Making Media Education Happen: A Global View

It is hard to overestimate the economic, social and cultural importance of the media in the modern world. The media are major industries, generating profit and employment; they provide us with most of our information about the political process; and they offer us ideas, images and representations (both factual and fictional) that inevitably play a part in shaping our views of reality. The media are undoubtedly the major contemporary means of cultural expression and communication. Indeed, it is often argued that they have now taken the place of the family, the church and the school as the major socialising influence in contemporary society.