Resources for media literacy: mediating the research about children and media

Much has been said and written about media education, its relevance and goals. Beyond directives, resolutions or recommendations, research in this area has allowed it to deepen its foundation, but it has also facilitated the acknowledgement of its weakest points or faults. One of the critical points noted by the formative and research work that has been developed at the University of Minho during the past 20 years is the inexistence of resources and materials that might be used for the promotion of media education in different contexts. This question is more complex than it might seem at first sight because it is not only about the existence or inexistence of materials. It is about the importance of transferring knowledge into practice; about the importance of mediation between produced knowledge and its audience. This concern about knowledge that comes out of research was the basis of a current project at the Centro de Estudos de Comunicacao e Sociedade. ‘Media Education in Booklets’, distinguished in 2009 by the Evens Foundation (Belgium), was conceived from the need to reach certain audiences, in particular parents and teachers, with the knowledge acquired throughout research on the relation between children and youth with the media. As such, it is intended to supply these educators with the resources for them to mediate youth media experiences, contributing to a more critical and conscious relationship with the different media. This paper intends to present the resources produced by the aforementioned project, concerning three booklets: one about how to explore and to mediate television at school and at home; another one, about videogames, ways of playing, benefits, dangers, creativity and interculturality; and the third, about the Internet and social networking, new forms of relationships and communication, the topics of privacy, identity and civic participation. It is equally intended to show the creation process, strategies used and the languages that were found to mediate knowledge with the audiences to whom these resources were destined. Particular attention will be given to the modalities of participation by parents, teachers and students in this project, as well as to the way their contributions were integrated. Another aspect to highlight concerns the cooperative work with the graphic designer, showing how different languages were being combined for the creation of a media education narrative surrounding the television, videogames, the Internet and social networks. Lastly, we will approach the methods for the dissemination of this project, namely, the presentations that involved different audiences.