Rising East Online

Taking Media Literacy to China

Wendy Earle

I represented the British Film Institute (BFI) at a recent conference on media literacy at the Communications University of China in Beijing. Media literacy is a confusing term that means different things to different people. While taking part in the export of Western media literacy to China, I was aware of the slippery nature of the product which I was there to promote.

The UK government regulator, Ofcom, spent a year consulting various stakeholders in the attempt to establish a consensual view of media literacy. The resulting definition is, perhaps inevitably, a wide one: media literacy is the ability to access, understand and create communications in a variety of contexts. This embraces at least two different perspectives. Some see media literacy as an essentially protective mechanism, whereby parents, for example, know how to prevent their children from viewing TV programmes, websites and computers games that might damage them. Others argue that media literacy should have a more cultural, critical and creative emphasis and can play an empowering role in society. They believe that media literacy means people recognising the contributions made by visual and electronic media (in particular), and learning not only to critically appreciate media products but also to express themselves in a variety of different media forms.

I found myself in a slightly uncomfortable situation at the conference not least because media literacy seemed a strange topic of discussion in a country like China, In the hustle and bustle of a burgeoning economy, cranes crowd the skylines, sleek glass buildings tower over dilapidated communistic, concrete apartment blocks, and shops are packed with consumer goodies, whether in pile ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap markets or in gleaming malls. The idea that people need to be taught how to read this cornucopia when they themselves made it happen, seemed a little odd.

The Chinese take an active interest in debates generated in the West, perhaps reflecting the country’s position as a fast growing economy full of youthful vigour, in a world of moaning old codgers, i.e. Western powers wondering where their energy has gone. While well aware of their power to achieve – the 2008 Olympics were advertised on hats and T-shirts for sale everywhere – the Chinese are also aware of the issues that preoccupy the rest of the world. They debate whether they should not be doing more about pollution or conserving their historic monuments. So an energetic lecturer at the Communications University was able to persuade her bosses that media literacy and media education are ‘big’ in the UK, Canada and the US, and that it was worth having an international conference about it in the nation’s capital.

I was representing the BFI’s perspective, which emphasises the empowering potential of media literacy, sharing a platform with several other ‘media educators’, including a Canadian who has long campaigned against the ideological grip that he believes the media have on people in the West. I profoundly disagreed with his emphasis: beware the twin evils of commercial and state brainwashing; but was also uneasy about my own message of empowerment. What relevance could it have in China? Was I being patronising in presenting our views on literacy, empowerment and creativity in a place where I had no experience of the national media?

Censorship is remains standard practice in China. There are over one billion TV viewers in China, watching 2100 plus channels provided by state-run China Central Television (CCTV – I know, there is a something unwittingly appropriate about the initials) and by provincial stations, and over 100 million internet users. Both TV and the internet are heavily controlled by the government. Only limited access to foreign broadcasts is allowed and the state moves quickly to close down or block websites that are seen to threaten the national interest.

No one openly challenged the government’s monopoly and regulation of the media, but my impression was that older delegates, like my Canadian friend, were concerned about the potential of the Western media, which people have access to through the World Wide Web, to corrupt their youth. Some of them saw the Western media as a threat to Chinese traditions – both ancient and socialist. Interviewed for CCTV’s English-speaking service, Channel 9, I was asked about the effects of violent video games on the youth of the West. This reflected a broader fear that was expressed more than once about the potentially destabilising effect of the pace of change in China.

In contrast, the younger delegates, mostly students studying to enter careers in the media, seemed more enthusiastic about the future. My message about the empowering potential of media literacy seemed to mystify them. They were already grabbing the opportunities presented by the media with both hands. Most of them had two or three of the most up-to-date mobile phones each, using them to film, run their own little enterprises, and stay in touch with their friends.

The Communications University is rapidly expanding. It trains young people for every level of the media industries, from sound technicians and camera operators to journalists, producers and presenters. We were welcomed on the first evening with students pointing video cameras at us, and the next day the conference opened with a video made by the students promoting the benefits of international understanding and dialogue – and media literacy – with their guests slickly spliced into the final sequence.

CCTV plans to establish a worldwide service over the next few years, with (to begin) channels in 15 non-Chinese languages from Swahili and Urdu to English and Spanish. Students at the university are training to be TV anchors in these languages. They spend a year abroad immersing themselves in the relevant culture and language. At the end of the conference several of them put on a show, using their host countries’ cultures as the inspiration for their performance – songs from Italy and Bulgaria, dances from India and Japan, presented with a lack of self-consciousness which seemed quaint.

Perhaps we will need media literacy in the future to protect us against the power of Chinese media. Alternatively we might benefit from an injection of their energy and excitement about the future.

Wendy Earle works in the publishing department of the British Film Institute

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