Media education

Sketch of the media educational reference field

Media education encompasses educational research, development and educational practice related to media . It is related to individuals and groups in a social context and acts under the impression of specific challenges:

Media are central design factors in the living environment has become many people.
Mediatization and medialization as well as the accelerated change in the media offer in the course of the digital revolution place media education in a constantly changing field of reference and place tight time limits on the topicality and validity of, in particular, practical statements.
Media supply and media use are in the field of tension between various social interest groups and the market, i.e. between the producer supply aimed at profit and consumer demand. Addressing problematic social media developments and promoting a reflective and socially responsible use of media is an important task of media education in terms of educational media criticism .

Other branches of media education in addition to media education and media criticism, the media education , the media didactics , media socialization and media research . In addition, media education is closely related to media studies , communication studies , media sociology , media history , media philosophy and media psychology .

The task of media education is to create occasions for media education. The aim of media educational offers for children, adolescents and adults is the individual acquisition of media competence . A methodical communication approach is action-oriented media education .

From book culture to digital media

If one disregards spoken language as a basic human ability and one uses writings as media - see also an early criticism of Plato in the myth of Theuth - with wide dissemination potential not before Gutenberg's invention of movable type for printing, then the beginnings of mass media lie in Transition from the 15th to the 16th century. Because only now could texts be copied in large quantities, be it as leaflets, newspapers or books. The ability to read and write turned from a privilege less to widespread ability and prepared the ground for compulsory schooling.

After the invention of writing, it took around 5,000 years for printing to begin, and another 500 years for the next mass medium, broadcasting (1923), but television was also introduced a little later (1935). While the global distribution of Gutenberg's art of printing took about two centuries, it took radio two decades. Within five years, the smartphone has become the decentralized medium used by the masses worldwide. In Germany, the proportion of 12 to 19-year-olds who own a smartphone rose from 47 percent in 2012 to 95 percent in 2017, and in 2018 the figure was 99 percent. Looking at the age group of young people and adults, it can be seen for 2018 that 90 percent of Germans aged 14 and over were online. The daily internet usage time in this group averaged 82 minutes per day, with the group of 14 to 29 year olds using the internet significantly longer than the average with 353 minutes.

History of media education

The accelerated change in the range of media on offer led to media education emerging as a separate subject from the 1960s. Jürgen Hüther and Bernd Schorb transform the history of media education into a conservation-pedagogical phase (18th century to 1933), a propagandistic-indoctrinal phase (1933–1945), a phase that emphasizes self-protection (1945–1960), and a critical-reflexive phase (1968–1980) and a reflexive-practical phase (since 1980). Until then, the term mainly referred to school lessons . In 1984 the Society for Media Education and Communication Culture was founded in Germany . In 1999, the working group founded by Stefan Aufenanger and Dieter Baacke on the subject of media education in the German Society for Educational Science (DGfE) was officially recognized as a separate commission. Since 2010 there has been an independent section “Media Education” in this specialist society.

Media use in the name of the new or digital media based on the Internet and computers as well as multifunctional mobile devices such as laptops , tablets and smartphones influences and changes to a large extent both the working life as well as the privacy and leisure activities of those involved. Studies on the social impact of new media technologies are faced with the problem that causal conclusions about individual factors and their effect with a view to the complex everyday contexts of media use are hardly possible. Correlative relationships between media use and social phenomena must therefore be viewed with caution with regard to the question of cause and effect. This also applies to the study by the American psychologist and generation researcher Jean Twenge, who researches long-term data on the behavior and well-being of adolescents in the United States. She sees the introduction and spread of the smartphone as the reason why after 2012 - the year since more than half of Americans have owned a smartphone - the proportion of young people in the USA who feel excluded or lonely, and the number of teenagers who sleep less than seven hours on most nights has skyrocketed.

In the context of media socialization research, the changes in the framework conditions for the formation of identities among children and young people are discussed. In addition to direct interaction with traditional socialization bodies such as family , new media-mediated forms of exchange and an expansion of communication spaces are emerging in the course of digital change , which means that other socialization- relevant actors such as trendsetters or influencers gain in importance.

Comprehensive learning and personal development

Depending on the lifestyle and attitude of their parents, babies and toddlers can already come under the influence of the media. From the point of view of brain researchers like Manfred Spitzer and some media-educational advisors, however, this does not involve positive learning and development impulses. The earliest learning takes place effectively only in the interaction of all sensory organs, while, for example, screen media at most stimulate seeing and hearing. According to Spitzer, however, a third of the human cerebral cortex is used to plan and execute movements, especially with hands and fingers, which, in contrast to other primates who walk on hands, can be used as a fine tool in humans because they walk upright:

“This requires intensive training of fine motor skills in childhood. This is why finger games, in which a small action is performed in such a way that the fingers take on the role of people, animals or things, are so important. They link movements with actions, with descriptions and performances, in the manner of theater. To make it easier to remember, the movements are often accompanied by language in the form of nursery rhymes or nursery rhymes. "

The merging of sensory perception (sensory system) and movement ( motor system ) that a baby has to accomplish is called sensorimotor integration . According to Paula Bleckmann , there are three more classic senses of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling nowadays: the sense of movement, which brings the two index fingertips together even when the eyes are closed, the sense of balance and the sense of rotation, which is based on rotational movements of the head. Bleckmann concludes: "Screen media not only overwhelm children with unsuitable content, they also under-challenge them because the eight senses are not addressed."

The same applies to language learning. The sounds of the mother tongue are learned in the second half of the first year of life. But just hearing is not enough. According to Spitzer, babies also have to see the speaker, the person and the face, including emotional expression, in order to be able to link what they hear with what they see. "If the television is running or people are talking on the radio," says Gertrud Teusen, "this has no effect on the development of language in children."

Not only in terms of promoting language learning, it is important not to miss the particularly productive development phases that correlate with brain development: "It is important here that after certain sensitive periods, learning phases or development windows (there are many terms that mean very similar things) in childhood can no longer be learned in many ways. We know that structures that have been created tend to solidify themselves, just as well-established trails are used, even if there are shorter ways. ”In this context, Bleckmann refers to an example from mathematics didactics:“ Children, the trouble with subtracting often show a poor physical awareness of the space behind them. At this point, the untrained physical abilities are closely linked to the difficulties in thinking. If walking backwards, hopping backwards and balancing backwards is particularly practiced with the stragglers, then suddenly calculating backwards is also much easier. "

Media usage by age

While, on the one hand, the early childhood media offers on the market and appropriately advertised are available, from the Baby Einstein DVD to the Barbie learning computer to the learning cell phone, on the other hand there are voices in media education that recommend avoiding screen time for children as long as that is possible goes. In 2007 a US study was published which examined the relationship between media use and language development in children under 2 years of age. To this end, parents of children between the ages of 2 and 24 months were interviewed by telephone about their consumption of DVDs and CDs. In children up to 16 months of age, regular use worsened test scores for language learning. In children aged 17 to 24 months, there was no significant association between any type of media consumption and test results. The Federal Center for Health Education disseminates age-graded recommendations on the maximum duration of media use among children. Screen media should therefore be avoided completely if possible during the first three years of life; Between the ages of 3 and 6, picture books and reading should continue to be the focus and screen media should not be used for more than 30 minutes; Reading aloud remains important even up to the age of 10 and the time spent using screen media should not be extended beyond 45 to 60 minutes. Exceptionally longer usage times should not be ruled out depending on the occasion; on the other hand, “media-free days” with other activities should also be provided. The “klicksafe” portal, which is commissioned by the European Union to provide competent and critical use of the Internet and new media, recommends a maximum daily duration of around one hour as a guideline for Internet and mobile phone use for children aged 10 to 13. Regardless of age, responsible use of the media requires parents to deal with children's media use, as children can process media content to different degrees.

Data on the description of media equipment and media use by children in Germany according to the minKIM study in 2014 indicate that there is a wide variety of media in households with children between the ages of 2 and 5: “In almost all families there is (at least) one TV set, a computer or laptop and a cell phone or smartphone. A good nine out of ten households have internet access and a radio. 83 percent have a CD player, 81 percent a DVD player and eight out of ten families also have a digital camera ”. In 2014, the (almost) daily media activities of two to five year olds included television (44 percent) and books (43 percent). The media activities mentioned most frequently, which were carried out at least once a week, included reading books (87%), watching TV (79%) and listening to music (55%) (p. 5). With regard to the duration of use of the respective media, the study states that on an average day children watch 43 minutes of television, 26 minutes of (picture) books independently or are read aloud, and 18 minutes of listening to the radio.

The president of the professional association of paediatricians, Thomas Fischbach, complains that "children who hang in front of the smartphone or tablet" are getting younger and younger. The constant overload of stimuli causes more and more poor concentration and a decline in school performance. Fischbach recommends completely withholding mobile phones from children up to the age of 11. “The longer you postpone the use of smartphones by children, the better.” A Bitcom study from 2019 shows that more than half (54 percent) of children between the ages of six and seven use a smartphone; From the age of 12, almost all (97 percent) are online. The neurobiologist Martin Korte explains the increased incidence of concentration disorders in children with the fact that the frontal lobe of the brain, which is responsible for organizing and planning, is still growing in children and therefore has less computing capacity. The children, who spend too long in front of screens, also lacked concentration-enhancing activities such as exercise, contact with other people and reading.

Excessive times spent in front of computer screens and smartphones harbor considerable risks, especially for the health of children and adolescents' eyes. This is shown by recent studies, according to which nearsightedness (myopia) has prevailed among young people: In some major Asian cities, the myopia rate is over 90 percent; but in Europe and the USA too, more than half of young people are affected. Two factors are responsible for the dramatically increasing nearsightedness: the eye is too seldom exposed to bright daylight (hence the recommendation to at least spend the school breaks outdoors), and too often focus on near vision. Myopia can be compensated for with appropriate visual aids; However, those with myopia also have an increased risk of subsequent secondary diseases of the eye such as glaucoma and cataracts , macular degeneration or retinal detachment .

According to the study Jugend, Information, Medien (JIM) published in 2018 , 97 percent of young people between the ages of 12 and 19 owned a smartphone, 71 percent their own computer or laptop, 50 percent a television, 46 percent a game console and 26 percent a tablet. In the daily media occupation, the internet, smartphone and music had the greatest importance. Then came online videos, television, and radio. Printed books were read in ninth place after streaming services and digital games. 39 percent of those questioned said reading books was a regular leisure activity. Daily online use outside of the weekend was 214 minutes according to a self-assessment. By far the most popular website was YouTube (named by 63 percent), followed by WhatsApp (39 percent), Instagram (30 percent) and Netflix (18 percent). For 4 percent of young people, Wikipedia was one of the three favorite offers on the Internet.

Surveys also show that parents with higher educational qualifications give their children access to such devices later on average than parents with lower qualifications. The average length of time that children spend in front of screens varies accordingly. Parents' ideas about which media should be available to children at what age show marked differences depending on whether the parents have already given their children access to screen media or not: audio media are used from a good two years or (in the case of screen avoidance) found to be useful from a little over four years of age, television from a good four or almost ten years, computers from just under eight or a good 12 years.

The following applies to adulthood in Germany: the higher the age, the greater the average television consumption. For those over 50 years of age, an average of almost six hours a day were surveyed.

Mediation of media skills in educational institutions

Tablet use in elementary school

According to Dieter Baacke , media education crosses borders, insofar as it begins in the family and continues in school, but also has to include the self-learning of peers or the self-educated subject and must not ignore adults and old people. Helen Knauf advocates early media education in day-care centers. Media are "due to their omnipresence an integral part of the children's world and must therefore not be ignored or defamed as 'uneducated'." Working with children in a product-oriented manner on media - such as television, audio books, radio, photography or computers - is one of the central strategies of Media education. "Children enjoy the production of media products - they love the new perspective on themselves and their environment, the professional result and the technical aspect of production."

With regard to adolescents beyond childhood, Axel Dammler writes: “Media educators have been preaching like a prayer wheel for years that it is better to prepare young people for what they are doing, for example. B. can find everything on the Internet instead of keeping them away from this medium. "He complains that schools are poorly equipped with computers and Internet connections as well as the teachers' poor knowledge of the Internet and explains that" the growing digital divide "is one of the most important tasks of schools. between children of different social classes. According to Bleckmann, however, the upper class privilege does not consist in longer media usage times - these are even significantly higher in disadvantaged groups - but in advantages in terms of content selection, understanding and processing of the media offers. Using the Internet a lot and intensively, says Dammler, “does not automatically make you stupid.” In Scandinavian countries such as Sweden or Finland, which ranked first in the first PISA study, young people had an even higher level of Internet and computer games Use than in Germany.

In the course of the implementation of a digital compact for schools to be provided with five billion euros , the material and personnel resources of these educational institutions in Germany are to be fundamentally improved. The funds are to be used, for example, for W-LAN equipment, school servers and new learning platforms ; Schools that already have such an IT infrastructure could instead finance end devices such as laptops, notebooks and tablets. In terms of personnel, in addition to further training measures for teachers, funding for media pedagogical trainers for schoolchildren and teachers from federal funds can also be considered.

The International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) published in November 2019 sees the potential of digital education in Germany still far from being exhausted. A third of the young people only achieved the lower two levels of competence in this regard: “You can just open e-mails, click on links or insert a word into a text,” says Birgit Eickelmann, the head of the study for Germany. Among the eighth graders in Germany, the vast majority of information on the Internet could not judge according to "whether it is propaganda or not". In the meantime, 23.2 percent of teachers in Germany use digital media in their lessons every day; however, these are mostly not used for individualized learning, but to present information in frontal teaching. Only 26.2 percent of young people in Germany attend a school in which the pupils and teachers have access to school WiFi, while Danish schools are 100 percent equipped with it due to financial support, those in Finland and the USA around 91 percent.

In the Danish education system, it is a given that students see, communicate and learn differently than previous generations. Schools should not ignore this if there is a risk of future insignificance. Rather, it is important to secure the Danish pioneering role in the use of information technology (IT) through an appropriate orientation of school education. One relies on early communication and practical use of this technology as a problem-solving tool. An exemplary curriculum leads "from the first attempts at programming in class one to tinkering with computers to robotics and 3-D printing in the higher classes". The devices that the students bring with them act as a consistent tool. The biggest problem associated with this is seen in the distraction of attention from the classroom. "Because YouTube , Facebook and Instagram don't take a break during school hours and the students are permanently online, the teachers turn into a constant battle for attention every lesson."

Didactic differentiation and interactive learning software

"Nothing is in the spirit", John Locke is quoted as saying, "that was not in the senses before." In terms of learning theory, the consequence of this is that, among other things, optimal learning is only made possible by taking individual sensory perception into account. In 1975, Frederic Vester presented a theory that has been widely regarded by educators since then, but has been scientifically controversial, according to which individual predisposition and formative stimuli for perception in sensitive learning phases of personality development give rise to different types of learners who prefer to respond to certain channels of perception or input:

learning-effective resonance in the auditory area, i.e. through listening and speaking, question and answer, argument and counter-argument;
Learning on a visual basis through observation and experiment;
haptic learning linked to touching and feeling ;
Basic learning in formulas and abstract thinking.

In the reality of life, one should not assume pure types, but multiple mixed forms. Regardless of this, Vester's guiding principle is:

“The more types of explanation are offered, the more channels of perception are used (as would be the case in multimedia lessons), the more firmly the knowledge is stored, the more diverse it is anchored and also understood, the more students become the subject of knowledge understand and remember him later. "

According to Katzer, recent studies show that anyone who is confronted with any kind of question thinks first of all of computers and Internet research. However, the more this type of access becomes a routine that one relies on, the less the information obtained in this way will be remembered. "Very recent studies show that the best way to keep something and remember it is unfortunately to write it down (by hand, mind you)!" If the Internet is used more and more as a memory substitute, long-term memory is at risk. “It is becoming increasingly emptier - and we are mentally poorer. [...] But the fewer memories we have, the more difficult it is for us to understand complex relationships. "

With the advent of computers and the Internet in more and more educational institutions, e-learning is increasingly becoming the focus of media-pedagogical reflections and recommendations. For Bernward Hoffmann, this includes the following, largely unused opportunities:

Learning becomes self-determined. Learning environments are changing from institutionalized lessons to self-organized learning processes, from didactic control by the teacher to communicative discovery by the learner.
Learning content is consistently illustrated and thus more easily accessible, more concrete, more understandable, more tailored to the individual.
The learning process is individualized; different learning paths are available for different types of learners.
Learning systems are patient and tolerant of mistakes; they do not evaluate or only make it visible to the learner; Control and evaluation have no social impact.

For Hoffmann, however, such individualized learning is linked to unfulfilled prerequisites on the part of the teaching staff: It requires more teachers and a role change towards moderation tasks: “The traditional control of learning content and methods by the teacher is shifting towards a communicative learning model; This gives the learner at least control over the strategies and methods of his or her learning and at least partially over the selection of the learning content. This change in the teaching role must be supported by them. "

Opportunities and threats in virtual communication networks

The term digital natives for cohorts born after 1980 comes from the e-learning expert Marc Prensky - in relation to the situation in the USA - to which the cohorts born before were compared as “digital immigrants”. While the former have already grown up with the computer and Internet world or are growing up in it, some of the earlier cohorts have only joined in with hesitation or at first with reluctance. With regard to e-learning, there has often been a reversal of knowledge transfer: the young learners explained the possibilities and use of digital tools to the teachers. For the majority of those who have grown up in this way, the digital world is a culture of participation: “Numerous creative tools are used to create offers and opportunities for cooperation. Free blogs, file sharing sites for photos, graphics and music compete with conventional service providers. Most of the time, the focus is not on profit, but on enriching the digital community. The web allows users to become digital producers, whose self-generated content and open source mentality are increasingly replacing paid offers. "

The range of possible uses of a smartphone goes far beyond mobile telephony. It serves, among other things, as a music station, radio, camera with integrated editing studio, alarm clock, address book, dictation machine, calculator, appointment planner, typewriter, timetable information, ticket seller, weather service - “an office the size of a cigarette case that is always with you. For the kids it is also a game console, video camera, compass, cinema, dictionary, library and, and, and ... "

The constant availability of such a device at any location and the possibility of ongoing contact or acceptance creates a kind of “virtual contact inflation”, says Dammler: “The same time budget has to be distributed among significantly more friends today. Although you can send e-mails and SMS to several friends at the same time and manage your friendships more economically than before, this imbalance between available time and friends must mean that the individual relationships can be less and less intensive and deep. "That undermines the togetherness and the friendly cohesion: "It is becoming more and more common that you can no longer rely on the appointments made, and that this is accepted by everyone involved." In many cases, the new technical possibilities also mean that the individual can be reached at any time expected in social networks and implemented individually, if only in order not to miss out on important things. Such latent long-term stress can, however, have a negative effect on the individual's perception of time: The assumed compulsion to be constantly ready for contacts "lets our perceived time shrink."

The various screen animations also leave the digital natives less time for thorough language training and maintenance while reading and writing. Spitzer refers to study results that state that the usage time of game consoles correlates negatively with school performance, especially in the field of written language. When e-mailing and texting, the language is "gradually fluttering", says Teusen. “We get entangled in more or less elaborate abbreviations and can only hope that the recipient will be able to figure it out and make the right one. And can someone who no longer writes clearly, neatly and sometimes in detail, still think clearly, neatly and in detail? ”The large number of incoming contact impulses - the youth researcher Axel Dammler describes this as“ communication overkill ”- overstrains the selection skills of young people, because in their imagination there might be something important behind every new message. In the reactions to this, there is a compulsion to economize, which leads to the corruption of written language: “Anyone who writes dozens of messages every day can simply no longer pay attention to spelling or compliance with formalities - otherwise one would not have the large number of these messages at all can handle. "

In 2014, as part of a study by the University of Bonn, the cell phone usage of 60,000 people was evaluated with the help of an app. The frequency of interruptions to individual activities caused by the smartphone was described as conspicuous: on average, the users of the app activated their mobile phones 53 times a day. “Smartphone apps work like gaming machines. We use it again and again to get a little kick. ”As a result, the test subjects interrupted the activity they were doing every 18 minutes. These continuous interruptions prevent one from fully devoting oneself to one thing and from having the satisfying experience of flow - a state that can only arise after 15 minutes of concentrated activity. As a result, in addition to increasing unproductivity, a lack of happiness is also associated with permanent smartphone use.

From a constructive point of view, it was shown that complex multiplayer online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft or League of Legends can, in addition to the acquisition of strategic and tactical skills, also help to develop team and leadership skills . In digital business enterprises, serious games are increasingly seen as one of the key technologies for finding and motivating young managers. A general connection between computer games and individual leadership skills could not be proven. As with analog training methods, it remains questionable to what extent a skill learned or improved in the game can be integrated into everyday working life.

Daring self-profiling on the net

The incentive to create your own profile in online communities with information on hobbies, favorite bands, school affiliation and friends and to provide it with pictures is particularly great for young people. In this way, they endeavor to determine and present their identity as they know it from their friends and acquaintances with whom they are seeking connection. They are often not aware that once the content has been put online, it often develops a life of its own through copying and linking, which cannot be captured again and which is anything but easy to delete.

Participation in online communities, according to Dammler, should be understood as channeling typical young people's basic needs: “While young people used to be able to present themselves and their world only in their own room, which was only accessible to selected acquaintances, they now have the virtual one Playing field available to the online communities for self-presentation. [...] The youth are, "explains Dammler," a time of change and uncertainty, paired with a certain resistance to advice and a biological overestimation of oneself, because the risk center in the brain is only fully developed in the mid-twenties. "

Teusen explains the willingness to spread private preferences online with the need for attention and recognition, which is satisfied by social networks. “The more friends, the more recognition.” The social interaction is essentially reduced to the “Like it” button. Even such minimalist assessments are now used in total in psychometrics to create personality profiles, for example according to the OCEAN model . “Even those who try not to reveal anything about themselves online”, writes Christoph Drösser , “reveals a lot of information. The psycho-analyzes derived from this can not only be used to present us with even more appropriate advertising. They also influence our chances of getting a loan or being invited for an interview. "

Media educators, psychologists and cyber criminologists are opposed to the tendency of parents who grew up with social media to put their children's pictures online without hesitation. According to the Deutscher Kinderhilfswerk, photos and information are online from around four million children and young people in Germany . Also, UNICEF warns of the resulting for the personal development of hazards.

Cyber bullying risks

The relative lack of commitment and partial anonymity of communication on the Internet leads to a distancing and depersonalization of fellow human beings in virtual space: unlike in a face-to-face meeting and conversation, expressions and perceptions are not related to an immediate counterpart, whose facial expressions and body language often facilitate the interaction Participate in decision-making with consideration. According to Dammler, the netiquette , which is held up as a specific Internet behavioral orientation, is often ineffective in practice, because control mechanisms often failed in view of the dynamics, size and speed of the Internet. “The Internet is thus practically a legal free area, and everyone can only hope not to get caught up in an online bullying campaign themselves - especially since the Internet forgets nothing and forbidden claims and false rumors are repeatedly brought to light could. "

A study by the Center for Empirical Educational Research from 2009 mentions 1.9 million victims of cyber bullying across Germany. This can affect children, adolescents and adults alike. Victims and perpetrators often know each other from real life and their own environment. According to Teusen, the attacks are often more violent and protracted in online bullying than in direct contact between the perpetrator and the victim; because the bullying actors felt safe from detection in the supposed anonymity of the Internet. The creation of so-called "fake profiles", in which profiles are created under a false name or the name of a victim, are also popular in order to harm others.

The lack of direct feedback from the victims' reactions and emotions favors a lack of empathy and compassion on the perpetrator's side as well as a certain distance from what is happening online. This promotes emotional dulling and desensitization. According to Katzer, young people in particular show less compassion and helpfulness today than they used to. The greatest decrease in this regard occurred after 2000, when "the world of chatting, posting and sharing" took its course. "Initial research also indicates that the increasing violence in the online media can make one more indifferent to the suffering of others."

Incentives to overuse media

According to Bleckmann, referring to relevant studies, the earlier children start watching television, the more even school beginners protested against switching off the TV, presumably because they could not deal with boredom because they had no independent gaming experience. Early habituation also leads to longer periods of use in later life. With the multitude of media offers, Baacke already saw children and young people overwhelmed with deciding on something. Hustle and bustle, restlessness and a constant feeling of having missed out would be decisive: “On other channels, what I miss is always happening. If this new cultural pattern is generalized, systematic learning progress is made more difficult. "

According to Bleckmann, a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies in the USA reveals clear connections between media exposure and negative health consequences for all deviations in detail: Screen media use is particularly conducive to smoking and obesity; Medium connections were found to failure at school, alcohol and drug consumption, and a weak connection to ADHD . Teusen reports on studies according to which German children up to the age of 18 followed 200,000 acts of violence on the screen and saw the face of a dying person around 40,000 times. According to a 2010 meta-analysis on violence in computer games, there can no longer be any doubt that media violence contributes to the development of real violence, especially as adolescents' empathy decreases due to the influence of the media. This connection becomes clearer the younger the consumers of violent media content are. According to Spitzer, you can also train yourself to have an attention disorder with first-person shooter games. The fact is that you "give up your concentration and self-control in order to return to the mental functional level of a reflex machine."

Wherever the application possibilities of the Internet are grounded in everyday social reality, they offer a welcome tool to solve certain tasks better and faster than was possible in pre-digital times. From Dammler's point of view, however, it has problematic effects when virtual communities that are no longer rooted in social reality become the point of contact for people who for various reasons can no longer cope with the real world and flee to cyber spaces with others , which construct their own reality for the user. As an example of such meeting places, Dammler cites hate forums in which those who are prepared to use violence mutually charge each other; Forums for anorexic people , in which girls with eating disorders drive each other further into the disease and become inaccessible for therapeutic attempts; Suicide forums and forums for political and religious extremists from various directions.

Since advertising-financed network operators have a keen interest in active users and their data, they provide them with beneficial impulses. This is ensured in particular by online games such as World of Warcraft with three-dimensional graphics in which the selected player character is moved. The structure of the game offers the player through appropriate training opportunities for advancement in the player hierarchy and, according to Teusen, more often unfamiliar experiences of power and success. Additional game expansions ensure that no end of the game is in sight. On the other hand, ongoing activity is required in order to be able to maintain the achieved game level . Such constellations favor the development of computer game addiction .

Quality of life through media maturity

In the age of the digital revolution, an undisturbed personal development that corresponds to one's individual needs is determined from an early age by the reflective handling of the parents and the educational institutions with the media as well as the ability of adolescents to control themselves individually. This requires targeted and fun-related support, such as singing songs in kindergarten. According to Bleckmann, in order for children to be able to really become media-savvy, they first need a good basis in real life. "If the goal is for the media to serve people and not the other way around, then: 'If you want to become a master, you practice late.'"

A father watches a children's film with his children

At Baacke, the following applies to media education: “It accompanies and educates adolescents, especially younger children, to use the media .” The relevant recommendations for everyday practice vary considerably in the literature between early practice and the greatest possible abstinence. Teusen is heading for a course in between, for example, with regard to television use: He does not belong in the children's room; Parents should make clear agreements about when, what and for how long they can watch TV, should ideally watch together with their children and be available for feedback, should be role models when it comes to watching TV and not use TV permits as a reward or punishment .

For Dammler it is clear that every generation is shaped by certain experiences and events in their youth as a “cohort”. Once learned, habits are not easily abandoned. The current “virtual cohort” is shaped by the Internet and is afflicted with specific behaviors and communication patterns that are reflected in personal relationships as well as in basic values and attitudes. "But if the Internet with its innumerable, tailor-made content continues to gain influence, and if individualized use continues to advance - also through the content created by the users themselves (" user generated content "), then there will soon be nothing more that the young people can talk about in the schoolyard. This is then only possible in the virtual community, because the other users have been sent the corresponding link. "

In order to counteract such elimination of associations and the loss of common ground, it is important to prepare young people for the Internet with its content, instead of keeping them away from it. With regard to the new demands of the world of work, it is also important to know and be able to use the potential of the Internet, i.e. to “think and react quickly and in a networked way.” On the other hand, contact between young people and different social groups in real life must be ensured, to associations, youth groups, churches or municipal institutions: "When young people are active there, they are and remain part of society - no matter what else they do on the Internet."

Baacke ultimately sees media education as a responsibility to society as a whole:

“In conclusion, media education can neither withdraw from media politics nor from the 'discourse on media' of society as a whole, if it does not want to be relegated to educational provinces in which it only functions as a 'repair shop' for what is outside happens by her and would be responsible. "

literature

Basic literature:

Dieter Baacke : Media Education. (= Basics of media communication. Volume 1) Niemeyer, Tübingen 1997, ISBN 9783484371019 .
Dieter Baacke , Susanne Kornblum, Jürgen Laufer, Lothar Mikos, Günther A. Thiele (eds.): Handbook Media: Media Competence: Models and Projects . Federal Agency for Civic Education: Bonn 1999, ISBN 9783893313754 .
Paula Bleckmann : Media maturity. How our children learn to use the screen independently . Stuttgart 2012
Christian Doelker: media in media - texts on media education , Pestalozzianum publishing house, Zurich 2005, ISBN 978-3403086406 .
Bernward Hoffmann: Medienpädagogik , Verlag Schöningh / UTB, Paderborn 2003, ISBN 978-3825224219 .
Ingbert von Martial, Volker Ladenthin: Media in the classroom. Hohengehren 2005. (2nd verb. Ed.)
Benjamin Jörissen & Winfried Marotzki: Media Education - An Introduction . Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2009
Thomas Knaus: Research Workshop Media Education (Volumes 1, 2, 3). kopaed, Munich 2017, 2018, 2019, ISBN 978-3-86736-430-0 , ISBN 978-3-86736-410-2 , ISBN 978-3-86736-520-8
Heinz Moser: Introduction to Media Education: Growing Up in the Media Age . 6th revised and expanded edition, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden, 2019 ISBN 978-3531161648 .
Horst Niesyto, Heinz Moser (ed.): Media criticism in the digital age. Munich 2018.
Uwe Sander, Friederike von Gross & Kai-Uwe Hugger (Eds.) Handbook of Media Education . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2008
Fred Schell et al. a. (Ed): media literacy. Basics and educational action . KoPäd Verlag. Munich 1999
Wolfgang Schill u. a. (Hg): Media education in schools , Opladen 1992
Wolfgang Schill: Integrative media education in primary school , Munich 2008
Bernd Schorb, Anja Hartung-Griemberg, Christine Dallmann (eds.): Basic concepts of media education . 6th newly written edition. kopaed, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-86736-390-7
Gerhard Tulodziecki : Media in upbringing and education. Basics and examples of an action- and development-oriented media education. , Klinkhardt Verlag, Bad Heilbrunn 1997.
Ralf Vollbrecht: Introduction to media education . Beltz Verlag, Weinheim and Basel 2001.

Further literature:

Aufenanger, Stefan : Media Education, in: Krüger, H.-H .; Grunert, C. (Ed.): Dictionary Erziehungswissenschaft, Wiesbaden 2004, pp. 302–307
Cammarata, Patricia : Thirty minutes, but then it's over !: With children deeply relaxed through the media jungle . Cologne 2020, ISBN 3-8479-0049-8
Dammler, Axel: Lost in the network. Is the Internet Addicting Our Children? Gütersloh 2009.
Hart, Andrew; Suess, Daniel (Eds.): Media Education in 12 European Countries. A Comparative Study of Teaching Media in Mother Tongue Teaching in Secondary Schools , Zurich: E-Collection of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) ( Online ).
Herzig, Bardo and Grafe, Sike: Digital Media in School. Bonn 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-020497-5
Hübner, Edwin: Media and pedagogy: points of view for understanding the media, basics of an anthroposophical-anthropological media pedagogy . DRUCKtuell, Stuttgart, 2015, ISBN 978-3-944911-16-8
Katzer, Catarina : Cyber Psychology. Life on the Net: How the Internet is Changing Us. Munich 2016.
Knauf, Helen: "Education area media". Series early education and upbringing, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3525701263
Knaus, Thomas and Engel, Olga (eds.): Digital media in educational institutions (fraMediale series, volumes 1 to 5) , Munich 2010/2011/2013/2014/2016
Missomelius, Petra: Troublemaking knowledge. Media between education and uneducation . In: MEDIENwissenschaft, H. 4/13, Schüren Verlag, 2013, pp. 394–409, full text
Moser, Heinz: Introduction to media education . Wiesbaden 2005
Röll, Franz Josef : Myths and symbols in popular media , Frankfurt am Main: Community work of Protestant journalism, 1998.
Schindler, Wolfgang et al. (Ed.): Education in virtual worlds. Practice and theory of extracurricular work with the Internet and computers. Frankfurt 2001, ISBN 3-932194-38-1 .
Stadtfeld, Peter: General Didactics and New Media. On the position of the new media in the classroom and their consequences. Bad Heilbrunn 2004.
Tast, Hans-Jürgen (Ed.): Youth media meeting. Paths to media competence , Kulleraugen, Schellerten 1998. ISBN 3-88842-023-7 .
Teusen, Gertrud: Smart instead of being stupid. How parents promote their children's media literacy. Freiburg im Breisgau 2013.
Schäfer, Karl - Hermann, "Media education as a sub-discipline of general educational science, in: Yearbook Media Education 1, Ed. St. Aufenanger, R. Schulz-Zander, D. Spanhel, Opladen 2001, pp. 17-46
Tulodziecki, Gerhard: Media Education in Crisis? . In: Hubert Kleber (Ed.): Perspektiven der Medienpädagogik in Wissenschaft und Bildungspraxis , Kopaed-Verlag, Munich 2005. Online version
Tsvasman, Leon (ed.): The large lexicon of media and communication. Compendium of interdisciplinary concepts . Ergon Verlag, Würzburg 2006, ISBN 3-89913-515-6 .

References and comments

↑ Hoffmann 2003, pp. 95-101.
↑ Niklas Luhmann: Interview with Niklas Luhmann: The Internet is not a mass medium. November 4, 2008, accessed on October 14, 2019 : “The Internet with its communication possibilities is also when it is
Main article : Media education
is used en masse as a medium, not a mass medium, because it is not a one-way technical communication, but can be used individually. "
↑ Bernd Gäbler: The mass media system has had its day. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur. December 17, 2016, accessed on October 14, 2019 : "I believe we are living at the foot of a development or an era that means that the mass media system as we know it ceases to exist. [...] We are now entering a phase in which this mass media [...] is dissolving in favor of very strongly individualized communication. "
↑ Hoffmann 2003, p. 92; Teusen 2013, p. 27.
↑ 2018 | mpfs.de. Retrieved October 1, 2019 .
↑ ARD-ZDF online study | ARD / ZDF research commission. Retrieved October 1, 2019 .
↑ Salzmann / Thiemann / Wittenbruch: Conversation with teaching media - building blocks for a new media concept in teaching and education, Neuburgweier 1975.
↑ Jürgen Hüther, Bernd Podehl: '' History of Media Education ''. In: Bernd Schorb, Anja Hartung-Griemberg, Christine Dallmann (Eds.): Basic concepts of media pedagogy
Main article : Media education
k. 6th newly written edition, Munich 2017, pp. 117–124.
↑ Robert Murauer: Mobile media and the skills of Upper Austrian teachers: An empirical analysis. disserta Verlag, Hamburg 2013, page 16
↑ DGFE: About section. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
↑ The terms digital media and new media are often used synonymously. Compared to the attribution new for the current innovations, which becomes more and more questionable over time, the reference to digital media is more specific.
↑ Baacke 1997, p. 6.
↑ Jean M. Twenge: Me, My Selfie and I. What really moves young people today . Mosaik, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-641-20065-7 ( randomhouse.de [PDF; 419 kB ] reading sample).
↑ Martin Spiewak : Just don't be offline. How is the smartphone changing the psyche of teenagers? You are the first to know no world without it. In: Die Zeit , November 9, 2017, p. 36
↑ Ralf Vollbrecht, Claudia Wegener (ed.): Handbook Media Socialization . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-15912-6 .
^ Dagmar Hoffmann, Friedrich Krotz, Wolfgang Reissmann (eds.): Mediatization and media socialization. Processes - spaces - practices . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3-658-14937-6 .
↑ Katzer 2016, pp. 203-207. “Every fourth person confirms that they can find role models online, also with regard to what they would like to become later. Girls can be particularly influenced by social media during puberty. The topics of anorexia and bulimia in particular find a large number of interested parties through the Internet via social networks. ”(Ibid., P. 207)
↑ Spitzer 2012, p. 184.
↑ Bleckmann 2012, p. 91.
↑ Spitzer 2012, p. 142.
↑ Teusen 2013, p. 13. "The little ones need the live effect: language combined with gestures and facial expressions, this is the only way they can grasp the context - and learn to speak and communicate in the process." (Ibid. And so also Bleckmann 2012, P. 93.)
↑ Spitzer 2012, p. 142.
↑ Bleckmann 2012, p. 63.
↑ Bleckmann 2012, p. 193; and quoting with approval: "Every year that children spend without television being part of everyday life is a year won." (Ibid., p. 175)
^ Frederick J. Zimmermann, Dimitri A. Christakis and Andrew N. Meltzoff: Associations between Media Viewing and Language Development in Children under Age 2 Years. In: The Journal of Pediatrics , 151 (4), 2007, pp. 364-368. ( Online access ) The researchers concluded that further research is needed to determine the relationship between the consumption of baby videos and the lagging development of speech.
↑ Maximum duration of media usage | kindergesundheit-info.de. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
↑ How children perceive media | kindergesundheit-info.de. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
↑ Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverband Südwest (mpfs): miniKIM study 2014. Toddlers and media. P. 5
↑ Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverband Südwest (mpfs): miniKIM study 2014. Toddlers and media. P. 7
↑ Quoted from: No child's play. The President of Adolescent Doctors warns against using smartphones and tablets too early. When should children start using these devices? In: Der Tagesspiegel , October 31, 2019, p. 2.
↑ By the age of 10, most children have their own smartphone.
↑ Not child's play. The President of Adolescent Doctors warns against using smartphones and tablets too early. When should children start using these devices? In: Der Tagesspiegel , October 31, 2019, p. 2.
↑ Ulrich Bahnsen: Myopia among young people is increasing rapidly. The eye disease is more dangerous than expected. In: Die Zeit , May 30, 2018, p. 29.
↑ For the JIM study 2018, 1,200 young people between the ages of twelve and 19 throughout Germany were interviewed by telephone from May to August 2018.
↑ Sabine Feierabend, Thomas Rathgeb, Theresa Reutter: JIM study 2018 . Basic examination of the media handling of 12 to 19 year olds. Ed .: Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest. S. 8, 31, 35 ( mpfs.de [PDF; accessed October 28, 2019]).
↑ Bleckmann 2012, p. 114. “ All in all, a German girl from southern Germany, where at least one parent has a high school diploma, uses the screen media for 43 minutes on working days. A North German boy with a migration background, whose parents have at most a secondary school leaving certificate, spends around 3 hours in front of the screen on a school day. At the weekend these differences are even more pronounced, namely 54 minutes compared to 4.5 hours. "(Ibid.)
↑ Quoted from Bleckmann 2012, p. 83.
↑ Quoted from Bleckmann 2012, p. 129.
↑ Baacke 1997, p. 96.
↑ Knauf 2010, p. 146.
↑ Dammler 2009, pp. 141 and 161.
↑ Bleckmann 2012, p. 110.
↑ Dammler 2009, p. 191.
↑ parliamentary groups agree to amend the Basic Law. Clear the way for digital pact for schools in the Bundestag. In: Der Tagesspiegel , November 23, 2018; accessed on November 30, 2018.
↑ "School in the Cretaceous Period". A study shows how far behind Germany is in terms of digital education. But there are positive trends. In: Der Tagesspiegel , November 6, 2019, p. 25.
↑ "School in the Cretaceous Period". A study shows how far behind Germany is in terms of digital education. But there are positive trends. In: Der Tagesspiegel , November 6, 2019, p. 25.
↑ Martin Spiewak : To smarter classes. Again an international comparison shows: Germany's schools are hardly digital and are only slowly catching up. How it works differently can be seen at the front runner Denmark. In: Die Zeit , November 7, 2019, p. 45 f. Online version ; accessed on November 10, 2019.
↑ Quoted from Hoffmann 2003, p. 41.
↑ The criticism complained, among other things, of a lack of evidence and internal logic of Vester's differentiation of learner types, as well as an outdated underlying state of brain research; see for example Maike Looß (2001): Lerntypen? A pedagogical construct on the test bench.
↑ Vester 1975, p. 42.
↑ Katzer 2016, p. 119. “The Internet, which inexorably bombarded us with countless messages, images, icons, or links, almost seduces us to orientate ourselves purely superficially ... [...] The increased use of the Internet is getting used to it Brain to the short-term, superficial information intake. It also gets used to becoming more and more distracted and inattentive, actually looking for distraction. "(Ibid., P. 121)
↑ Katzer 2016, p. 120. With reference to Eric Kandel , Katzer points out that we could work much better mentally and understand complex topics if we systematically associate new information with existing knowledge from our memories. (Ibid.)
↑ Hoffmann 2003, p. 325.
↑ Hoffmann 2003, p. 325.
↑ Teusen 2013, p. 22 f.
↑ Teusen 2013, p. 35.
↑ Dammler 2009, p. 62.
↑ Dammler 2009, p. 53.
↑ Katzer 2016, p. 56.
↑ Spitzer 2012, p. 193. Bernward Hofmann also noted a continued weakening of reading skills. In relation to the industrialized countries, one could speak of a process of decoupling on average for a third of the population from reading. (Hoffmann 2003, p. 109 f.)
↑ Teusen 2013, p. 30.
↑ Dammler 2009, p. 47.
↑ How cell phones lead to “digital burnout”. In: press releases. Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, September 24, 2015, accessed on October 28, 2019 .
↑ Jennifer Köllen: Digital abstinence: "Too much smartphone makes you unhappy". In: Spiegel Online. October 14, 2015, accessed October 28, 2019 .
↑ Bonn university study: Cell phone in hand 53 times a day. In: General-Anzeiger Bonn. September 25, 2015, accessed October 28, 2019 .
↑ Alexander Markowetz: Digital Burnout . Droemer HC, 2015, ISBN 978-3-426-27670-9 .
↑ Thomas Schutz: Nerds are rising: Development of digital leadership skills through computer games such as WoW and LoL . In: Martin A. Ciesielski, Thomas Schutz (Ed.): Digital management development: Concepts, impulses and training formats from practice . Springer Gabler, Berlin Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-662-54556-0 , p. 69-84 .
↑ Valerie Hunstock, Victor Tiberius: Are gamers the better leaders? In: Journal of Continuing Education. Wolters Kluwer Deutschland GmbH, April 2017, pp. 29–31 , accessed on October 15, 2019 .
↑ Dammler 2009, p. 74 f.
↑ Christoph Drösser : I am someone else. In: Die Zeit , September 28, 2017, p. 39 f.

↑ Marie Rövekamp: I don't want that! Parents constantly take photos of their children and show them on social networks. They rarely think of the far-reaching consequences. In: Der Tagesspiegel , March 30, 2019, p. 17.

↑ As a result of the constant being photographed, those affected could have problems "accepting themselves and developing their own identity", be hurt by mean comments and bullying and even suffer disadvantages in professional terms. (Quoted from Marie Rövekamp: I don't want that! Parents permanently take photos of their children and show them on social networks. They rarely think of the far-reaching consequences. In: Der Tagesspiegel , March 30, 2019, p. 17)

↑ Dammler 2009, p. 80.

↑ Quoted from Teusen 2013, p. 87.

↑ Teusen 2013, pp. 87 and 90.

↑ Katzer 2016, p. 99.

↑ Bleckmann 2012, p. 81.

↑ Baacke 1997, p. 79.

↑ Quoted from Bleckmann 2012, p. 136.

↑ Teusen 2013, p. 17.

↑ Quoted from Bleckmann 2012, p. 139 f.

↑ Spitzer 2012, p. 253.

↑ Dammler 2009, pp. 86-88.

↑ Teusen 2013, p. 17.

↑ Teusen 2013, pp. 118–121.

↑ Spitzer 2012, p. 242.

↑ Bleckmann 2012, p. 221 f.

↑ Baacke 1997, p. 57.

↑ Teusen 2013, p. 140.

↑ Dammler 2009, p. 111 f.

↑ Dammler 2009, pp. 141, 145, 188.