Media and Communication (ISSN: 2183-2439)

2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 91-105

Doi: 10.17645/mac.v3i4.335

Article
Media Literacy in Montenegro
Jelena Perović
Department of Communication and Social Research, La Sapienza University of Rome, 00198 Rome, Italy;
E-Mail: jperovic@t-com.me

Submitted: 28 May 2015 | In Revised Form: 17 August 2015 | Accepted: 21 October 2015 |
Published: 29 December 2015

Abstract
Few countries in the world have introduced media education into their curriculums. Montenegro became one of them
in 2009, when “media literacy” was introduced as an optional subject for 16 and 17 year old students of Gymnasium
high schools. This article presents the findings of the first and only research conducted so far on media education in
Montenegro. It is a national case study which examines the potential of media education to change the school culture
and accelerate education system reform towards embracing the new digital education paradigm in the future. The fo-
cus is on the results of research conducted through in-depth interviews with media literacy teachers all over the coun-
try. Despite the many challenges, all teachers identify the potential of media education to strengthen some of the key
competences of the students and to improve their motivation and academic performance. They also identify potential
to change positively school culture by transforming teachers into “cultural mediators” (Morcellini, 2007) and by sup-
porting the formation of a “participative culture” (Jenkins & Kelley, 2013) in schools. This research recommends focus-
ing education reform on spreading the media education pedagogy to the entire curriculum in order to embrace the new
digital education paradigm in the future.

Keywords
children; civic participation; creative media production; critical thinking; media education; media literacy;
media pedagogy; Montenegro; youth

Issue
This article is part of the special issue "Turbulences of the Central and Eastern European Media", edited by Epp Lauk
(University of Jyväskylä, Finland).

© 2015 by the author; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribu-
tion 4.0 International License (CC BY).

1. Introduction paradigm. Technological changes have led to a dra-

matic increase in the number of people who are not
“The skills, practices and dispositions students are only acting as the audience, but also as authors of mes-
encouraged to develop are filtered through a system sages through multiple media platforms at the same
designed for an outdated world. The system, built on time. Such a thing was not possible in the pre-digital
a “just-in-case” model of learning (Collins & Halver- age. Hence, there is a shift from individual to collective
son, 2009), prepares learners for a life of information media engagement, collaboration and networking. (Pe-
consumption but not of active circulation, of critical rez Tornero & Varis, 2010). Consequently, both the key
analysis but not of creative activity (Lankshear & concepts of media literacy and its research methodolo-
Knobel, 2007).” (Jenkins & Kelley, 2013, kindle loc gy need to be updated in order to be relevant for the
523-533 of 4643) digital media and participatory culture (Jenkins, 2010).
Also, school pedagogy and curriculum must follow
The digital revolution introduced changes that are these changes in order to teach the competencies that
leading to a new digital communication paradigm, students will need in the society of the 21st century. In
which will need a corresponding, new digital education other words, within the digital society, schools will

Media and Communication, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 91-105 91

have to embrace a new, digital education paradigm. essential information in the ocean of messages and im-
In particular, in this context, the notion of media ages and constructing a meaningful system of
literacy needs to be updated to include digital literacy. knowledge based on it (Veen & Vrakking, 2006). It also
Similarly, in order not to remain analogue in a digital includes filtering or the ability to select and prioritize
world, schools need to teach both the old and new lit- information (Jones & Hafner, 2012). Further, this com-
eracies. The new literacies are known under different petence includes both networking, the ability to
terms in the international scientific debate—critical lit- search, summarize and disseminate information, and
eracy and digital literacies (Carrington & Robinson, the transmedia navigation or the capacity to follow a
2009; Jones & Hafner, 2012), critical digital literacy stream of stories and information through different
(Dowdall, 2009), new media literacies (Jenkins & Kelley, media platforms (Jenkins, 2010).
2013), media literacy 2.0 (Hoechsmann & Poyntz, 2012), The creative media production competence refers
media literacy (Perez Tornero & Varis, 2010), etc. to the capacity to write for the digital media or to ex-
Digital competence, which one needs to acquire in press oneself and interact effectively through the pro-
order to become digitally literate, is defined as “the duction of new contents and messages. Hence, the
ability to access, analyze, evaluate and communicate students need to learn to use effectively specific lan-
messages in a variety of forms” (Aufderheide, 1993; guages of different digital media and online communi-
Christ & Potter, 1998). ties such as, for example, blogging, video blogging and
The concept of digital competence is widely dis- digital storytelling (Jones & Hafner, 2012). They also
cussed and this article refers to the model of digital need to become capable of using and modifying differ-
competences developed by Cortoni and Lo Presti ent contents already available online. In other words,
(2014). It identifies five types of digital competences: they need to be able to remix or modify some aspects
access, critical thinking, creative media production, of an existing message and mash-up or mix two or
media awareness and civic participation. more messages to make a new one, (Jenkins & Kelley,
In the following paragraphs, each type of these 2013; Jones & Hafner, 2012; Manovich, 2007) while re-
competences is briefly explained. Further, this article specting the copyright and, particularly, the rules relat-
connects five types of digital competences to the in- ed to the Creative Commons Licensing (Lessig, 2004).
ternational scientific debate and hence, proposes a Further, this competence includes the capacity to ap-
map of digital competences presented in Figure 1. propriate media or to use them in a new social context
The access competence refers to the students’ ability (Jones & Hafner, 2012). Also, sometimes, students
to “read and write” digital media. Hence, they need to need to be able to adapt or use the medium in a way
learn not only linear, but also non-linear reading typical that was not originally programmed by the inventor to
for the digital media (Ferri, 2011; Simone, 2012; Veen & make it more appropriate to the personal objectives
Vrakking, 2006) and thus, develop iconographic compe- (Jones & Hafner, 2012). Players of video games often
tences (Veen & Vrakking, 2006). Students also need to do this by adding new content to the game or creating
be able to respond to the text in the digital language or a new game based on the elements of the available
to learn “participatory reading” (Jenkins & Kelley, 2013). one and the mod indicates the modified videogame.
Since today’s students live in an attention economy (Jones & Hafner, 2012). This competence also includes
(Goldhaber, 1997), it is crucial for them to acquire the the ability of mixing two or more media in a way to
multitasking competences (Jenkins, 2010). They also combine their advantages in order to overcome their
need to be aware of the different digital languages or of limits and do new things which none of these media
the subcategories of the netspeak (Crystal, 2001) such as can do alone (Jones & Hafner, 2012). Finally, since we
the language of emails, the language of the chat groups are constantly exposed to a huge number of messages,
and so on. Similarly, Gee (2008) talks about the need to students need to learn how to draw attention and
know social languages and explains how users of differ- make their messages interesting by acquiring compe-
ent affinity spaces—those contributing to a blog, those tences like the ones that Lankshear and Knobel pro-
playing an online game or friends of one social net- pose. These two authors use the word “memeing” to
work—tend to use “social language” that differentiates indicate the ability to disseminate ideas, while they re-
them from the members of other groups. Also, students fer to the ability to share information with “attention
need to know to communicate through emoticon (Jones transacting” and to the ability to link the messages
& Hafner, 2012). Finally, they need to be aware of the with celebrities to ensure greater dissemination with
cultures of use of different media (Jones & Hafner, “transferring”. Further, they talk about the ability to
2012), which depend on the interaction between the make attractive messages and call it “contact display-
medium advantages and disadvantages and the expecta- ing”, as well as about the ability to present different
tions, norms and vales that different users connect to it. points of views, which they indicate as “framing and
The critical thinking competence is related to the encapsulating” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2007). All of these
ability to reflect critically on the media contents. It in- competences fall under the category of the creative
cludes the ability to perform zapping, i.e. identifying media production, as they teach the student how to

Media and Communication, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 91-105 92

make an interesting message, how to disseminate it ef- attention to it by sharing it with the greatest number of
fectively to different audiences and how to draw more people possible.

Figure 1. The map of digital competences.

Media and Communication, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 91-105 93

 The media awareness competence refers to the abil- For this purpose, students need to practice remix,
ity to use the media to communicate while respecting mash-up, appropriating, adapting, modding, digital sto-
cultural differences, privacy and, in general, the norms ry-telling and similar competences in order to fully un-
of the specific sociocultural context within which one in- derstand the meaning of plagiarism and the legal and
teracts. To start with, students need to acquire an ethical framework of the alternative to the copyright
awareness of how their reading of messages on digital known as the Creative Commons Licensing born after
media is conditioned by the way these media function. the digital revolution (Lessig, 2004).
For example, they are limited in the reading of hypertext Finally, the fifth competence of civic participation
by the choice of links proposed by the author (Jones & refers to the effective use of media aimed at taking
Hafner, 2012). Similarly, they need to understand mean- part in the society, community and different profes-
ings of the PageRank algorithm (used by the Google sional, social and cultural networks. First, the definition
search engine to rate the relevance of items appearing of culture needs to be updated to include the online
in a search based on their hypertextual relations with culture and the introduction of students to the norms
other items online), personalized algorithm (which filters and practices of socialization in different online com-
and ranks data based on the user’s personal choices and munities, social networks or affinity spaces (Jones &
past behaviour online) and social algorithm (which al- Hafner, 2012). For example, affinity spaces are online
lows groups of people to filter and rank data one for an- spaces where people interact in order to promote a
other) (Jones & Hafner, 2012). Moreover, students also specific interest or achieve a common objective (Gee,
need to be able to assess the credibility and reliability of 2013). Hence, the school needs to teach collaborative
different sources of information online. This compe- competences (Veen & Vrakking, 2006) like peer pro-
tence is described as “judgement” by Jenkins (2010) and duction or the collaborative production of information
as “communication” by Hoechsmann & Poyntz (2012). in which a large number of volunteers, connected
Further, the school needs to teach about the media bias through a network, work together to promote certain
or the way different media distort our vision of the reali- projects (Jones & Hafner, 2012). Second, students need
ty and the way in which we can interact with it. (Jones & to acquire the competence of collective intelligence or
Hafner, 2012) This fundamental ability for a critical me- the ability to put together their knowledge and con-
dia awareness is already part of media literacy 1.0 and it front their opinions with others in order to achieve a
now needs to be updated with reference to the digital common objective. Similarly, they need the compe-
media. Also, having in mind the new forms of marketing tence of distributed expertise or the ability to interact
for children—interactive marketing (Montgomery, Grier, in a meaningful way with instruments that expand
Chester, & Dorfman, 2011) or interactive advertising mental capacities (Jenkins, 2010).
(Mazzarella, 2007)—which disseminate the same mes- Knowledge is, thus, shared through a large network
sage through different media, all the competences of persons and instruments and anyone can access it
which make students capable of critically reflecting on through the new media. Wikipedia is an example of an
the media and of using them with critical awareness be- online space where students can practice all of these
come essential in the digital age. Further, consumption competences and be part of the participatory culture
and surveillance are examples of competences that need (Jenkins, 2010). Therefore, within schools, students
to be taught in order to make students aware of the pri- should access networked publics in order to acquire,
vacy and the economic model that is behind the social within this new context, the competences which are
networks—the sale of the data about the users to the necessary for public participation in the digital age (Ito et
advertising agencies (Hoechsmann & Poyntz, 2012). al., 2009). For example, they need to develop compe-
Hence, students need to learn to manage properly their tences like lurking or being present in an online space
identities and relations online in order to acquire the like a chatroom or a message-board without participat-
competence of the management of the online impres- ing in the interactions. Since there are abuses online,
sion (Jones & Hafner, 2012). Finally, they need to be- students also need to learn to be responsible members
come aware of the concepts of copyright and plagiarism, of the participatory culture and to recognize and stop
which assume a new meaning in the remix culture. flaming i.e. abusing someone online (Jones & Hafner,
2012). Finally, the online space is often much more mul-
“Plagiarism is using someone else’s work without ticultural than the offline one and so, students need to
attribution….Although the conduct of plagiarism learn to respect different cultures and points of view by
may overlap with copyright infringement, the two acquiring competences like negotiation (Jenkins, 2010)
concepts are distinct. You can plagiarize from and communication (Hoechsmann & Poyntz, 2012).
Shakespeare, but you’ll never have a copyright Now, in order to teach digital competences effec-
problem, since his works are in the public domain. tively, the school needs to make its pedagogy “digital”.
Plagiarism is an ethical problem handled by teach- Many pedagogical principles proposed by scientists
ers and schools; copyright infringement is a legal worldwide for this purpose are not new, as they belong
problem handled by courts.” (Hobbs, 2010, p. 8) to the ongoing transformation of pedagogy in the last

Media and Communication, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 91-105 94

decades. However, these principles are an essential ital divide through a flexible learning approach.
part of the future digital education paradigm. Although In order to develop students’ critical thinking, me-
they are cross-cutting, Table 1 links various cultural and dia awareness and creative media production compe-
educational practices proposed by authors for teaching tences in the age of convergence, intertextuality and
digital competences with the type of digital compe- multimodality, it is necessary to have them study and
tence that they seems most relevant to and this is fur- compare how one text is presented in different media
ther explained in the following paragraphs. so that they can understand how it is disseminated and
Parallel pedagogy stands for teaching old and new what impact it leaves on the contemporary culture.
literacies together at the same time, as students can (Jenkins & Kelley, 2013) This is done through critical
analyse the advantages and disadvantages and similari- framing (Kerin, 2009) and critical media production
ties and differences of different media (Chaka, 2009; (Morrel et al., 2013).
Jenkins & Kelley, 2013; Leander, 2009). In this way, Further, to develop the creative production compe-
students develop both the access and the media tence, classes need to be organized according to the
awareness competences. immersion principle, which has students immerged in a
In order to be more effective and motivating for learning environment with multimedia resources (Veen
students growing up in the digital world, schools need & Vrakking, 2006). This is similar to the experiences that
to acquire more flexibility in learning, contents, group students live in the out-of-school digital environment.
work, etc. (Cortoni, 2009; Gee, 2013; Jenkins & Kelley, For this reason, schools need to allow students more
2013; Veen & Vrakking, 2006) This is particularly im- freedom to self-manage the learning process (Veen &
portant for developing the access competence, as Vrakking, 2006). In this way, teachers are transformed
when one does not know much about the new media, in tutors or cultural mediators instead of being author-
it is essential to motivate him/her to overcome the dig- ities who transmit the knowledge (Morcellini, 2007).

Table 1. The map of digital competences and the related educational and cultural practices.
Type of competence Digital competences Educational and cultural practices
Access non linear reading; iconographic parallel pedagogy (Leander, 2009); flexibility
competences; participatory reading; (Cortoni, 2009; Gee, 2013; Jenkins & Kelley,
multi-tasking; zapping; filtering; 2013; Veen & Vrakking, 2006)
networking; transmedia navigation
Critical thinking judgement; communication; media bias; critical framing (Kerin, 2009); critical media
interactive marketing; interactive production (Morrel, Duenas, Garcia, & Lopez,
advertising; 2013)
Creative media digital storytelling; remix; mash-up; immersion (Veen & Vrakking, 2006);
production appropriating; adapting; modding; transformed practice (Kerin, 2009); reading
memeing; attention transacting; with a mouse in hand (McWilliams & Clinton,
transferring; contact displaying; framing 2013); fan fiction (Jenkins & Kelley, 2013); overt
and encapsulating instruction (Kerin, 2009); self-management
(Veen & Vrakking, 2006); cultural mediation
(Morcellini, 2007); critical media production
(Morrel et al., 2013)
Media awareness PageRank algorithm, personalized and parallel pedagogy (Leander, 2009);
social algorithm; netspeak; social participatory reading (Jenkins & Kelley, 2013);
languages; cultures of use; negotiation; critical framing (Kerin, 2009); critical media
communication; consumption and production (Morrel et al., 2013)
surveillance; management of the
impression online; plagiarism; copyright;
creative commons licensing
Civic participation peer production; collective intelligence; collaborative learning (Davies, 2009); co-
distributed expertise; lurking; flaming created learning (Jenkins & Kelley, 2013);
participatory reading (Jenkins & Kelley, 2013);
participatory assessment (Jenkins & Kelley,
2013) situated learning (Kerin, 2009)

Media and Communication, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 91-105 95

Hence, what needs to happen more often is overt in- and media production are identified as the two key di-
struction or a close collaboration between the teacher mensions of media literacy which prepare the student to
and the student, which is essential especially for devel- become an active citizen in a democratic society.
oping the creative production competence (Kerin, 2009). The program includes the study of all media, includ-
Further, teachers need to apply the transformed prac- ing the digital ones, and it consists of seven modules:
tice or to have students recreate texts in class with dif- access to media; media message as a construct; media
ferent media and, thus, become responsible and crea- language; reception of media messages; system of val-
tive authors (Kerin, 2009). A similar concept is referred ues; the aim of the media message; and media, ethics
to as reading with a mouse in hand by McWilliams and and politics. Therefore, the course supports the stu-
Klinton (2013), who emphasize the need to have chil- dents to develop all five types of digital competences
dren respond to what they read by creating new texts, discussed above.
correcting information available online in relation to it, Media literacy has been taught in every second
etc. Similarly, Jenkins and Kelley (2013) suggest to use Gymnasium high school and to students in one half of
regularly fan fiction as an English language class activi- Montenegrin municipalities so far. Minority of these
ty, because it invites students to respond actively to schools have taught it every year continuously due to
the literature by becoming authors of new texts. They practical issues having often to do with supporting
use the term participatory reading to describe the situ- teachers who lack a specific number of classes to fill in
ation where all readers become also writers in class. the norm by prioritizing the optional subjects which
This is essential for developing the civic participation they can teach.
competence as well. This article presents the findings of the first and on-
Collaborative learning (Davies, 2009) and co- ly research conducted so far on media education in
created learning (Jenkins & Kelley, 2013) are crucial for Montenegro. The focus is on the results of the qualita-
developing collaborative competences (Veen & Vrak- tive part of the research conducted with Montenegrin
king, 2006), which are necessary for civic participation. media literacy teachers. They are typically Montene-
The assessment of students also needs to support this grin language and literature teachers (although they
and become participatory (Jenkins & Kelley, 2013) and can be psychology, sociology, philosophy or other so-
allow for a situated learning (Kerin, 2009). cial science teachers as well) and most of them have
To conclude, students of the 21st century need digi- been trained to teach media literacy.
tal competences and in order to teach them, schools
need to change pedagogy by making it more flexible 2. Methodology
and student-centred, so that the teacher becomes an
interactive guide who stimulates collaboration and crit- In order to understand Montenegrin context of media
ical reflection in class. These changes will lead to a new literacy, the way it is taught and the extent to which it
digital education paradigm, which many scientists see influences the school culture, in-depth interviews were
already delineating in the media education (Gee, 2013; conducted, in 2013, with 11 media literacy teachers in
Hobbs, 2011; Jenkins & Kelley, 2013; Morcellini & Cor- 10 municipalities out of the total of 11 municipalities
toni, 2007; Veen & Vrakking, 2006; etc.) where it has been taught since it was introduced.
This article focuses on a national case study related In particular, the interview was aimed at collecting
to Montenegro, which examines the potential of media information about:
education to change the school culture and accelerate
the education system reform towards embracing the • How teachers define media literacy and the ob-
new digital education paradigm in future. jectives of the subject they teach; if they distin-
Not many countries in the world have introduced guish it from other literacies like the ICT, tradi-
media education in the curriculum and Montenegro tional language literacy, etc. and in which ways;
became one of them in 2009, when “media literacy” • What kind of pedagogy teachers use in order to
was introduced as one of 38 optional subjects in Gym- understand if it can be improved and how;
nasium high schools, which encompass natural scienc- • What kind of technological and professional sup-
es, languages, social sciences and arts. Media literacy is port teachers need;
a one year course aimed at students who are 16 and 17 • What resources (texts, manuals, online resources,
years old. Two classes of media literacy per week are etc.) teachers use to prepare the classes; how
held during two semesters and so, this is not a subject useful they find the resources which were provid-
that can be taken at the final exams of the high school ed to them and what they lack;
since the total number of classes is below the criteria • The teachers’ point of view in relation to the rea-
for this purpose. sons for which students choose to study media
The aim of the subject is for the student to acquire literacy;
the competences which are necessary for critically re- • If there is any collaboration between schools and
ceiving and producing media messages. Critical thinking with local communities and media;

Media and Communication, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 91-105 96

 • If and how media literacy can help the education teachers carefully and used the interview questions to
system reform; stimulate them to describe better their experiences.
• What are the key challenges that media literacy The questions used as a guide are presented in Ta-
faces in Montenegro and how to overcome them. ble 2, which connects them with their objectives—to
research about the objectives, curriculum, teaching
Every interview was conducted as a spontaneous con- methods, support provided to teachers and impact of
versation in which the researcher listened to the the course.

Table 2. Preparation of the interview with media literacy teachers in Montenegro.

Objective of the interview: to understand the objectives, teaching methodology, curriculum, results of the teaching
of media literacy and the support provided to the teachers
Questions guiding the interview: Objective of the question—
explore about
What are the objectives of the media literacy that you teach? COURSE OBJECTIVES
How is media literacy different from the ICT classes in your school? And how is it CURRICULUM
different from the critical analysis of texts during the language and literature
classes?
What type of activities do you do with students during class? Would you please give TEACHING METHODOLOGY
some examples?
Do you do media production with students? If yes, do you share the results of it with
others? With whom, how, when, where…? What kind of reactions did you
encounter?
What is the predominant activity in media education: production, analysis, simple
alphabetization, etc.
How do you assess the students? Do you use any guide for teachers in relation to
this?
In your opinion, are students happy with the way that media literacy has been
taught so far? Should something be changed in future?
What kind of technical support is available in your school? Are there cameras, SUPPORT PROVIDED TO
computers, specific software or other tools for media literacy classes? Are there any TEACHERS
problems in relation to this?
Have you received any training before starting to teach this subject? If yes, would
you please describe what kind of training it was, when, where and by whom it was
organized and if you found it useful and for what in particular?
What kind of training would you find useful now?
How do you use the texts provided for teachers—do you follow them exactly or use
them as a guide for ideas that you later develop with students?
What do you think of school texts on media literacy?
Are there students who choose to study media literacy as an optional subject in COURSE OBJECTIVES
your school every year? If not, why?
Why do students choose media literacy as an optional subject? What is your
impression?
What is the academic achievement of the students who choose to study media RESULTS OF TEACHING
literacy like? Did you register any changes before and after the course? MEDIA LITERACY
In your opinion, can media literacy improve students’ results at the PISA test? If yes,
how?
In your opinion, does media literacy change the school culture? If yes, how?
Have you ever received any feedback from parents about the classes? If yes, what
was it?
What do your colleagues think of media literacy? Are they interested to see the
results of the students’ work and to know more about it? Does the school
management support media literacy and if yes, how?
In your opinion, would it be useful to teach media literacy to younger students as
well and to the students of other high schools—professional ones and not just
Gymnasium ones? How could this be organized in a sustainable way?

Media and Communication, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 91-105 97

 Questions guiding the interview: Objective of the question—
explore about
Is there any kind of network of cooperation of Gymnasium high school media SUPPORT PROVIDED TO
literacy teachers and students? If yes, what is its function, how does it work, is it TEACHERS
useful…? What is your opinion of it? If it does not exist, do you think it would be
useful and easy to organize something like that?
Have you had any cooperation with a TV or radio station, a newspaper or an
institute related to media literacy so far? If yes, would you please describe these
experiences?
Have you participated in any kind of project related to media literacy so far? If yes,
with whom, when, where, with what objectives and results?
In your opinion, what kind of projects would be useful for developing media literacy
in Montenegro in future?
In general, how would you define the major challenges to the development of
media literacy in Montenegro? And what needs to be done in future to overcome
them?
Hence, in your opinion, the priorities/objectives of media literacy in Montenegro in
future should be…

3. Results critical towards the media messages that they receive

or, in other words, to develop the competence of criti-
Results of the qualitative research will be presented cal thinking. Further, the aim is for students to become
according to Figure 2: first, teachers’ opinions about capable of using the media to promote specific values
the objectives of the optional subject, then their opin- and initiatives or to acquire the civic participation
ions about the curriculum, teaching methodology, sup- competence. At the economic level, students need to
port provided to them and the impact of the course. become aware of the links between the media and the
economic power and this is related to their acquisition
3.1. Objectives of the media awareness competence. Finally, at the so-
cio-cultural level, teachers, like many scientists, see
As stated by the teacher T1, the objective of media lit- media literacy as a tool for making students aware of
eracy is to develop competences of “understanding, different stereotypes, for discussing various social is-
analysis and deconstruction of all media messages and sues like violence, privacy, etc. and for influencing the
of production of media messages in a way that re- students’ system of values in order to make it more
spects media ethics and in order to promote certain tolerant and democratic. This last objective described
ideas which can contribute to the general democratiza- by teachers corresponds to the development of the
tion of the society”. competences of media awareness, creative production
This definition is widely shared by all the teachers and civic participation.
interviewed. Hence, media literacy is aimed at develop- According to teachers, students rarely know what they
ing all five types of competences identified by Cortoni are choosing to study when they select media literacy
and Lo Presti (2014). as an optional subject, since many think this is a jour-
Definitions of the objectives of media literacy pro- nalism or an ICT course. In their opinion, students
vided by Montenegrin teachers are in line with the ones make the decision based on the positive impressions of
presented by different scientists. First, teachers recog- older students, the good impression of the teacher and
nize two essential dimensions of media literacy—critical a fair probability to get a good grade—this last criteria
thinking and civic participation, which are also essential was identified as relevant for students when selecting
to different definitions provided within the scientific de- all optional subjects in a recent study assessing the ed-
bate (Celot, 2014, pp. 3-4). Further, teachers define the ucation system reform (Bešić & Reškovac, 2012).
objectives of media literacy at three levels—political,
economic and socio-cultural in accordance with many 3.2. Curriculum
scientists (Hobbs, 2011; Hoechsmann & Poyntz, 2012;
Jones & Hafner, 2012; Jenkins & Kelley, 2013; Gee, 2013; All teachers interviewed differentiate media literacy
Potter, 2013; Perez Tornero & Varis, 2010; etc.). At the from other types of literacy like the traditional lan-
political level, the aim is for the students to become guage literacy or ICT literacy.

Media and Communication, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 91-105 98

Figure 2. Research areas of the qualitative research on media literacy in Montenegro.

As pointed out by the interviewee T2, although critical alive and more related to the reality of everyday life”,
analysis of media messages has points in common with T3 explained.
the analysis of literary works: Further, teachers point out to the need to teach
students to read digital texts within the media literacy
“it is much more difficult to critically analyze a liter- classes, since they present different characteristics
ary work than a media message….We often do this compared to the traditional ones as pointed out by
in parallel when we analyze together a movie made many scientists as well (Ferri, 2011; Perez Tornero &
according to a book as a media message and the Varis, 2010; Simone, 2012; etc.).
book as a literary work. I asked my students to pick Key difference between the media and ICT literacy
a novel and to write an ad for it….To do this, they underlined by Montenegrin teachers is the absence of
have to know what the novel is about and its char- critical analysis in the ICT classes. One of them, T4, ex-
acters and so, this also becomes a critical analysis plains it in this way:
and such activities can be done in parallel with the
analysis of a literary work.” “While students learn things related to the comput-
er, whether it is about hardware or software, they do
Teachers see media messages as more related to the not reflect on it critically….Therefore, there is a dif-
present and everyday life, while literary works are less ference: in the first case, we have memorization of
dynamic and more related to the past. “If the newspa- information, while media literacy asks for a different
pers lose the moment and the information, there is no thing—it asks for a critical analysis of everything that
possibility of repetition and this makes media literacy the media transmit into the public sphere.”

Media and Communication, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 91-105 99

Teachers rely on students’ ICT literacy for media pro- lenges of measuring different levels of competences
duction and this is where they say that peer education achieved by students.
is essential. Media literacy teachers do not have much Finally, teachers see themselves as “cultural media-
cooperation with the ICT teachers though, apart from tors” (Morcellini, 2007) and not as “traditional authori-
the use of the ICT labs. ties” during the media literacy classes. “It is essential
According to the interviewed teachers, media liter- for the teacher to reject the position of the holder of
acy should be introduced into the curriculum of the en- absolute knowledge and to approach the student and
tire education system starting from the preschool level. treat him/her as a collaborator”, teacher T1 points out.
This would support the education of critical and active Therefore, having in mind that the pedagogy de-
citizens in the digital age. However, they do not think it scribed by Montenegrin teachers includes both critical
is realistic for media literacy to become a mandatory analysis and media production, that the class is de-
part of the already overcrowded curriculum of primary scribed as interactive and collaborative and that the
and high schools. They, rather, see it as an optional assessment is said to be participatory as well, one can
subject or an extracurricular activity. Some of them say say that the teaching methodology is in line with the
that it is easier to teach media literacy to older stu- recommendations of many scientists (Gee, 2013;
dents and are not sure if it can work with young chil- Hobbs, 2011; Hoechsmann & Poyntz, 2012; Jenkins &
dren. Some teachers underline the need to introduce Kelley, 2013; Jones & Hafner, 2012; Perez Tornero &
media literacy in professional high schools in particular, Varis, 2010; Veen & Vrakking, 2006; etc.)
because they are generally attended by students with
lower academic achievements and media literacy can 3.4. Support Provided to Teachers
motivate them and change positively their relationship
with the school. The situation in relation to the technical support varies
from one school to another. In general, teachers com-
3.3. Teaching Methodology plain about the limited access to the computer lab and
internet in school, the lack of cameras for making short
Teachers describe critical analysis of media messages movies with students and of a software for editing
as the dominant in-class activity, while media produc- them. So, students make movies and photos on their
tion is done as homework, since there is not enough cell phones and download a software for editing mov-
time for students to do it during 90 min of media liter- ies on their own as well.
acy classes per week. They say that peer education is The fact that some teachers complain about not
crucial for media production activities due to the inter- easily accessing good quality equipment in school sug-
generational and digital divides. According to the gests that providing technology to schools is not
teacher T1: enough, as the way that it is used defines its utility for
the learning process. (Cortoni, 2009; Jenkins, 2010; Liv-
“It is clear that between them and me, as a teacher ingstone, 2009; Morcellini, 2007, etc.) Therefore, the
with 33 years of experience, there is a gap and that school culture needs to change in order to ensure that
I am an immigrant compared to my students who the greatest number of students benefits from the
possess more advanced technological knowledge available resources.
than me….The fact that they can teach these things The issues described by Montenegrin teachers are
means a lot to them, it makes them self-confident, similar to the ones faced by their colleagues in other
it makes the classes interactive…” European countries:

Media messages made by students are regularly pre- “although the situation varies greatly from country
sented, discussed and assessed in class. They are often to country, research asserts an insufficient access to
presented to the entire school during special events digital equipment in schools across Europe. While
and celebrations. Teachers say that students find this the ultimate focus of ML is certainly not on tech-
practice quite motivating. nology, poor access to ICT equipment and to
Teachers assess primarily students’ participation broadband penalizes teachers and students’ confi-
during all classes, but they recognize the challenges of dent media use.” (Celot, 2014, p. 9)
assessing individual contributions to the group work.
They say to organize the class in a way to allow stu- Further, some teachers point out that school libraries
dents’ media messages to be regularly assessed by do not have newspapers or magazines that can be used
their peers in class. These messages are also evaluated in class. Teachers have to ask students to bring them or
by other people when presented at special events in to buy them themselves in order to analyze more re-
school or uploaded online. The lack of uniform criteria cent media messages.
or guidance for specific grades is perceived as a weak- As far as trainings are concerned, almost all teach-
ness by some teachers. Also, they recognize the chal- ers interviewed have finished one of the two media lit-

Media and Communication, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 91-105 100

eracy trainings organized in 2009, right before this op- Situation described by Montenegrin teachers on this
tional subject was introduced. These trainings were point again is not much different from the one related
about the programme and teaching resources and to the EU countries. The need to develop innovative
teachers say to have found them useful. However, they and efficient learning resources for media literacy
regret that no more trainings were organized after- courses in local languages is present in Europe too and
wards and that there are no opportunities for teachers it is recommended to achieve this in cooperation with
to share experiences. Some teachers underline the the local teachers and media experts in order to better
need for a specific training related to the film editing respond to the needs of the students of each country
software, while others are more interested in learning (Celot, 2014, p. 9). Also, these resources need to be
more about effective media pedagogy. evaluated and improved continuously through research
New teachers who started teaching this optional on how media literacy is taught in class and its impact.
subject after 2009 did so with no training and they say (Celot, 2014, p. 13)
that this presented them with additional challenges. As far as cooperation is concerned, teachers point
The situation described by Montenegrin teachers is out that there is no effective network of all schools in
not much different from the general one in other Eu- the country and so, opportunities for them to exchange
ropean countries. In fact, the recent recommendation experiences and collaborate are scarce. Regarding this
to the EU countries to organize media education train- aspect, Montenegro is behind some European coun-
ing courses for primary and high school teachers and to tries which have institutes in charge of developing, re-
offer them to all teachers is valid for Montenegro as searching and organizing collaboration and networking
well. Moreover, it is recommended that the profes- in relation to media literacy such as the Finnish Centre
sional teacher education includes acquiring all media for Media Education. However, not all EU countries
literacy competences and that a media education cur- have achieved this level and so, the general recom-
riculum is made for teachers’ education. (Celot, 2014). mendation to them to establish networks, media edu-
Resources like the UNESCO Media and Information Lit- cation online platforms and observatories is also valid
eracy Curriculum for Teachers (Grizzle & Wilson, 2011) for Montenegro. (Celot, 2014, p. 15)
can be useful, but they need to be adapted to the local Teachers say that there is little cooperation with
context. Finally, more attention needs to be paid to the parents outside the issues related to the academic
assessment of teacher trainings in order to ensure their achievement of students. Moreover, the level of par-
effectiveness, as they often seem to be too focused on ents’ awareness of media literacy is generally low and
the theory. (Celot, 2014; Vos, Terryn et al., 2013) so, there is not much interest for collaboration on this
As far as learning resources are concerned, all particular issue. Teachers describe sporadic episodes
teachers have received the translation of the MediaLit when some parents came to the presentations of stu-
Kit, which contains scenarios for in class activities, as dents’ media products. Teachers say that parents often
well as two CDs with media messages to be used in share what the children say at home about media liter-
class and a copy of articles and chapters written by dif- acy classes, as these are highly positive impressions.
ferent local and international authors on the sociology Teachers describe many challenges related to the
of media and culture, media theory, etc. cooperation with the local media. In some municipali-
Most of the interviewed teachers say that a local ties, they do not exist, while, in others, local media are
media literacy textbook needs to be made, as no such experiencing significant economic difficulties. Teachers
thing is available at the moment. Some of them under- identify the lack of funds for covering the transport
line the need to have access to more creative learning costs for students to visit the national media in the
resources. They also suggest changes the pro- capital as a significant challenge too.
gramme—it needs to focus more on media ethics and However, there are positive experiences, such as
privacy. Some of them see as artificial the division of the ten year cooperation between the Gymnasium in
the programme in seven modules to be studied one af- Tivat and local Radio Tivat. The media literacy teacher
ter another. According to the teacher T5: in this school involves media literacy and other stu-
dents in making a radio show for their peers within the
“A disadvantage of the programme is that the sev- journalism section that started before media literacy
enth module happens in May and so, only then we was introduced as an optional subject. Also, they make
should start talking about the profit….You cannot a school magazine and they visit two national TV sta-
share a media message and analyze it without com- tions in the capital every year. Further, they get free
ing to the conclusion that the aim is related to the tickets for students to attend the performances in the
profit or to the fact that someone wants to sell a local Cultural Centre and they discuss these experienc-
certain product. You cannot start talking about such es during media literacy classes. The teacher empha-
things only in May. Something needs to be changed sizes that media literacy students find these activities
in the programme.” quite useful.
Having in mind the situation described, a recent

Media and Communication, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 91-105 101

recommendation to the EU countries to involve media novative and useful practices of media literacy peda-
professionals in media literacy trainings and to pro- gogy that should be used when teaching other subjects
mote more active engagement of local media in media as well.
literacy, within their corporate social responsibility ac- It is significant that teachers say that they sponta-
tivities, is relevant for Montenegro as well. (Celot, neously started applying the pedagogy they use in me-
2014, p. 11) dia literacy classes when teaching other subjects as
Few teachers say to have taken part in media litera- well. “Yes, I changed the way of teaching the language
cy projects. Those who have describe them as related and literature after my experience with teaching media
to international seminars on media literacy for Eastern literacy….I applied some group work, learning through
European students, who, during this time, work to- research done by students…”, teacher T9 explains.
gether on producing different media messages. They Moreover, teachers say that their relationship with
say that such experiences are quite motivating, but are the students changed as they changed their role from
sporadic, as teachers lack information about opportu- being an authority in the classroom to being a coordi-
nities to apply for funding. nator or a “cultural mediator” (Morcellini, 2007).
Therefore, on this point as well, the recommenda- Teacher T1 explains:
tion made to the EU countries to incorporate media lit-
eracy in lifelong learning and to stimulate projects of “the relationship between the teacher and the stu-
cooperation with the civil society in local communities dent is not authoritative in the sense that my stu-
in order to support citizens with diverse backgrounds dents are afraid of me and listen to me as if I were a
to acquire media literacy competences is relevant for saint. No, we work in cooperation….And so, even
Montenegro as well. (Celot, 2014, p. 12) my literature classes improved…as simply different
teaching methods were combined….I believe that
3.5. Impact media literacy offers a good balance and that it
shifts the school towards a new methodology.”
Interviewed teachers see in media literacy a subject that
can help students to learn how to learn and to improve In order for the school culture to change, all teachers
their academic achievement, since in these classes they need to adopt effective practices of media literacy
learn to quickly identify key information from the less pedagogy in their classes every day. However, at the
important ones. They also agree that competences de- moment, interviewed teachers underline that there is
veloped through the media literacy course support stu- little interest for media literacy among their colleagues
dents to achieve better results at tests like the PISA, and that this is due to the low motivation of teachers in
which is often discussed in public debates and used as general. “Teachers are underestimated, have low sala-
an indicator of the quality of the education system. ries and are placed at the margins of the society”,
They underline that media literacy increases stu- teacher T10 explains.
dents’ motivation and often changes positively their re- Montenegro’s situation on this point is similar to
lationship with the school. According to the teacher T6: the one described for many EU countries (Vos et al.,
2013). Therefore, in order to change positively the
“The ones who are doing well, become even better school culture, media literacy teachers need to become
students as they gain access to new ways to con- the change-agents of the education system. For this to
ceptualize their knowledge and see that there are happen, they need to have more and better quality
different models for applying this knowledge. The trainings. In other words, they need to become a criti-
ones who are not doing great in school become cal mass leading the improvement of the education
more self-confident and relaxed in school, because system, while now, as they describe in the interviews,
they feel more welcome.” they are often isolated and left on their own to chal-
lenge the dominant culture and “the way of doing
Teachers recognize the potential of media literacy to things” in order to put their ideas into practice.
change the school culture positively. “There is no sub-
ject with which it is not correlated and to which it can- 4. Conclusions
not be applied”, teacher T7 explains. However, for this
potential to be realized, its pedagogy needs to be ap- Interviews with Montenegrin media literacy teachers
plied systematically to the subjects, as pointed out by indicate that they have improved their pedagogy as a
the teacher T8: “group work, collaborative learning— result of teaching this course and that through the
these things are mentioned in trainings for other sub- study of this optional subject students have increased
jects as well, but here they must be practiced, as there motivation, changed positively their relationship with
is no other way to teach media literacy”. Hence, both the school and strengthened critical thinking. There-
peer education and “participatory assessment” (Jen- fore, if spread through the entire education system
kins & Kelley, 2013) are identified in interviews as in- from preschool level on, media education can help its

Media and Communication, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 91-105 102

reform and serve as a precursor to the new digital edu- Kids Online (Livingstone, Mascheroni, Olafsson, & Had-
cation paradigm. don, 2014) are relevant to Montenegro and are in line
The possibility of applying media education peda- with the recommendations from this qualitative re-
gogy to social sciences is already recognized in the pro- search. In particular, a national strategy with an action
gramme of this optional subject, but it has still not be- plan should target children, parents, educators, gov-
come a reality, as indicated by the recent assessment ernment, media and ICT industry. It needs to include
of the education reform outcomes (Bešić & Reškovac, voices of youth and to raise awareness of media educa-
2012). Hence, this research recommends adopting me- tion. A good example in regard is the Finnish Media Lit-
dia education as a new paradigm for Montenegrin edu- eracy Policy Guidelines 2013-2016, which includes co-
cation and to center the reform on spreading the me- operation of all sectors of the society—national and
dia education pedagogy to the entire curriculum. local authorities, civil society, private sector, media,
The research has also identified the key challenges teachers, parents and children.
that media education is facing in Montenegro, some of To conclude, Montenegro should embrace a strate-
which are common to the entire education system gic approach towards media education in future and
(Bešić & Reškovac, 2012). In summary, the challenges this will benefit its entire education system. By spread-
are related to the lack of pre-service and in-service ing the media education pedagogy to the entire curric-
teacher trainings, technical support, good quality learn- ulum and embracing the digital education paradigm,
ing resources, efficient indicators for students’ assess- Montenegrin schools will teach more effectively the
ment, research on the impact of the curriculum, teacher competences that students need in the 21st century, as
trainings and learning resources, and the lack of oppor- well as improve the quality of education.
tunities for collaboration with the local community.
Hence, according to Montenegrin teachers, to de- Conflict of Interests
velop media education in Montenegro, the following
steps need to be undertaken in future: The author declares no conflict of interests.

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About the Author

Dr. Jelena Perović
Jelena Perović has a PhD in Communications Science from the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. The
PhD thesis is entitled “Media Literacy in Montenegro”. She has been working for UNICEF Montenegro
as the Communication Officer since 2007. Previously, she worked for Save the Children.

Media and Communication, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 91-105 105