Department for Culture Media and Sport
media literacy
We want to give everyone the confidence and knowledge to make the most of today’s varied media.
Media literacy is the ability to use a range of media and be able to understand the information received. At a higher level, it includes the ability to question, analyse and evaluate that information.
The Office of Communications (Ofcom) is responsible for promoting media literacy. They produce regular reports examining the views of a wide cross section of the population.
We work closely with Ofcom on this issue. Under the current spending review (2008-11) we contribute £559,000 per year to their media literacy work.
The BBC Framework Agreement places a specific duty on the BBC Trust to help promote media literacy.
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Digital participation
We are also working with Ofcom, industry and other Government departments on digital participation and the National Plan for the Promotion of Digital Participation, which is due to be published later in 2010.
As proposed in the Digital Britain report, the aim of the national plan is to increase the reach, breadth and depth of use of the internet.
The three main strands of digital participation are:
- digital inclusion - encouraging and supporting people to get online
- digital life skills - gaining basic digital skills to increase employability and life chances
- digital media literacy - using, understanding and creating digital media and communications
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