Revisiting the Contours of Media Education: A Study in the Indian Context

Media education should not be merely about making media professionals. It should rather be about enlightening the citizens. The problem lies in the basic approach to media education which is essentially considered to be a vocational course. This approach in itself results in segmentation of the students from the very beginning. While all students of political Science do not end up becoming politicians and all students of Sociology do not end up becoming sociologists, Media Education, unfortunately, is essentially projected as a subject whose primary focus is upon producing media professionals. However, just as the primary focus of teaching political Science and Sociology is creating political and social sensibility, the primary focus of teaching media education should be creating media sensibility/ awareness among the youth of the nation as the media has emerged as a force to reckon with in today's scenario. Thus, they need to be aware of the powers and functions of the media so that they may judge the stance taken by the media in regional, national and even the international affairs. This paper shall strive to throw some light upon such issues through both theoretical and practical approaches such as content analysis and surveys.