Media Education as Theoretical and Practical Paradigm for Digital Literacy: An Interdisciplinary Analysis

In this article we offer an analysis of the practical and theoretical paradigm of media education as a fundamental pedagogical model for the adequate development of the current methods of digital literacy. In a society dominated by the flow of information and communicative processes - in which digitalization has led to techno-media convergence, the complete uniting of ICT novelties and traditional media - it is essential to use all the vast experience of basic principles, pedagogical theories and practice which this educational paradigm has offered during decades. The current techno-media society is not an altruistic system; the communicative processes continue to be dominated by economic, political and social elites whose main interest is to influence and control the population. In this context -conceiving education as the only way to achieve the full and democratic development of our society, for its growth in values and solidarity - an analysis of reality starting in school is essential by forming a citizenship conscious of the power and influence of the ICT and its true meaning in the world. An authentic digital literacy should include the correct understanding of the new techno-media languages, and cannot simply be reduced to a formation of a technical and instrumental kind.