EU puts media literacy on its agenda

The European Commission plans to promote ‘media literacy,’ defining this as the ability to critically analyze what they find in the media and to make more informed choices. Viviane Reding said: ‘The ability to read and write - or traditional literacy - is no longer sufficient in this day and age. People need a greater awareness of how to express themselves effectively, and how to interpret what others are saying, especially on blogs, via search engines or in advertising.’ The commission's plans focus on three areas: media literacy for commercial communication, covering issues related to advertising; media literacy for audiovisual works, which is in part about raising awareness of European film and enhancing creativity skills; media literacy for online contents.

The media are changing, and so is citizens' use of such media. New information and communication technologies make it much easier for anybody to retrieve and disseminate information, communicate, publish or even broadcast. The ability of people to critically analyse what they find in the media and to make more informed choices – called 'media literacy' – therefore becomes even more essential for active citizenship and democracy. Following an EU-wide survey last year, the European Commission has announced today its plans to encourage the development of media literacy and the exchange of good practice across Europe.
"In a digital era, media literacy is crucial for achieving full and active citizenship," said Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding. "The ability to read and write – or traditional literacy – is no longer sufficient in this day and age. People need a greater awareness of how to express themselves effectively, and how to interpret what others are saying, especially on blogs, via search engines or in advertising. Everyone (old and young) needs to get to grips with the new digital world in which we live. For this, continuous information and education is more important than regulation."

Media literacy relates to all types of media, including television, cinema, video, websites, radio, video games and virtual communities. It can be summed up as the ability to access, understand, evaluate and create media content. Ordinary people are increasingly accessing and posting on-line content, which is visible across the world. Yet today, not everybody always fully understands the context within which such material is written, seen or read, or the possible consequences of publishing something themselves. Everybody therefore needs to develop new skills, as active communicators and creators of content. In a global and multi-cultural environment, new media-related challenges arise and create concerns regarding safety, inclusion and access for all.

The Commission Communication is the first policy document on media literacy at the EU level. It focuses on the following three areas:
- media literacy for commercial communication, covering issues related to advertising,
- media literacy for audiovisual works, which is in part about raising awareness of European film and enhancing creativity skills,
- media literacy for online which, for example, will give citizens a better knowledge of how Google and other Internet search engines work.

The Communication adds a further building block to European audiovisual policy. It complements the new Audiovisual Media Services Without Frontiers Directive (see IP/07/1809), and the MEDIA 2007 support-programme for the development and distribution of European film. It also announces a study to be launched in 2008 on how to assess media literacy levels and will feed into the report on the levels of media literacy provided by the new Audiovisual Media Services Without Frontiers Directive. "I believe that especially with regard to advertising, promoting media literacy is a much more appropriate approach than advocating advertising bans, which I oppose", said EU Commissioner Reding.

The Commission actively promotes the development and exchange of good practice on media literacy in the digital environment through existing programmes and initiatives, and will adopt if necessary a set of recommendations in the future. Finally, the Commission calls on Member States to encourage their regulatory authorities to become more involved and to cooperate further in improving people's level of media literacy. It also aims to develop and implement codes of conduct and co-regulation frameworks with all interested parties at national level.

Background information
The Commission Communication on media literacy is an integral part of its general policy to enhance the trust in, and take-up of, content online. It follows the launch of a survey held last year (see IP/06/1326) which covered all parties involved; that is to say: media organisations and industry, education institutions, content-providers and producers, research and cultural institutions, regulators, citizens and consumers' associations. This Communication is the result of this broad consultation.

The Communication can be found at:
http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/media_literacy/index_en.htm

The results of the public media literacy consultation are available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/media_literacy/consultation/index_en.htm

My first comment: Just looking at the structure of the the media literacy communication, it gives the impression that the document has been composed of three separate political feeds: advertising, audio visual area and the online area (rather digital media or interactive media). I would have expected an integrated approach especially between the audio visual media and the online media.

Blog Posting Number: 957

Tags: media literacy, audio visual industry,

Two speed broadband in Europe

Although some European countries lead the world in broadband access, there is a growing gap between the best and worst performers, according to a report presented by the European Commission today. Lack of competition and regulatory weaknesses are cited as the main obstacles to broadband growth. The Commission will address these shortcomings in its proposals to reform the EU's Telecom Rules on 13 November.

On 1 July 2007 there were over 90 million fixed broadband lines in the 27 EU Member States of which some 20 million lines, excluding Bulgaria and Romania, have been added since July 2006, an increase of 28.7%. Proportionally growth was highest in Denmark (7.7 lines per 100 inhabitants), Luxembourg (7.1 per 100) and Ireland (6.7 per 100).

Broadband growth has continued in the last year throughout the EU, as businesses and citizens continue to benefit from the digital revolution (see IP/07/582). Average penetration (number of subscribers per population) has grown from 14.9% to 18.2%, despite the relatively modest penetration rates in some Member States. In the best performing countries – Denmark (37.2%) and The Netherlands (33.1%) – roughly one third or more of the population has broadband, with a substantial proportion using an infrastructure other than the incumbents.

According to data published by the Commission, the gap between the strongest (Denmark 37.2%) and weakest broadband performers (Bulgaria 5.7%) is widening slightly, with now more than a 30 percentage point difference. The main reasons for this are the lack of significant alternative infrastructures in some Member States or the need for a more consistent and speedy application of existing remedies (see IP/07/435). More than the already proposed enforcement needs to be done to stimulate investment so there is more consistent growth across the EU. Effective competition on the broadband markets in order to achieve "broadband for all" is therefore a key priority of the reform of the EU Telecom Rules that the Commission will propose next month.

KPN feels competition from Alice
Talking about broadband and the Netherlands. When the ADSL 20Mb service Alice was introduced, KPN employees sang the song Who the f*ck is Alice. But after two months KPN feels the bite and has come up with a competitor: Telfort. And I hear you say: But Telfort is a KPN brand for mobile telephony and not for fixed lines. When KPN bought Telfort it paid almost one billion euro; now this money will have to be earned back. So from this month onwards Telfort is no longer an exclusive mobile brand. It offers now also fixed lines and voip.

Besides its mobile offer, Telfort now offers two products: internet with a speed of maximally 20MBps for 19,95 euro a month and a voip subscription for 9,95 euro a month with free phoning to all fixed line numbers in the Netherlands. Telfort guarantees no price increases after one year or extra costs for the use of the fixed line. There is one catch: for Telfort internet and phoning a fair use policy is in force.

In the press release Telfort claims to bring clarity in the intransparent ADSL forest. In a recent market research survey the Dutch express that the internet market is intransparent, complex and full of misleading internet offers. This is a funny statement as Telfort mother KPN has a market share of 53 percent built up with a series of brands (XS4ALL, Speedlinq, 12Move, Tiscali and Planet, formerly Planet Internet) and its most expensive 20Mbps subscription plus voip subscripting is 92.50 euro. Bewilderment all over KPN brand portfolio.

Blog Posting Number: 896

Tags: broadband

EU Tube – Europe on YouTube

The European Commission has launched a dedicated channel on YouTube to make its audiovisual material more widely available to the public. 'EU Tube' – the Commission's new channel on YouTube was launched on 29 June. The non-exclusive arrangement between the European Commission and YouTube aims to present new and innovative ways of informing people on the activities of the European Union through video clips that illustrate the main issues facing citizens from across the 27 member states.

"This initiative reflects the Commission's commitment to better explain its policies and actions on issues which concern citizens across the EU – such as climate change, energy or immigration" said Margot Wallström, Vice-President for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy.

Currently, users can watch approximately 50 video clips on a wide-range of topics - from the EU's first post-war historical steps to today's need to safeguard the environment and combat climate change.

To begin with, much of the content is in English, but French and German language clips are also being added. Other languages will be added wherever possible.

"It is very important for the Commission to use all the means at its disposal when it comes to communicating with European citizens. We can not ignore the developments which have taken place on the internet in the past few years, in particular the popularity of video sharing sites such as YouTube", said Margot Wallström

Discover what's on EU Tube.

Blog Posting Number: 800

Tgas: video, european union

EU commits to a EU AV sector without frontiers

The film festival of Cannes is over. The Golden Palm went to film maker Cristian Mungiu coming from the European country of Romenia for his movie 4 luni, 3 saptamini si 2 zile (4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days). It must have done the EU Ministers for Culture proud.

They gathered in the past days on Europe Day at the Cannes International Film Festival to pledge their support for Europe's audiovisual industry at a time when it faces unprecedented change, driven largely by the impact of digital technologies and the resulting change in audience behaviour.

"Technological change and convergence is presenting the audiovisual industry with some tough challenges; but real opportunities lie in store for those that can best adapt," said Viviane Reding, EU Media Commissioner. "I feel that the political commitment expressed today will pave the way for the European audiovisual industry to become a powerhouse for Europe."

The EU Ministers' commitment to the audiovisual sector was underlined by their adoption of the Audiovisual Media Services without frontiers directive (see IP/07/706). This will modernise the rules for traditional and emerging audiovisual media services in response to technological change and gives more flexibility to European TV- and filmmakers to produce digital content thanks to more relaxed advertising rules.

Ministers also discussed how audiovisual policy needs to keep up with developments in film making and distribution, and the impact of technology.

Policy initiatives taken by the Commission to support and invigorate Europe's audiovisual sector include:
- The recently-launched MEDIA 2007 programme (see IP/07/169) establishes the move to digital technologies as a horizontal priority and April's call for proposals for Video On Demand and Digital Cinema Distribution projects is an important first step in financially supporting EU players.
- The European Film Online Charter endorsed by major industry players on Europe Day in 2006 (see IP/06/672) to stimulate a vibrant European online film industry.
- Content Online is estimated to grow by over 400% during the next five years (see IP/07/95). To capitalise on this tremendous opportunity for Europe, in July this year, the Commission will publish its Content Online communication.
- Recognising the importance of mobile TV to Europe - by 2009 the worldwide market will worth €11.4 billion - the Commission urged industry and Member States to be more proactive in developing a common Europe strategy (see IP/07/340). In July the Commission's will issue a communication proposing what steps it feels are needed to make will mobile TV a success in Europe.

Evidence that EU support to Europe's film industry is having positive results can be found at major international festivals such as Cannes, Berlin and at the Oscars (see IP/07/677).

While efforts are being made to boost the sector, the Commission also recognises the need for transparency, freedom of expression and diversity in Europe's media landscape. To better understand this and how best to preserve it, the Commission has outlined a three-step approach on safeguarding media pluralism (see IP/07/52).

For more on Europe's audiovisual and media policies: http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/
and the latest on the 'Audiovisual Media Services Without Frontiers' Directive MEMO/07/206.

Blog Post Number: 768

Tags: audiovisual industry, European Commission

iLiad rented out by library

The public library in my home town Almere offers her members a new service: iLiad. The handheld e-reader, which can hold the texts of 50 books, can be rented against a surity. The library advertises the eReader as a light weight screen of 400 grams, which prevents carrying heavy book loads. It is promoted as more than just a gadget as the gadget has a leafing mechanism and the screen can be manipulated with a stylus. Parts of the text can be underscored and enlarged. It is also possible to make annotations. The library itself does not have e-books, but they can be downloaded from internet sites such as the Dutch ebook.nl. In the future newspapers and magazines can be downloaded on the eReader.

The library has one copy for rent in order to test the market. However, if there is more interest than the library will order more copies. The library has a special instruction. People who want to rent the iLiad will pay 50 euro for surety.
It was funny to see that the library tries to promote the iLiad in the framework of books and specifically of text books. In the local newspaper article no mention is made of the graphic capabilities or the audio capabilities. (Come to think of it that it is a perfect electronic storytelling machine for the visually impaired). On the other hand, it is a library with books as main resource.

It is not a surprise that this library will test the iLiad. The library is rather progressive. In the past it was the first library to adopt the Moving Image Cyclopaedia of the Digital Film Center Europe in Nijmegen. Besides the library has fast links with the school libraries and documentation centres in Almere, offering pupils a wide range of resources such as books, but also digital resources such as movies, music and newspapers as well as magazines.

The announcement did remind me about my broken copy of the iLiad. I put it away in my display cupboard where I keep my copy of the first series of Sony’s e-Book and the Rocket Book from the second e-book wave. In principle I had the iLiad retired, pre-supposing that it could not be mended. But I found out that iRex Technologies has now a technical support service. So I gave them a phone call and told them about my broken iLiad. The technical desk operator told me that it could be fixed, if it was only the screen. A new screen would cost 250 euro. But of course, nothing of the print circuit should be damaged. I had to fill out a form and send it to the technical service department and I would hear about this. So this week I will start up the procedure and see whether we can give my iLiad a second lease of life.

Blog Posting Number: 725

Tags: iliad, eReader, electronic book, digital paper