Media education in Austria: competence, communication, autonomy

Abstract

This paper focuses on the presentation of the Laws for Media Education, which is the legal basis for the implementation of media education in Austria. The law is embedded into a pedagogical context, whose key characteristics are those of an emancipated, liberating concept of education indebted to ideas of the Enlightenment. Media education is used in a holistic sense, encompassing both the so-called traditional media as well as the new media including the Internet. The major areas are critical reflection and creative potential, individual and social responsibility. The ultimate goal is the autonomous media user as an autonomous citizen. As media education is an interdisciplinary practise, a wide choice of materials both in print and online has been developed to support the teachers: part of the paper is particularly devoted to the beginning and growth of the media education website www.mediamanual.at.