Croatia

[HR] New portal for media literacy

IRIS 2016-8:1/20

Nives Zvonarić

Ministry of Culture, Zagreb, Croatia

The Croatian regulatory authority, the Agency for Electronic Media (AEM), and UNICEF, in cooperation with the Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Faculty of Political Science, the Institute of Lexicography, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), and the Croatian Film Association (amateur film and film schools) have launched an online portal for media literacy. The portal broadens the recent campaign of the AEM and UNICEF, entitled "Let’s choose what we watch", which has shown through various examples the potential impact of media on children and parents (IRIS 2016-1/17).

The portal is intended to inform and educate parents, childcare providers and teachers about media literacy with a view to empower them to actively seek knowledge and information about media and ways in which they can influence the development of children. It provides information on the impact of different types of media and genres on children, and covers various topics such as Internet safety, violence presented in media, stereotypes, and the influence of media on the development of children and youth, in addition to offering a variety of tips on how to proceed in specific real-life situations. The intention is also to involve visitors in the creation of the portal’s contents, thus ensuring that the displayed topics meet the needs of parents and children as much as possible.

The online portal, as a comprehensive national Internet website, is a part of the larger project on media literacy launched in 2015 by AEM in cooperation with UNICEF. The project aims to emphasize the importance of media literacy and encourage the media education of adults as well as children and youth, the protection of whom from potentially harmful a media contents is crucial in this global convergent media world.