There has been a growing scholarly interest in the concept of media, citizenship, and education in the era of globalization (Hall 1999), especially in the context of the expansion of the European Union. Following the above, Slovenia was among the first post-socialist countries of Central-Eastern Europe that introduced and implemented a Media Education course into its educational curriculum.
In Slovenia, Media Education is defined as a process of teaching about media through the media. If Media Education attempts to develop and create critical understanding and active participation in classrooms, Media literacy denotes a larger project that involves not only students in classrooms, but includes parents, teachers, and in short, the general Slovenian public. Different media events, lectures, performances, workshops are continuously organized on a national, regional, and local level in different places, such as public squares, public libraries, and city-halls. In that way, the public is included in an overall process of thinking, negotiating, and understanding the media practices.
From 1996 on, the Media Education course is officially and formally a part of an educational curriculum –
from kindergarten to university levels. The course involves an examination of the techniques, technologies and institutions that are a part of media production and consumption, and furthermore, provides the ability to critically analyze media messages, and the recognition of the active roles that audiences play in making meaning from media messages (Curriculum for Media Education, 1997).
However, how successful is the integration of the course into the Slovenian educational system really? Almost ten years after, it seems appropriate and necessary to explore the situation on the ground. On the basis of participant-observation and in-depth interviews, the aim here is to briefly present and critically assess the Media Education project in Slovenia and to offer some creative suggestions for the future.