About the Division

The Division for Media Education assembles educational researchers who focus on questions of media education in research and teaching. Currently, the division consists over 400 scholars, including colleagues from Austria and Switzerland.

The division 

• Holds a spring and autumn conference every year. The first was in 2003.
• Organizes the annual Magdeburger Theory Forum in collaboration with the Otto-von-Guericke-University of Magdeburg. This has been providing a platform for intensive discussion every year since 2009.
• Supports emerging researchers, for example as part of a doctoral forum, a special communication platform and - since 2011 - by awarding a doctoral prize.
• Publishes an annual special issue of the MedienPaed journal. Since 2000 MedienPaed has been published in cooperation with the Zurich University of Teacher Education, Department of Media Education. The MedienPaed journal is a Diamond Open Access Journal.
• Informs its members regularly via a newsletter (since 2012 in the form of circular emails). Interested colleagues can subscribe on https://www.medienpaed.net/newsletter/abonnement/.

The members of the Division for Media Education deal primarily with questions of media education, media socialization as well as learning and teaching with media (‚media didactics‘) in teaching and research. Their empirical, methodological and theoretical approaches not only address questions from all areas of educational science, communication and media science, but also issue at the intersection between these fields. Many media educators work in research, focusing on designing media-based learning environments for self-directed learning in informal and formal settings, public and private institutions, with children, young people and adults. Ensuring suitable institutional framework conditions for these learning environments is often a priority.

Media education degrees and additional training courses have been set up at individual universities. Find a list for study programs in and beyond Germany here. This list has been compiled by the GMK and the Media Education Division. However, there is still an urgent need for action. The Divison for Media Education strongly recommends that every university involved in educating pedagogical professionals set up at least one, and depending on the number of students and courses, two or more professorships for media education with corresponding research and teaching staff. The division strongly advocates basic media education for all educators - whether they work in early childhood settings, schools or non-school related fields of work.
In media education research, we consider it imperative to establish independent media educational research priorities with the major funding authorities, to enable long-term basic research. In view of the rapid changes in media development, there is a need to consistently up-to-date research on media pedagogical practice. This will ensure that media pedagogical practice can be systematically observed, evaluated and further developed.

History 

On the initiative of Stefan Aufenanger and Dieter Baacke, a temporary working group was first established at the 1994 Congress of the German Educational Research Association (GERA) in Dortmund, which was recognized by the GERA board. This group was active until 1999, when it became the Subdivision for Media Education. After 1999 the Subdivision for Media Education joined with the Subdivision for Environmental Education within a Division for Media Education and Environmental Education. In 2010 the Subdivision for Environmental Education moved to another division of GERA, and the Subdivision for Media Education became an independent division that it is today.

Membership in the division is linked to membership in the German Educational Researcher Association (GERA). Details about (associate and regular) membership in GERA can be accessed in detail on the GERA website.
The membership fee is currently EUR 100.00 for regular members and EUR 35.00 for associate members. The membership entitles the holder to vote in board elections, to subscribe to the association’s journal Educational Science and the congress report (GERA Congress, every two years). Further information on membership.

The Division for Media Education initiated a broad debate about developingan education and professional policy initiative. A media education manifesto was published in 2009. We are pleased that the manifesto and the initiative "No education without media!" came about as a joint action by various organizations and people. With this, key actors in German media education have created a shared educational and policy platform to articulate public issues and recommendations of media pedagogy.
In addition to the Division for Media Education, the following organizations were among the first signatories to the Media Pedagogy Manifesto: the Division for Media Education in the German Communication Association (DGPuK), the Society for Media Education and Communication Culture (GMK), the Board of Directors of the JFF - Youth, Film, Television eV; the Leibniz Institute for Media Research - Hans Bredow.
On March 24th and 25th in 2011 the initiative "No education without media!" held a nationwide congress at the TU Berlin , in which over 400 specialists from educational practice and research took part. 13 working groups discussed key issues and developed specific suggestions and recommendations. The initiative decided to continue work in autumn 2011. In 2019, an Addendum to the Media Pedagogy Manifesto was published. The initiative's website provides information on ongoing activities.

Spokespersons of the steering group and also (former) representatives of the division:
Prof. Dr. Horst Niesyto (2009-2014)
Prof. Dr. Sven Kommer (since 2014)