Media Literacy as a responsibility of families and teachers

Media literacy is a key factor in the development of a critical and responsible citizenship in digital society and to receive adequate training is a right of citizens. Living surrounded by audiovisual messages, information from different sources and technological resources from childhood offer powerful tools to understand the society in which we live, and to become critical and active citizens.Family and school are the main references in the education of children and youth, so in this article we explore some reasons why they have to share the responsibility of media educating young people. We also discuss some initiatives undertaken in various countries, which constitute a reference to consider in order to respond to this educational challenge. The education of children and youth is not only the responsibility of the school, but family involvement is essential to ensure the right to a quality education. Traditionally we have learned everything you need at school, in which we acquired basic literacy skills to forge a solid professional future, attitudes and ethical commitments needed to live and be active members of society. Families relied on teachers’ professionalism, from whom is expected the best of experience and dedication so that children would grow up as citizens capable of transforming society. Therefore, the responsibility for education has been in teachers’ hands, who have sought, with varying success, to communicate with parents and get the family involved in order to assume responsibility for this educational work.