Citizenship and media education : two strongly related concepts in the digital media age

The omnipresent media messages have positive and negative effects on the perceptions citizens have on the world and on the social integration of others. That is why it is necessary to educate to the media consumption, so that citizens can benefit from the positive effects avoiding the negative ones. Being literate implies to be trained to be a critical consumer and a reflexive producer of media messages. Citizens that do not develop those competencies are at risk of becoming info-excluded and progressively socio-excluded. Media Education is therefore essential to Citizenship Education. This paper presents a research conducted with pupils, aged from 11 to 16, that aimed to contribute to the development of competencies at reception and production level of media messages for school newspapers. It also presents the project of Media Literacy/Citizenship Education to be developed in Castelo Branco region, Portugal, from 2007 till 2010.Fundação Portuguesa para a Ciência e Tecnologia e Fundo Social Europe