Media Education for Children in Cyprus: Educating pupils to critically read advertisements

Abstract

This article considers the Media Literacy Experiential Workshop project provided by Cyprus Radio Television Authority (CRTA). CRTA is the independent regulatory authority of the audiovisual media service providers in Cyprus and media literacy is recognized as one of its statutory duties. Media Literacy Experiential Workshop project is the most popular and notable media literacy initiative undertaken by CRTA. Believing that media literacy skills are taught the examined project has been in place since 2014-2015 school-year and aims to provide pupils at primary education with basic and fundamental media literacy skills and competences. During the workshops pupils with the help of the instructor critically examine and deconstruct different advertisements in order to realise how and why some content, values, and points of view are amplified while others are excluded from the media. By the end of the workshop pupils are empowered to critically think of each and every advertisement as a construction and to apply basic analytical parametres to mediated texts in general.