Democratization of Communication and Media Literacy: Entities, regulations and experiences

Abstract

The development of the internet and the communication technologies brings about the emergence of new challenges for the theme of democratization of communication, in addition to presenting new demands related to the media content made available to society. Thus, media literacy strategies become representative models for encouraging citizenship practiced by entities that regulate communication abroad, such as the Entidade Reguladora para a Comunicação Social - ERC, in Portugal, and The Office of Communication - OFCOM, in UK. The research supports the thesis that different social communication regulatory entities promote media literacy initiatives and combine regulation with citizenship, which can collaborate in the development of the democratization of communication. Specifically, in the Brazilian case, it is hypothesized that the experiences can serve as empirical paradigms, respecting sociocultural particularities, to foster media literacy initiatives with a view to democratizing communication and developing citizenship. In this sense, this research intends to contribute to a proposal of media literacy with a view to democratizing communication and developing citizenship, based on current regulations and experiences in ERC and OFCOM with possible articulations with public communication practices, and presents the following specific objectives: to analyze the actions developed by the aforementioned regulatory entities with regard to media literacy strategies in favor of citizenship; investigate how the public communication of entities such as ERC and OFCOM exposes the articulation between media literacy and the democratization of communication; discuss the influence of the introduction and development of media literacy in contemporary society; suggest proposals for Brazil regarding the development of media literacy activities in favor of the democratization of communication. The objectives will be achieved through qualitative and quantitative research, with exploratory, analytical, descriptive and empirical methodology. Still, the development of this research is supported by studies developed since 2016 by this researcher with the Grupo de Pesquisa Comunicação Midiática e Movimentos Sociais (ComMov/UNESP); since 2018, with the Postgraduate Program in Communication at Unesp; in the Estágio de Pesquisa no Exterior (BEPE/FAPESP), held at Universidade Nova de Lisboa in 2020 and in the master's defended in the same year, also with funding from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo. All the research experiences mentioned have themes related to the democratization of communication. It is expected that the current research proposal cooperates with the advancement of the theme and with new perspectives for the expansion of Brazilian democracy and for communication with a view to the practice of media literacy and citizen participation.