Media Literacy and the Emerging Media Citizen in the Nordic Media Welfare State

Since the 1960s, there has been a thriving Nordic tradition of media literacy research, pedagogics, and policy on how to best prepare the emerging media citizen for an increasingly mediatised society. Although the Nordic model of media literacy has previously been characterised by connections to Bildung, critical theory, cultural studies, and progressive pedagogics, much of today's understanding of media literacy is associated with a more instrumental understanding of education, with connections to the commercialisation and digitalisation of compulsory education. By suggesting a historisation of the Nordic media literacy tradition, in connection to the Nordic media welfare state, this article opens a debate about the future directions of Nordic media literacy.

Nordic media literacy research in connection to policy and pedagogics is historically linked to the traditions of Bildung, progressive pedagogics, and sociocultural perspectives on learning. Media literacy in the Nordic region can be considered as part of the construction of the Nordic media welfare state. However, both the Nordic media welfare state and the general welfare system are challenged by globalisation, marketisation, and neoliberal governance – in combination with new demographics, growing economic inequalities, and wider social gaps. The Nordic media welfare system must revise itself in accordance with the new media ecology of platform media, social media, and so forth. There is also a noticeable tendency in the media literacy field to shift away from previous processes of bottom-up engagement with researchers and teachers as the driving force behind media literacy. Today, media literacy seems to be more of a top-down process in which policy makers and authorities propose their “curriculums”, which are defined by loose concepts and filled with frameworks, indicators, modules, and so forth that challenge, at least in part, some of the core ideals of Bildung and (continental) critical thinking.... In terms of policy [there is] a continued need for good governance, which includes sustainable infrastructures for collaborations between authorities, NGOs, and private interests.... In terms of pedagogics, there is a need for a renewal of media literacy methods. (Author, 67)