Cómo los medios pueden colaborar al aprendizaje de la participación de la juventud

Abstract

Our intention in this article is to deal with the educational virtuality of the media in the development of the communicative and participative competences which we clearly need and which are an essential part of all civic education. To begin with, we offer a description of the situation in Spain at present with reference to the absence of participation and its possible causes. We also refer to the support that educational policy has given to civic education in schools over the last 15 years, and which will, hopefully, help to improve the situation. Secondly, we will deal with the relationship between the media and citizen participation, and will analyze the situation of young Spaniards and their relationship with the media in an attempt to discover if, by using them, it is possible to generate positive attitudes towards participation. Before the conclusions a practical case study where media have been used to motivated youth will be analyzed.