Page "Media literacy" Paragraph 55

The history of media education in Russia goes back to the 1920s.

The first attempts to instruct in media education ( on the press and film materials, with the vigorous emphasis on the communist ideology ) appeared in the 1920s but were stopped by Joseph Stalin ’ s repressions.

The end of the 1950s-the beginning of the 1960s was the time of the revival of media education in secondary schools, universities, after-school children centers ( Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Voronezh, Samara, Kurgan, Tver, Rostov on Don, Taganrog, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, etc.

), the revival of media education seminars and conferences for the teachers.

During the time when the intensive rethinking of media education approaches was on the upgrade in the Western hemisphere, in Russia of the 1970s – 1980s media education was still developing within the aesthetic concept.

Among the important achievements of 1970s-1990s one can recall the first official programs of film and media education, published by Ministry of Education, increasing interest of Ph. D. to media education, experimental theoretic and practical work on media education by O. Baranov ( Tver ), S. Penzin ( Voronezh ), G. Polichko, U. Rabinovich ( Kurgan ), Y. Usov ( Moscow ), Aleksandr Fyodorov ( Taganrog ), A. Sharikov ( Moscow ) and others.

The important events in media education development in Russia are the registration of the new specialization ( since 2002 ) for the pedagogical universities – ‘ Media Education ’ (№ 03. 13. 30 ), and the launch of a new academic journal ‘ Media Education ’ ( since January 2005 ), partly sponsored by the ICOS UNESCO ‘ Information for All ’.

Additionally, the Internet sites of Russian Association for Film and Media Education ( English and Russian versions ) were created.

Taking into account the fact that UNESCO defines media education as the priority field of the cultural educational development in the 21st century, media literacy has good prospects in Russia.