenge Austria’s
self-concept by showing how Spanish citizens view this country
and its role in the EU."
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Ulrika
Sjöberg: Mediated childhoods in multicultural families
Mediated childhoods in multicultural families (Heft Nr. 61, September 2007)
The term mediated childhood emphasizes the role of media and their
importance for young people in everyday life and the need to
understand today’s childhood if we want to gain
more knowledge about the role of media among young people.
But we must also take into account the media in order to understand
childhood. This working paper has aimed at understanding how
families stranded between the Greek and Swedish cultures make
use of various media in daily life. Several issues of relevance
have been touched upon when trying to grasp the media practices
among these families and the main research findings are summarized
below.
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Yasemin İnceoğlu: Introduction of Media Literacy Course in Turkey’s Curriculumz
Introduction of Media Literacy Course in Turkey’s Curriculum (Heft Nr. 61, September 2007)
Turkey, a country which has not yet completed its process of
democratisation, is still far away from being a media literate
society with the slow advances taken for the development of
its infrastructure, debates on human rights and fundamental
freedoms.
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Karmen Erjavec und Zala Volcic: Ten years of Media Education course in ...
Ten years of Media Education course in Slovenia (Heft Nr. 61, September 2007)
"From 1996 on, the Media Education course is officially and formally
a part of an educational curriculum – from kindergarten
to university levels. The course in-volves an examination
of the techniques, technologies and institutions that are
a part of media production and consumption, and furthermore,
provides the ability to critically analyze media messages,
and the recognition of the active roles that audiences play
in making meaning from media messages."
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Matteo Zacchetti: Media Literacy: A European approach
AMedia Literacy: A European approach (Heft Nr. 61, September 2007)
„Our main objective will be to highlight and promote
good practices in media literacy at European level. Our
policy will build on the results of the work of the Media
Literacy Expert Group."
Matteo Zacchetti, European Commission DG Information
Society and Media.
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Veroniki Korakidou: A Snapshot
from Greece
A Snapshot from Greece (Heft Nr. 55, März 2006)
The writer reflects upon images and sounds in her head ("carols,
yodel, and cows, mooing peacefully in vast meadows"),
when thinking of Austria. A Google search and some attempts
to visualize the images help her to sort out the various impressions.
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EDUCATING FOR THE MEDIA AND THE
DIGITAL AGE
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, Vienna, 18-20 April 1999
Media Education - Why? attempts to offer rationales for the
absolute necessity of integrating media education in formal
education. Media Education - How? shows the multicoloured
variety of good practices in the participating countries.
Media Education - Strategies for the Future? tries to open
up new perspectives for the century to come.
The present documentation is part of a conference package
on intensifying media education. “Educating for the
Media and the Digital Age” was organised and co-ordinated
by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education and Cultural
Affairs, UNESCO, Paris, and the Austrian National Commission
for UNESCO in April 1999.
Download “Educating for
the Media and the Digital Age” (1590kB)
Media Education without Frontiers
The following documents (1999-2005) highlight the efforts
of experts to agree on a common definition and objectives
of media education. Recommendation (UNESCO Conference, Vienna
1999) makes an attempt to create an overall construction which
includes all media from the written word to the new technologies.
The Sevilla group (2002) confirmed the recommendation with
some modifications: the most essential being that not only
the written, but also the oral word is a medium subject to
critical analysis.
The European
Charter for Media Literacy is the most recent
initiative to create permanent cooperation and exchange of
opinions.
Download "Recommendations" (281kB)
Edgar J. Forster: Does Media Violence Make Daily Violence Invisible?
Reformulations of the Perennial Topic of “Television and Violence”
The contradictory results of media impact research give rise
to justified doubts about media violence invariably producing
violent behaviour. Television is more complicated: the conveyed
messages are equivocal. TV is part of identity formation.
What we see has very much to do with our experiences in daily
life. Also, violence is a complex phenomenon working at different
levels. Not every kind of violence is visible and it may well
be that forms of hidden violence are more dangerous than the
violent images actually shown.
Download “Does Media
Violence Make Daily Violence Invisible?” (198kB)
Alexander Fedorov: Austrian Issue in the Mirror of Russian Media (1945 – 1955)
(Heft Nr. 50, Dezember 2004 – Schwerpunktthema: “2005
– ein Jahr der Jubiläen”)
“Austria occupied a very modest place in Soviet media.
For example, I counted that from 1946 to 1956 the USSR produced
about a dozen openly anti-American films. There were even
more anti-Nazi films about the horrible period of 1941-45.
Meanwhile the Austrian issue was represented only in a few
official documentaries, mainly dry information about the diplomatic
and state negotiations.“ – Media reports of these
negotiations form the emphasis of this contribution. The author
is president of the Russian Society for Media Education.
Download (172kB)
Christina Niculescu, Yonit Nemtzeanu: Star Trek Voyager - PC or non PC? - an odyssey through ...
(Star Trek Voyager - PC or non PC? - an odyssey through the
universe of political correctness or a return to the land
of racial prejudice? (Heft Nr. 20, Juni 97)
Since Voyager has been praised as the most politically correct
series ever produced, we have been tempted to question this
statement. Not surprisingly we have found that this reputation
for political correctness was achieved by exclusively attributing
all non-politically correct ideology to alien races. In this
article we have analysed the way this is being achieved in
the case of one particular alien race. We have also discussed
the implications of racist ideology in such a widely spread
and highly praised series.
Download (159kB)
Renate Holubek: The media literacy award [mla] 2004
The mla is aimed at thematizing media competence as a political, social, cultural and personal qualification; in other words the socially, critically and culturally sensible use of media in the everyday context of life planning.
Download “The mla-2004” (123kB)
Wolfgang Richter: Neither smoothed down nor polished up
Experiences with media production in class
In our school (the private grammar school of the Herz Jesu
Missionaries in Salzburg, Austria) in the 4th year of the
AHS, one of the main emphases of the year’s programme
is the production of video films. Prepared by an initial experience
in the 2nd year with animation films, pupils can build on
prior experience. Over the years the way I set about the complex
task has continued to develop. Basically it includes analysis
of methods of making films, preparation for shooting by generating
appropriate concepts, organisation of the teamwork and shooting,
editing and sound. I still remember well the first attempts
with film as a theme for the first time—that was about
10 years ago. What began with great enthusiasm often ended
with fragmentary results. The reasons for that were planning
for too lavish a content (set and decoration) and the time
and effort involved, lack of agreement in the group, technical
problems and finally too little time for “cutting”.
Nevertheless some of the result are worth seeing. Learning
from the mistakes, the definition of the initial assignment
was the aim of making a short film. Not only did the success
quota of finished films rise with this limitation imposed,
but there were first-time competition entries and the first
awards. One problem that always has to be solved anew is the
fact that one teacher (who, in practice, has no great experience)
is alone unable to supervise the many and various challenges.
This is why I began to look for forms of organisation that
offered some respite. The first step was working together
with the Media Department of the Federal Ministry.
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Stefan Weber: MEDIA AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY
What does “media construct reality” mean?
From an ontological to an empirical understanding of construction. It
has very quickly become textbook wisdom:
“media construct reality.” But what does that
mean? Did they always do that? Or are they doing it more and
more? Or even both of those? Which level are we talking about?
Does reality construction mean a factual statement within
a theory of knowledge? Or a conscious strategy? Is it simply
that we (journalists as well as percipients) cannot
not construct or can one decide for or against the construction
of reality?
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Brigitte Hipfl: From a Text to a Method of Reading it
From a Text to a Method of Reading it. Analysis of media experiences with memory work. Issue No. 19, March 1997
On the basis of scenarios from school
practice (lessons in literature) the author opens with showing
the consequences of dealing with literary and other forms
of text (such as film) in which the way of reading used
by experts is the only right one. Afterwards she argues
for starting from the reception experiences of the individual.
With “memory work” she presents a methodological
approach that make this possible. The conclusion is formed
by a detailed presentation of film reception experiences
(Pretty Woman)
Download (188kB)