1. Media education and citizenship: a communication approach Manuel Pinto Communication and Society Research Centre University of Minho (Braga – Portugal)

2. Overview of a 20 years experience “Education for social communication” at the teacher training graduation program (1988-2007) In-service specialization programs for kindergarten and elementary school teachers (1995-2000) Master degree in “Communication, citizenship and education” (2000 - …) PhD program in Communication Sciences with a focus on Media Education (2009 )

3. Context A country where freedom of expression and press freedom are quite recent and where media and journalism training and research spread only in the 1980’s. Some interesting (even if limited) experiences concerned with the educational dimension of the media – v.g. connected with film education, education technologies, school journalism

4. Initial concerns Pedagogical innovation: media as educational resource media as a matter of study media as a field of participation and expression School as a meaningful experience Improvement of the communication between schools and local communities Implementation of a communication ecology within the school

5. Contaminations Clemi and attention to news media & journalism Spain’s newspaper in the classroom projects Latin America’s approach to autonomisation processes Canadian and British rationale on media literacy UNESCO and overall view of media education

6. Shortcomings Lack of research, namely about media in the life of children Weak interaction with other teacher training institutions Absence of a general support framework from the educational authorities ( vg. no national media education curriculum) Need of more investment in evaluation research Teacher stress and resistance regarding innovation and new projects.

7. ‘Discoveries’ Voices and experiences of children: childhood regarded from their own social worlds and expressions Rights of the child, namely the ‘third family’ of rights (expression, participation…) Multimedia and digital childhoods – the ecology of networks Ethical challenges concerning expression and participation in the social media

8. What we have to think about and act upon PARTICIPATION ETHICS WORLD AROUND POLICIES ECOLOGIES

9. Distinctions The scaffolding and the house Media literacy: a medium or an end Technology as technique and as a social problem Information and communication: brothers or enemies Media and environments Power relations and empowerment Accountability and public scrutiny