Media literacy: the UK's undead cultural policy

This article examines media literacy in the UK: a policy that emerged within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in the late 1990s, was adopted by the New Labour administration, and enshrined in the Communications Act 2003. That legislation gave the new media regulator, Ofcom, a duty to ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of cultural policy : CP 2019-02, Vol.25 (2), p.188-203
Main Authors: Wallis, Richard, Buckingham, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coalition governments
communications policy
Cultural policy
Internet
Labor parties
Legislation
Literacy
Management
Mass media
Mass media effects
media education
Media literacy
media policy
media regulation
Ofcom
Policy making
Rhetoric
Telecommunications policy
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Summary:This article examines media literacy in the UK: a policy that emerged within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in the late 1990s, was adopted by the New Labour administration, and enshrined in the Communications Act 2003. That legislation gave the new media regulator, Ofcom, a duty to 'promote' media literacy, although it left the term undefined. The article describes how Ofcom managed this regulatory duty. It argues that over time, media literacy was progressively reduced in scope, focusing on two policy priorities related to the growth of the internet. In the process, media literacy's broader educative purpose, so clearly articulated in much of the early policy rhetoric, was effectively marginalized. From the Coalition government onwards, the promotion of media literacy was reduced further to a matter of market research. Today, if not altogether dead, the policy is governed by entirely different priorities to those imagined at its birth.
ISSN:1028-6632
1477-2833
DOI:10.1080/10286632.2016.1229314