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Media literacy, curriculum and the rights of the child

  • Michelle Cannon
    ,
  • Steve Connolly
    ,
  • Rebecca Parry
  • University College London
    ,
  • University of Sheffield
Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

Engaging with digital media is part of everyday living for the majority of children, yet opportunities to learn about, through and with media are denied many pupils in compulsory schooling. Whilst Media Studies in the UK is internationally reputed to be well established, changes made to the primary and secondary national curriculum in 2014 included removal of existing media study elements. We demonstrate what is lost by these actions in relation to the United Nations Rights of the Child and, in particular, the right of the child to express identity. We demonstrate how media literacy had previously been included in curriculum, enabling opportunities to address children’s rights, and propose that the absence of media education is part of an overall trend of the non-prioritisation of children’s rights in England and Northern Ireland. The paper calls for media literacy to be reintroduced into primary and secondary curriculum

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 322-334

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Discourse (Volume 43, Issue 2)

Publication milestones

  • Accepted/In press - 17/09/2020
  • Published - 09/10/2020

Publication status

Published - 09/10/2020

ISSN

0159-6306

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/624629
  • Scopus: 85092277196

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