How the media can influence and collaborate in the development of youth participation

Abstract

This paper’s objective is to deal with the educational potentiality of media in the development of the communicative and participative competences which are clearly needed and an essential part of all civic education. After a description of the situation in Spain at present with reference to the absence of participation and its possible causes, the text refers to the support that educational policy has given to civic education in schools over the last 15 years, and which will, hopefully, help to improve the situation. Secondly, the paper deals with the relationship between media and citizen participation, and analyzes the situation of young Spaniards and their relationship with the media in an attempt to discover if, by using media and new media it would be possible to generate positive attitudes towards participation. Before the conclusions a practical case study where media have been used to motivate youth will be analyzed.