Media education has grown with the characteristics of activists' movement in Korea's social political situations. Today, the crisis of global capitalism entails the participation in politics that will bring about changes in daily 'life-world', not top...
Media education has grown with the characteristics of activists' movement in Korea's social political situations. Today, the crisis of global capitalism entails the participation in politics that will bring about changes in daily 'life-world', not top-down governance through the 'system' of government and capital. The community media education is a new paradigm-shifting model that meet the needs of the times. Having started and expanded since the mid-2000s in Korea, the community media education is gradually transforming its form from shared groups with specific identity to regions-and villages-oriented education. The community media education programs are being operated by various acting subjects including local public media centers and community radio broadcasting station and life-culture community. However, such efforts failed to be sufficiently discussed or set up the clear viewpoints as new paradigm-shift model, which has led to the current torpid situations. In this regard, this study revealed the theoretical directing points of media education as new paradigm-shifting model from the local communication community-oriented viewpoints and personally observed the actual scenes of community media education in Korea for in-depth interview, thereby drawing the principles for Korean- style community media education in action.
To begin with, the theoretical discussions in this study buttressed the fact that major discussions of media education today is life-world focused, spreading to regions and community. This requires the viewpoints of more active participatory actions that will re-establish the relationships of life-word, instead of remaining in the users who just ‘consume’ the media technology. That is, the viewpoints are undergoing the changes in viewpoints from ‘media’-based model into communication-based competence of subject. The ‘communication competence’ refer to human potentials to introspect and recognize ones' desire through vivid experience and to be engaged into self-determination and conscience solidaire. Such communication competence may be the principles of aiming at open-minded community of communication, not having to be boiled down totalitarianism that only emphasizes the unity of community. Therefore, this study proposed the idea of communication-based community as new directing point of community media education. The constituting principles of communication- based community are composed of: multitude, singularity and phenomenon of participatory agents; relation-oriented direct communication and interactive communication; and finally locality, dailiness, public nature for the spatial practices. The community of communication can be identified as “Public order in the life-world formed through free expression and communication of various agents who share daily life experience together”. The media education with such communication community-oriented, can be defined participation-focused media education that forms the community of communication in daily life by catalysing the communication competence of participants.
In order to draw the strategies in action of the community media education appropriate to Korea‘s situations based on the theoretical discussions above, local community media education on the scene was observed and the interview was conducted with community media activists. The purpose, the area and the activity principle of community media education were analyzed by category. The analysis was further made to find out the status and the conditions of media teachers as the major variables of community media education.
In the results of the analysis, it was found that the purposes of Korea‘s community media education were categorized: first, to acquire self-esteem and reveal oneself as subject; second, to form and extend the relationships; and third, to organize shared experience, thereby seeking the alternative lives. The respective educational purpose was generated on various layers according to the conditions and the way of communication of the respective acting agents, teachers, community operators and individual participants. In particular, the community media education as the process in pursuit for alternative lives, embodied its purposes only when teachers aimed at 'community’ movement without the separation of life from education scenes by performing the media education in their daily life, where media teachers and education community operators coincide in the way of organization.
In the result of analysis on the area and the activity principle forming the contents of media education, various sub-category of ‘communication competence’ was made. The sub-category was composed of: first, media interactive competence ; second, story telling competence as the means of self-expression and sharing; third, relationships formation competence through daily life experience; and fourth, the competence to generate public areas in life-world. As well, the sub-principles constituting the respective communication competence were analyzed into various categories, and such principles were embodied into the detailed education methods. The important principles of media interactive competence are focused on interactive conversation process through direct meeting, instead of objectifying others through media, which shows that media education is transformed from media-focus to ‘communication’ and ‘relationships formation’-oriented. The story telling competence are being conducted in introspective story telling ways to reveal 'My' life experience and personal history, rather than composing a story well, where mutual understanding based on participant‘s increased self-esteem and the consensus formation process were suggested as major principles. In addition, they consider it important to share experiences together in order to form daily life affinity. Additionally, in the process of accessing the results of community media education and planning the presentation, the spatial practice to reconstitute various places in life-world into ‘public’ form was suggested as major principles. Such ongoing continuity of media education and relationships, will make an influence on the communication structure of community through the activity to establish specific public areas such as 'Media Sarangbang' in daily life-world.
In order for community media education to take its roots within a region, media teachers were playing more critical roles, as the influential variables. It was found that media teachers are placed under the class conditions where they have to transform their media capabilities into economic capital. They did not be internally involved with community, but made an influence on the education by being hired as transitory outsourcing instructors. In this context, media education may fail to new relationships and minimize its effect, if there is the conflict based on the respective identity, between the expertise-emphasizing media teachers and the community operators who only stress on the unity and the secrecy of community. However, another conditions influencing on the subjectivation process of teachers were the relationships with individual participants. The affinity between teachers and participants triggered the teachers to have desire to be an internal member of community, changing the teachers as well as the purposes and contents of education programs.
This paper has meaningful context in systematically set up the local community media education in the form of new paradigm in action required by the rapidly changing media, social and economic environment. The directing points towards ‘community’ was re-established in this paper from the viewpoints of media education, thereby suggesting new viewpoints of ‘communication-based community’. Further, the realm of community media education was extended to the practical system through qualitative research on the scene, in order to ensure more systemized media education.