Signis

World Summit Karstad 2010: Towards a New Global Vision for Children, Youth and Media

Karlstad, July 6, 2010 (SIGNIS) - From June 14-18, 2010, more than 1,000 delegates from seventy countries gathered at Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden, to "celebrate" media literacy education. Among them, a SIGNIS Delegation composed of Marierose Atos-Yuzon (Philippines), Agatha Ferei (Fiji), Isabel Gatti (Argentina), Delia Hernandez (Philippines), Rose Pacatte (USA), Lawrence John Sinniah (Malaysia) and Ricardo Yáñez (Argentina). Here are some of their thoughts.

"Celebrate" is the best way to describe the 180 sessions and enthusiastic networking that happened over the course of five days," according to Sr. Rose Pacatte FSP, Director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in California. "My faith in the human community was also renewed because of the co-learning that occurred at this conference, and the respect for one another that was so evident."

"My personal view of the World Summit is that it was a very important meeting toward the institutionalization of media and/or cultural literacy within and across curricula of the school and life, formal and informal learning," she adds. "It noted that teachers and parents need this learning as well. That advocacy for authentic policy regarding media for children and youth is important. That the rights of the child are still not being observed and media literacy education can contribute toward the protection and empowerment of children."

Read Rose’s complete reflections here.

For Marose Yuzon, media educator in the Philippines, "Karlstad was THE destination for a meeting of minds and hearts of people coming together for one purpose - Media, the children and the youth. It is always heartening to find amongst people from different countries, backgrounds and beliefs a common ground to sit and discuss, share and collaborate."

"Being part of the SIGNIS delegation to the World Summit is something I am truly proud of. I am proud to be part of a team of professionals happy and working for media education. This turned out to be a very good learning experience for me."

The main thing she will remember from Karlstad is "the importance of media education in early childhood education. At a very young age children are bombarded by media, they are very vulnerable and are easily caught in the web of consumerism. It is important that they be taught critical thinking skills so that at a young age they are able to be critical users of media. There has to be more work done in this field especially in Asia where there is so little movement about media education in early childhood."

Read Marose’s complete reflections here.

Fr. Sebastian Koladiyil of the Don Bosco Youth and Educational Services in Nairobi, Kenya, was also in Karlstad. For him, "Media plays a great role in the lives of children and youth. But what are children doing with the media? And what are the media doing with the children? At the World Summit, the experts accepted the challenges that are ahead of the educators, researchers, journalists, producers and distributors. A vision of a better world for children and youth was discussed. During the conference, the participants had an opportunity to take part in and to contribute to new international recommendations to translate words into deeds - towards a new global vision for children, youth and media."

"Now it is up to the participants at the Summit and the rest of the adult world to put the recommendations into practice and to create an environment in which the children and youth can grow up healthy and responsible users of the media," he concluded.

Read Fr. Sebastian’s complete reflections here.

The next World Summit on Media for Children and Youth will held in Bali in May 2013.

http://www.wskarlstad2010.se

SIGNIS