The Society of Media Education

Practices, theories and creative concepts for a human use of media

The Fall Conference of the Media Education Section of the DGfE will be held in cooperation with the Media Education Section of the ÖFEB and organised by the Department of Media Education at the Institute of Educational at the University of Vienna in cooperation with the Department of Media Education, Informatics
Education and Digitality at the PH Vienna on

Thursday, September 19 and Friday, September 20, 2024

at the University of Vienna. Abstracts can be submitted until 17.05.2024 at https://conftool.erz.univie.ac.at/e/mp24.

Topic

In professional media education, media education research and media education theory development pedagogical principles and premises can be used, as the debates at the last fall conference (https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/mpaed2023/tagungsthema.shtml) have shown. This makes it possible to define media education as an independent field. This self-determination can be used to articulate media criticism and to shape media. Media educators are not dependent on following utopian predictions of the future or apocalyptic ideas. Instead, professionals and researchers can actively contribute to the development of a society that is recognized as valuable and thus promote a human use of media.

To this end, media educators must use their critical and creative abilities in such a way that they can free themselves from the reproduction of existing conditions and - while taking reproductive needs into account - understand and shape themselves in such a way that they can convey suggestions for the development of a human society in which rational action is the focus. This can also address the problem that, according to
Adorno, the right media education is hardly possible in the wrong society.

The focus thus shifts to the question of which forms of society can be justified from the perspective of self-determined media educators and which methods can be used to contribute to the development of media-educationally valuable societies with regard to human media action. The establishment of a beautiful media culture and the shaping of mediatization thus become the focus of attention. This includes the design of infrastructures as well as the reasonable design of content.

This is linked to a variety of research questions, such as:

  • How should the public sphere be shaped from a media education perspective?
  • What alternatives to the currently prevailing neoliberal model of the public sphere, which Lippman helped to develop in 1922, should be considered in media education?
  • How is (scientific) popularity dealt with in the context of media education research?
  • What influence does public opinion have on media education research?
  • Which democratic practices should take center stage in media education?
  • Should proposals such as open or deliberative democracy be taken up in media education practice and theory?
  • Which institutions and networks are necessary for a substantial anchoring of media education?
  • Should media educators strive for the establishment of state media schools or the foundation of a competitive media education franchise?
  • Which research methods can be used to fulfil a human use of media?
  • Does media literate behaviour also require the competence to use media-pedagogical research methods?
  • How can a human us of media be taught as a media education goal using algorithms?
  • Should a "media literacy by design" approach be developed for the development of media education software?
  • How can media educators contribute to a free and peaceful coexistence of all people? Which confrontations with real media realities are necessary for this?
  • Is a separate epistemology of media education necessary to distance the ideology of digital culture and contribute to a rich media culture?
  • Does media law comply with media education principles? Which ownership rights can be used to fulfil the goal of encouraging an educationally valuable media use?
  • Is there a consensus in media education about the answers to the previous questions? Should there be one?

We welcome a wide range of contributions, especially those that go beyond the scope
of the questions raised.

We welcome contributions that address practices, theories and creative ideas for a human use of media in a human society. In addition to submissions on the current theme of the autumn conference, there is also the opportunity to submit contributions that are independent of the conference theme.