In the summer of 1990, 180 delegates from 40 countries convened in Toulouse, France for an international colloquy on the future of media education worldwide. The conference was sponsored by UNESCO, the British Film Institute, and CLEMI (Centre de Liaison de L’Enseignement et des Moyen D’Information).
Without a doubt the conference was an unprecedented opportunity to learn about the development of media literacy around the world and its nature and status in different countries. Coming just as media literacy was beginning to burst forth on the US educational scene, it provided an invaluable overview of both the theory and practice of media literacy. The following notes capture the most significant learnings and provide a platform for reflections on how the Los Angeles-based Center for Media and Values (later to become the Center for Media Literacy) might develop a plan of action for building media literacy in the US.