Media and Information Literacyand Intercultural Dialogue - Nordicom

Thomas RöhlingerOur Call for Change in Finance of Children’s Mediaand Media EducationFor sustainable change, we have to raise the question of solid financing formedia-based children’s education for peace, intercultural dialogue, sustainabilityand democracy. This call has been being made for many years; e.g. theWorld Summit on Media for Children and Youth in Johannesburg in 2007and in Karlstad in 2010, and the Signis World Summit on Children’s Media fora Culture of Peace in Thailand in 2009. In Germany, there was a nationwidecall for change called “No education without media 12 ” – but again, with littleresponse in policy. As this is a typical example of a worldwide phenomenon, wecan no longer seriously discuss quality children’s media abstracting from thispolitical and economical global context.And here, we come to what Thorsten Schilling from the German Federal Agencyfor Civic Education has called the “political economy of children’s media 13 ”.I want to present two figures, which I have also pointed out in my work as a“Global Expert” within the UN Alliance of Civilizations 14 :According to the Global Peace Index of the Institute for Economics andPeace, $9 trillion could be saved if the armed conflicts worldwide were solved.Another $21 to $31 trillion is hidden in offshore bank accounts, according tothe research of James S. Henry, a former McKinsey & Co. chief economist andan economist for the Tax Justice Network.So, if we really believe in the value and relevance of our media-based work forand with children and youth, for peace and intercultural dialogue, some veryserious shifts in political agenda and priority setting are inevitable – worldwide.The Future Strategy of RadijojoRadijojo’s strategy for its second decade consists of three major aspects:Diversification: new educative media forms and channelsA decade ago, Radijojo started as a children’s RADIO project – in 2012, wechanged our name to Radijojo World Children’s MEDIA Network, to opennew options for media-based education and collaborations worldwide withoutlosing our emphasis on audio, as we consider the human voice in all its forms tobe an important anthropological constant – and one of the best and easiest waysto communicate with children. But now that we are open to all media forms(including all traditional media like print and art), it is even easier for kids andschools to join us, e.g. through wonderful child-made illustrations from Australia,Ruanda, Serbia and Tanzania for our Global Green Kids project.248