Tell Me Why – Our reasons for membership in the International Associ …

We have asked our founding members what was their motivations to create the association.

Compiled by Ida Pöttinger

France: Evelyne Brumder-Bévort is co-founder and president of the “International Association for Media Education (IAME)”.

She is a social scientist and was deputy director of CLEMI, the Centre for Media Education in France, for more than twenty years. Evelyne Brumder-Bévort has been involved in many international projects and research and has been nominated as an expert by Unesco, the Council of Europe and the European Community. She has written articles, essays and books on youth and media, digital media and schools.

Her statement on the founding of IAME:

“Why was IAME founded? Because it’s important.
After so many enthusiastic years of action, creation and lobbying for media education at CLEMI, one of the most interesting observations is how important it is to have built a strong and deeply rooted network in France. It offers the opportunity to work with teachers, students, local journalists and researchers and to participate in a national and even international global project.
It seems that this combination gives strength and sustainability to such an important plan.
The exchange with people in different cultural contexts stimulates, helps us to find new answers and to develop another form of intercreativity.
Networking is even more important in an international context. IAME sees itself as a strong lever for individuals and organisations working in media education because IAME could bring more trust (we are not alone and we have much to share), more efficiency (we represent a range of actions and important results) and the realisation of very new developments (with the contribution of new members and new research projects).
IAME offers help for everyone in media education as long as we are able to listen to the diversity of questions and work together to find appropriate answers.
IAME also appears as a partner of a new type for the international expert groups, as the association is not bound to a national policy and makes proposals from several actors”.

Italy: “MED, Associazione italiana per l’Educazione ai Media e alla Comunicazione” (Italian Association for Media and Communication Education) is one of the founding members of IAME.

“MED” is a non-profit association founded in 1996 in Rome by a group of university professors, teachers and professionally working media people.
The aim of the association is to establish a network between all interested persons involved in the media and education of children and adults (both at universities and in the media industry, both in schools and in extracurricular education) in order to promote research, education and the practice of media education, and to accompany the training and further education of young people, adults, teachers, educators and media professionals in media education. www.medmediaeducation.it

Contact persons at IAME are Gianna Cappello (Viceprsident IAME) and Maria Ranieri:

“IAME can provide the best organizational structure not only to foster the aims of our Association (see above), but also to create an international network of Media Education. In a globalized society networking is the key strategy to better foster the issues and concerns of Media Education across the world. Although country-specific approaches are always important and necessary, networking is fundamental to plan and develop collaboratively initiatives and projects that contribute to the construction of an active and fully participant digital citizenship across the globe.”

Belgium: Centre “Media Animation”

“Média Animation” is a media and multimedia education centre for the French-speaking communities in Belgium. It is also a centre for vocational training and lifelong learning for adults. In addition to numerous activities in media education, Media Animation also offers advice for audiovisual and multimedia productions and also provides media education support to professional actors in the cultural and educational sector. www.media-animation.be.

Paul de Theux represents IAME at the “Média Animation” educational centre, he decided to co-found the IAME for the following reasons:

“I decided in favour of IAME because I believe it is important that people working in media education join forces to share practices, initiate joint projects, address the problems in their sector and represent media education externally to governments and other relevant bodies.
I very much hope that our international association can achieve these goals, which are very important for our area.”

Romania: The organisation “Mediawise Society”

The organisation provides educational resources to support media education in schools and other non-formal learning contexts. Mediawise staff organise media literacy workshops for children and adults, as well as training courses for teachers, trainers and librarians interested in improving the media literacy they need for their work. “Mediawise Society” is currently building a community of practitioners and making media education popular. The aim is to involve parents, teachers and librarians, children and young people in order to contribute to media education in every learning environment.
– Research in the fields of media, communication and education.
– Use for the introduction of media education in schools.
– Advice and support in (political) questions concerning education, media and communication.
www.mediawise.ro

Nicoleta Fotiade is the representative of the “Mediawise Society” at IAME. She underlines:

“Stronger solidarity and cooperation among grassroots practitioners and professionals in media education is a priority both locally and globally. I co-founded IAME with the belief that the association will bring together people and institutions to work together to have better impact and help map media education as an important part of the lifelong learning education in the digital society.
More cooperation and solidarity among practitioners should generate a stronger and more coherent voice in the dialogue with the policy makers and the funding bodies.”

France: The “Centre d’études sur les jeunes et les medias”

The Centre d’études sur les jeunes et les médias is an association of researchers from various disciplines who deal with the topic of media education. Our goals are: Promotion and development of research projects, compilation of experts on various topics and problems, publication of Open Access books to promote media education and improvement of knowledge that can contribute to the development of media education in all age groups.
www.jeunesetmedia.wixsite.com

At IAME, Marlène Loicq represents the “Centre d’étude sur les jeunes et les medias”:

“Media education is a complex and diverse task for educators and researchers. An international association dedicated to media education underlines the global importance, encourages the establishment at state level and creates educational opportunities for implementation at a local level. A meeting of experts in media education leads to a better understanding of all.”

Belgium: The “Institut des Hautes études des Communications Sociales“, IHECS

With 2,200 students, IHECS is the most important school for communication in the Brussels-Wallon Federation. We deliver several Bachelor and Master degrees in specialized fields (journalism, public relations, advertising, event management…). Since 2013 IHECS has introduced a Master’s degree in Media Literacy (120 ECTS). It is the only and most innovative master developed for a new kind of media education. www.ihecs.be. Patrick Verniers initiated this process. www.ihecs.be

Patrick Verniers of the “Institute des Hautes études des Communications Sociales” has decided to co-found the IAME for the following reasons:

“I have been working in the field of media competence for more than 25 years before I introduced the Master’s degree at IHECS. I have had several opportunities to network and exchange with other media trainers across Europe and beyond.
We decided to create this association because we are aware of the need to build a community of educators and specialised organisations to carry out concrete actions, resources, training, projects and research.
As media literacy education is a high-level issue on the agenda of many international institutions and policy makers today, we strongly believe that there is an urgent need to give voice to practitioners. Those who make it must network and put on the agenda what really meets the needs. Above all, we want to develop a community of solidarity with democratic control.”

Italy: The media education center Centro Zaffiria, based in Emilia-Romagna

The Centro Zaffiria designs media education workshops in schools, trains teachers and supports children and young people in their creativity. From old to new technologies, Centro Zaffiria is exploring new ways of living in a technological society with creativity.
www.zaffiria.it

Representative is Alessandra Falconi from Italy. She explains:

“We must be a movement, we need a common place where questions, opportunities and opportunities open up on media education and ICT to improve practice and new approaches across Europe”.

Germany: Gesellschaft für Medienpädagogik und Kommunikationskultur (GMK)

The GMK is a nationwide professional association for people working in the fields of education, culture and media. It stands for the promotion of media education and media competence. The GMK is also active in Switzerland and Austria. The association brings interested and committed people from science and practice together and ensures the exchange of information.
www.gmk-net.de

Ida Pöttinger, speaker of the GMK-group Global media literacy represents the GMK:

“On the one hand, media education is and remains hopefully part of enucational science; on the other hand, media pedagogy is so specialised that it requires extraordinary professionalism. The exchange with teachers, educators and scientists of various countries makes it possible to pick up current subjects and appropriate teaching methods. Based on our many years of experience, this could be helpful in school policy especially when we think of Digital Citizenship.“