Spanish undergraduate teaching in media education field

Abstract

In recent decades, studies about Media Education have proliferated

in both national and international levels. It is widely

accepted the citizens’ lack of Media Literacy and their need to

expand the research by focusing on its causes and solutions. In

this context, this article aims to examine the undergraduate

teaching and the way universities deal with the problem of

media literacy. We understand that in order to optimize the

general media competence, we should influence on communication

professionals, who are responsible for the media messages;

and on education professionals, who have an impact on

the active audiences. All these actors confluence in a single

space: the university. Therefore, the work aims to identify the

needs and lacks in the curriculum of the media and education

studies which eventually lead to Media Literacy deficit of

citizens. For this purpose, a questionnaire was administered to

the heads of all Spanish undergraduate studies related to communication

and education. Additionally, their curricula and

syllabus were analyzed through content analysis. The results

are revealing. First, there is a lack of courses directly related

to Media Education. Second, most of the courses indirectly

related to it are focused on the technological dimension.

Finally, based on the content analysis, most of the courses

considered by the professors directly related to media education

have in fact an indirect connection.