This Study Analyzes All Time 33 Worldwide

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Abstract

This study analyzes all-time 33 worldwide highest grossing films of the last decade from the perspective of democracy. A specifically adapted index is used to rank these films from high scoring to low scoring. Furthermore, a test is used to examine these films in five categories. Each category contains questions directly or indirectly related to such elements of democracy as are citizens' participation in decision-making, fairness, citizen awareness and satisfaction. It is hard to claim that the Democracy Index for Films (DIF) is a unique instrument to identify and distinguish films in favor of democracy — however, it allows us to draw the following conclusion: high-scoring films contain a greater number of elements which are characteristic for the non-democratic structures. There is evidence that films high-scoring in DIF are more likely to pass the Five Category Test (5CT). Out of 33 films selected for the study 26 successfully pass 5CT, which yields evidence for wide variety of non-democratic elements in fictitious film plots.

Introduction

Context and previous research

Various research studies demonstrate that media have a strong social influence. Commercials are means of communication which try to change people’s attitudes towards a product or service. Media messages are often aimed to influence consumers' behavior. Commercials are often planned to strengthen people’s attitude towards a product they already like. For that reason, corporations spend substantial funds on promotion even in case of strong market position: "In order to keep that hold." [1] Numerous studies were performed to examine films and their effects on children. The series of Payne research studies evidence "impacts on children moviegoers ranging from learning and attitude change to emotion stimulation and behavior influence" [2] and conclude that films can have strong influence on children’s conduct and their approaches formation. Booker (2010) emphasizes that children's films can have a deep impact on way of understanding the basic human approaches, the world around them and the way to live in it. [3] Anderson et al. (2003) show strong evidence of ability of media to trigger violence among youth. The authors claim that "the variety of violent media are entering the home and inviting the active participation of young children — often with little parental supervision" [4] and see media violence as a risk factor. Based on existing literature, there is also solid evidence that gender roles are very strong, especially in blockbuster films. Ponocny-Seliger and Ponocny (2009) conclude that media are an important reflection of reality and that male stereotypes presented in films have strong influence on society. [5] Although there are not too many films which display politics explicitly —still, political systems are often indirectly involved and form an important part of the plot. Yet, how often is it shown that people solve problems discussing them in a democratic way? Why do filmmakers not prioritize roles of democracy and rarely employ democratic plots for fictitious films? Do filmmakers and screen writers intentionally avoid focusing films on democracy and to show more pro-democratic characters due to the audience’s preferences?

Research aims and objectives

This study examines whether modern blockbuster films create and promote an immoral image of democracy. The material used for this study is 33 worldwide box office leader films selected according to specific criteria: The films were released in the period 2003-12, and belong to action, fantasy or science-fiction genre. In case of sequels, only highest grossing ones were selected.

The hypothesis to be tested is whether there are clear anti-democratic tendencies in fictitious film plots. Therefore, various methods developed by previous researchers will be used. Merkel and Wessels’ (2008) "democracy barometer" [6] serves as a general instrument for the measurement of democracy across countries. Foweraker and Krznaric (2000) claim that "the two main ways of constructing democratic performance measures may be characterized as the ‘subjective’ and the ‘objective.’ The great majority of measures are subjective, entailing the coding of countries into the categories of a scale, and yielding ordinal or categorical level indicators." [7] Bowman, Lehoucq and Mahoney (2005) apply the index building technique which is based on the case proficiency. They use a wide range of data sources for this method, in order to develop an index of political democracy for Central America. [8] 

This study utilizes two specifically adapted research instruments: the Democracy Index for Films (DIF) and the Five Category Test (5CT). DIF is inspired by the methodologies mentioned above and based on a catalogue of questions to detect and count occurrences related to democracy, decision-making, citizens’ participation, fairness and justice. [9] All films are ranked according to this index before being put to a test at the next step. This is done in order to validate whether the high-scoring (i.e., lacking democracy) films would also qualify in all five categories, defined by the five-category test (5CT) — a modified version of the Bechdel Test.

Structure of thesis

The first chapter is an introduction of the research question and a discussion of why this is a significant research question. The second chapter reviews the literature and presents the theoretical background and framing of the question in terms of the existing research studies. The third chapter presents the methodology used for conducting this study. The fourth chapter is devoted to the results and the discussion. The fifth chapter concludes the study, presents the policy implications derived from the results, its contribution to the body of knowledge and provides directions for further research.

Literature review

Introduction

The first relevant topic within the existing literature is the definition of democracy and the techniques used by various researchers to measure it. This section also reviews how "good democracy" and "good governance" are defined in different studies. Furthermore, it reviews media and media influence within the literature and, in particular, collected works on how motion pictures affect the conduct of children and various techniques to measure the media effects. The third related topic is media literacy, the fourth one is media censorship. This section reviews political media censorship in countries with authoritarian regimes, particularly in the People’s Republic of China and the United Arab Emirates. It also reviews literature on prohibited content and banned foreign films in countries with authoritarian regime and the films banned in most democratic countries.

Definition and Measurement of Democracy within Literature

"Democracy seems to have scored a historic victory over alternative forms of governance" (Held, 1995). "Political choices can only begin to be adequately recognized, articulated and negotiated in a democracy" [10] . The author questions whether the local, national, regional or global level is the appropriate for democratic control. According to Held, democracy is on the one hand hard to sustain and on the other hand almost every political leader claims it.

Definitions of Democracy, "good democracy" and "good governance" within the literature

Dahl suggests five criteria that describe a democratic process. Those are: 1) voting equality, 2) effective participation, 3) enlightened understanding and 4) control of the agenda and 5) inclusion of all adult members of society in collective decision-making. According to the author those criteria make the democratic process compliant with the logic of political equality. If any of those criteria are violated then the process will lack democracy and will not be compatible with the logic of political equality. "To deny any citizen adequate opportunities for effective participation means that because their preferences are unknown or incorrectly perceived, they cannot be taken into account. But not to take their preferences toward the final outcome equally into account is to reject the principle of equal consideration of interests." [11] Effective participation addresses issues related to equal opportunities for citizens. Voting equality is about equal chances to express choices of citizens. The control of the agenda relates to "how matters are to be placed on the agenda" [12] . Enlightened understanding addresses the issues related to citizens’ equal opportunities and their interests’ consideration. Who is supposed to be part of a democratic process and make collectively binding decisions? According to Dahl, nobody should be excluded and everybody has to be part of the democratic process (all adult members), as well as to make collectively binding decisions: "All the members of the association are adequately qualified to participate on an equal footing with the others in the process of governing the association," and "no single member, and no minority of members, is so definitely better qualified to rule that the one or the few should be permitted to rule over the entire association." [13] The author claims, that "only a democratic government is fully consistent with this logic of political equality," [14] â€” so excluding someone from participation in democratic process and collectively binding decision-making would contradict to democratic government.

According to Morlino (2002) a good democracy "means to look for the different ways in which the rule of law has been distorted, accountability circumvented, responsiveness and people satisfaction created without an actual reason, and the appearances of freedom and equality created." [15] Morlino (2004) explains democracy, as a system which is: "universal, adult suffrage; recurring, free, competitive and fair elections; more than one political party; and more than one source of information. Among those that meet these minimum criteria, further empirical analysis is still necessary to detect the degree to which they have achieved the two main objectives of an ideal democracy: freedom and equality." [16] 

Dalton, Shin and Jou (2007) claim that "a peasant in a developing nation—who often has little schooling and limited access to mass media" [17] has a little basis for understanding or evaluating democracy. Often support for democracy signals "a desire for Western income levels and living standards, and not for a democratic political system." [18] Democracy is occasionally embraced even by non-democrats due to its positive image and legitimacy that it enjoys. "Democracy emphasizes freedom and liberty as its essential goals, with democratic institutions as the means to achieve them." [19] The authors summarize the results of the study on understanding of democracy in 49 countries. The data covers established democracies, Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. Overall, one fifth of respondents could not give any definition of democracy. About 40 percent define democracy in terms of freedoms, civil liberties, and citizen rights. This includes freedom of speech, political liberty, the protection of individual rights, or freedom of participation. Twenty percent involve democratic institutions or the democratic political process, which includes as elections, majority rule, or open and accountable government. Fifteen percent relate democracy to social benefits, which includes economic development, equality or justice, or peace and stability.

Rodrik (2001) emphasizes that "democracy is of economic value precisely in societies where ethnic, linguistic, geographical, and other cleavages would otherwise result in excessive amounts of socially unproductive opportunistic behavior." [20] The study presents empirical results which are of high relevance for developing countries that are moving in the direction of participatory governance. The author strongly disagrees with statements like "democracy is a luxury that poor, divided societies cannot afford". [21] 

Measurement of Democracy within the Literature

The exercise of good governance differentiates successful democratic countries from countries which do little for their people. "Governance is the delivery of a number of critical public goods to citizens: security, a rule of law, political freedoms, an enabling framework for economic performance, education, health, and so on. Where a regime fails to perform—fails to provide reasonable quantities and qualities of essential public goods—it is governing poorly. But can the nations of the world, particularly the nations of the developing world, be rated according to how well they govern?" [22] Besançon (2003) studies the basis of problematic governance. Her comprehensive examination advices policy makers to reconsider the criteria prepared for the Millennium Challenge Account, and those applied officially or unofficially by various national aid agencies. The study suggests policy makers to agree on the possibility of generating a concrete methodology of paralleling performances of different governments and evaluates a large number of noticeable data sets from relevant research studies to answer the following: "Is it desirable, and possible, to develop a set of rankings of countries with the best governed at the top and least well governed at the bottom? Could such a ranking system, analogous to that developed by Transparency International for corruption, encourage countries to attempt to govern themselves more effectively?" [23] Generally, the paper gives a strong fundament for further research and arguments on "how best to measure governance in the modern world." [24] 

Bühlmann, Merkel and Wessels (2008) develop an analytical instrument to assess the "subtle differences in the quality of established democracies, more precisely OECD countries, which are neglected by existing measures of democracy due to conceptual shortcomings." [25] They introduce a "democracy barometer" to serve as a general instrument for measurement of democracy across countries and present the theory which is used as a basis. The publication presents a step-by-step inference of essential elements of democracy. Initially the authors define a democratic system which controls and establishes a good balance between the normative and interdependent values of freedom and equality. Those principles are then characterized by five "partial regimes", which creates the basic concept of the democracy barometer. The authors claim that "a democracy can only be considered healthy if all of these partial regimes as well as their interplay function properly." [26] In order to assure the core principles the partial regimes have to fulfill nine democratic functions. The degree of accomplishment of the democratic functions is measured for every partial regime, across several components, which are initially well defined. The authors state that "the highest degree of quality of democracy will be attained by a regime that combines the functions in a manner that allows the highest effectiveness in all of them." [27] Recommendation and directions for further research stated by the authors are to develop a version of the barometer also for sub-national levels. As "one recommendation to overcome the legitimacy crisis of democracy is the reinforcement of local democracy" [28] â€” the authors consequently believe in the importance of measuring quality of democracy also at the local level.

Another paper related to assessment of democratic performance is Foweraker and Krznaric (2000), who understand liberal democratic performance as "the delivery of liberal democratic values, and not as regime longevity or government efficacy." [29] The publication relates measurement of practical achievements to the standards, authorized by liberal democratic government. It is recognized that the performance of liberal democratic governments varies widely. According to the study, most severe problems associated with measuring democratic performance are validity and reliability along uncertainty of measurement object. "By defining the range of liberal democratic values we demonstrate that performance is multidimensional and that trade-offs across different values can create distinct performance profiles. The narrow gauge of the extant measures – usually of just one or two values – is often disguised by single scales that masquerade as summary performance indicators." [30] Five empirical categories, such as 1) case selection and geographic focus, 2) data sources, 3) time frames, 4) weightings and 5) the level of democratic performance in measurement studies are defined as essential ones. The paper reviews various studies based on those five categories and presents a systematic discussion. Special attention in process of measuring liberal democratic performance is devoted to such aspects as are the conceptual framework, accountability, constraint, representation, participation, civil rights, property rights, political rights and minority rights. Concluding remarks state that "the validity of the measures would never be tested simply by correlating them to other measures of a similar kind but by seeking to ascertain their effective purchase on the liberal democratic value being measured." [31] 

Bovaird and Löffler (2003) provide an overview on the evaluation of the quality of public governance. The article introduces "charting the move in the public sector during the 1990s from concern largely with excellence in service delivery to a concern for good governance." [32] The authors analyze what is usually meant by "governance" and "good governance" and the dimensions of "good public governance". They deliberate the importance of measuring the quality of public services and improvements in living standards and governance processes; particularly how measures of good governance are used in different frameworks in different countries. The authors argues that awards, inspections, setting funding conditions and empowering stakeholders to demand evidence might be the way to inspire a measurement of good governance. Public governance is defined as "the ways in which stakeholders interact with each other in order to influence the outcomes of public policies." [33] The good governance is defined as "the negotiation by all the stakeholders in an issue (or area) of improved public policy outcomes and agreed governance principles, which are both implemented and regularly evaluated by all stakeholders." [34] The technique of measuring improvements in public governance principles and processes is closely related to the methods mentioned by Foweraker and Krznaric (2000). "Good governance" is related to citizen engagement, transparency, accountability, the equalities agenda and social inclusion (gender, ethnicity, age, religion, etc.), ethical and honest behavior, equity (fair procedures and due process), ability to compete in a global environment, ability to work effectively in partnership, sustainability and respect for the rule of law. [35] The key stakeholders are: "citizens, politicians representing the specific issue, third sector representatives, including community organizations, organizations and charities working on the issue, business sector, the media (press, TV, radio), government departments and agencies (officials), other levels of government" [36] with responsibilities for the issue. In concluding remarks the authors state, that "good governance" is used in different contexts across countries. The authors have faith in the need of standardization of approaches which would allow comparisons across countries. The paper concludes that "more headway in this area is probably still contingent upon the development and testing of more systematic approaches to the evaluation of the quality of public governance. Only where this has already been undertaken is it likely to be productive to move to more ‘punitive’ mechanisms for promoting such evaluations, such as inspectorates at national level or the setting of funding conditions for aid at the international level." [37] 

Bowman, Lehoucq and Mahoneyrecent (2005) draw attention on importance of errors associated with data used in democracy measuring studies. Main argument is that the origins of the data used for measuring political democracy are often "inaccurate, partial, or misleading." Other complications mentioned are concepts, operations, and aggregations of studies. "No matter how valid the conceptual, measurement, and aggregational properties, collecting adequate data to correctly code various indicators is inherently challenging and has led to serious error in the existing scales." [38] Based on data from five Latin American countries, the authors show that "data-induced measurement error compromises the validity of the principal, long-term cross-national scales of democracy." [39] The authors apply the technique to index building that is based on case proficiency and use of a wide range of data sources, and use this method in developing an index of political democracy for Central American region. "The authors’ index draws on a comprehensive set of secondary and primary sources as it rigorously pursues standards of conceptualization, operationalization, and aggregation. The index’s value is illustrated by showing how it suggests new lines of research in the field of Central American politics." [40] 

Camerer (2006) develops an index which allows to measure public integrity across countries. Integrity indicators for each country are aggregated via the method developed by the author and create quantitative Integrity Scorecard of governance practices. Integrity Scorecard allows to "take in almost at a glance the pattern of strengths and weaknesses that stretches across the half-dozen main categories and 21 subcategories that describe a given country’s public integrity system." [41] Empirical evidence from data on 25 countries enables to group them into five tiers and ranks then from "very weak" public integrity systems to those whose systems are on average "very strong."

Fortunato and Panizza (2011) analyze how strongly democracy is influenced by quality of education in the country, and whether it affects merit of a governance practices. The authors build a model of "an economy in which politicians of heterogeneous quality can run for office." [42] The results show that "education has a positive effect on the quality of selected officials only if democratic institutions are in place. The model also finds that democracy has positive effect on the quality of government in countries with high levels of education and political institutions are not correlated with the quality of government in countries with low levels of education." [43] The authors use cross-country and panel data regressions to test the model of the interaction between democracy and education. The results confirm that the level of education is positively associated with the quality of government. One of the variables, quality of government, is measured with an aggregate index acquired from the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) built up by jointly considering corruption and competency indicators. The aggregate index of quality of government ranges between 0 and 100, with higher values being allied with "higher quality" of government. Democracy is measured using the mean values of the Policy and Freedom House indexes of democracy and values within the ranges between 0 and 10. The interaction between democracy and education is always positively and significantly correlated with the quality of government; the correlation between democracy and quality of government is statistically significant only in countries with high levels of education; and the marginal effect of education is positive and statistically significant in countries with high levels of democracy. The authors conclude that democracy leads to the election of superior politicians only if the level of education is above a certain threshold.

Fiorino and Ricciuti (2006) investigate the demographic, economic, political and cultural determinants of direct democracy in European countries using an index of citizen lawmaking. The authors show that per capita income, population and ethnic fractionalization "are poor determinants of direct democracy, while majoritarian elections and presidential systems are in general negatively related to direct democracy." [44] Findings show that "income per capita is not related to direct democracy when more variables are included in the estimations," [45] moreover, the quality of governance indicators has positive effect on the dependent variable. Demographic variables such as population and ethnic fractionalization turned to be insignificant. Institutional variables as presidentialism and majoritarian voting rules have a negative effect, since they "probably make representatives more accountable to voters, making less compelling to appeal to referendums and initiatives." [46] Variables related to religion suggest that a higher percentage of Catholics increases direct democracy, whereas the opposite is true for Muslims. Results also show that a more corrupted country is "less likely to have referendums and initiatives, with a possible issue of accountability involved in this result." [47] Political rights, the protection of property rights, and government effectiveness are significantly positive determinants of direct democracy.

Media influence and techniques to measure media effects within literature

In the beginning on the 20th century various research studies were implemented to analyze films and their influence on kids. The Payne Fund is a private foundation which financed more than a dozen of such studies financially. These studies were mainly focused on "film content, audience composition, and effects on children" [48] . The investigations documented "impacts on children moviegoers ranging from learning and attitude change to emotion stimulation and behavior influence." [49] The studies motivated further research on effects on children caused by films, TV-programs and computer-games. The methodology used for the Payne studies is different based on the specific research question being addressed. Qualitative analysis of the films was used to determine the categories of the films. Various techniques were applied in order to observe spectators attending and to quantify effects. [50] "Children acquired and retained information they received in the movies. Attitudes concerning ethnic, racial and social issues were changed by movie viewing. Emotions were stimulated, especially those related to fear and tension. Health effects were measured by looking at the sleep patterns of children after watching movies, and certain movies disturbed healthy sleep. Children who attended movies regularly were found to behave poorly in school compared to those who attended less frequently. Children imitated favorable behavior they saw in movies, but movies also appeared to play a direct role in delinquent careers. Overall, researchers found that movies influenced both children's attitudes and behaviors. These effects were cumulative and persistent over time." [51] 

Media influence within literature

Boyatzis, Mattillo, and Nesbitt (1995) investigate the influence of mass media on children. The authors consider the effects of watching the Power Rangers television show on children's behavior. Pupils were observed after "watching an episode of this overtly violent show. The researchers counted 140 aggressive acts in the half hour episode shown. Compared to the control group of children who did not view the videotape, the children in the study committed seven times as many acts of aggression immediately after the viewing." [52] The authors claim that youngsters who spend excessive time in front of television are more likely to demonstrate aggressive behavior or to commit a crime. [53] 

Blumer and Hauser (1933) find a similar connection between motion pictures and delinquency. [54] The authors apply questionnaires and interviews for the study. The conclusions are consistent with those of Boyatzis, Mattillo, and Nesbitt (1995). A similar question, concerning motion pictures’ effect on the conduct of children, is addressed in Blumer (1970).

Booker (2010) aims to uncover hidden messages of Disney animated films. In his "Personal Prologue," Booker says, "I am, among other things, a professional academic film scholar and, yes, I should admit up front that I am an unrepentant leftist egghead intellectual. But I'm also a dad, and I've come to understand that the complexities and responsibilities associated with being a parent to kids, who watch movies need to be dealt with by all parents, eggheads or not, and of whatever political persuasion." [55] Booker emphasizes that children's films can have "profound effect at the level of promoting certain fundamental attitudes and basic expectations concerning what the world is like and how one should live in it". [56] Booker traces many Disney themes: innocence, finding one's place, finding a mate, friendship, maturation and responsibility, the importance of naturalness and authenticity, and the fleeting nature of childhood. Booker notes that Disney differs from Pixar in its emphasis on magic over technology. The author is concerned by the fact that Disney films largely contain "advocacy of destiny over choice" [57] as a regular ideological message. "The promotion of an individualist mindset is not particularly surprising, given that individualism is probably the central constitutive component of the official ideology of the United States as a nation and of capitalism as a system". [58] Booker's study is limited to animated films and does not cover effects associated with other types of media. The core research question is how the messages contained in animated films affect a child's life. The recommendations of the author are addressed to parents. Booker recommends watching films with children, to ask relevant questions, to discuss values, and to encourage critical thinking.

Ponocny- Seliger and Ponocny (2010) analyze male stereotypes in the media and the image they create in the eyes of media-consumers. What are the positive and the negative aspects of media messages, concerning the new role of men and fathers in partnership, family and professional life? Those, and other questions related to male figures and male-stereotypes dominance are bases for the empirical study. Aside TV-advertisements and mini-series the authors also use blockbuster films. The results are based on surveys conducted among carefully selected target groups. The results show strong dominance of the male characters in all forms of media analyzed in the study. [59] 

Anderson et al. (2003) claim, that media have ability to influence violence among youth. "Variety of violent media are entering the home and inviting the active participation of young children — often with little parental supervision", [60] what makes media violence a risk factor. The policy recommendations derived from the paper are addressed to groups, which would take a lead in teaching parents and children how to be better, healthier consumers of the media. Those can be schools, parent-teacher organizations and other similar ones. The authors conclude, that influence of media violence is clearly harmful for a significant number of youth and discuss the importance of encouraging violence-prevention research.

Techniques to measure media effects within literature

Media effects have been studied by researchers in communication, psychology, sociology, political science, anthropology, and education, among other fields. Andreoli and Worchel (1978) examine the effects of medium, communicator, and message content on the persuasiveness of a communication. In the study presents the results of an experiment, in which individuals were exposed and later asked opinion regarding a particular television, radio, or transcribed production. It turned to be that "the newscaster and former representative were considered most trustworthy, the representative next most trustworthy, and the candidate least trustworthy. Although there was no main effect for medium, the medium did interact with the source variable." [61] The results show TV-programs to be the most effective medium for the broadcaster and former representative but the least effective for the candidate. [62] 

Numerous researchers agreed that some vulnerable groups, such as children, may be more heavily influenced by media than others. For instance, Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1963) examine these effects by showing to young children a flick containing scenes of a toy named Bobo being a victim of violent behaviour by grownups. [63] The results indicate that "children who saw the film later imitated it and also engaged in other violent behaviour not seen on the film." [64] 

One great obstacle for scholars is how to measure media effects’. Media consumption may affect a person’s thoughts, emotions, or behavior in ways that could be direct or indirect, immediate or delayed, fleeting or lasting.

"It is impossible for scientists to control for all of the mediating factors, from levels of media consumption to demographics such as age, race, and socioeconomic status to harder-to-measure variables like environment, upbringing, values and previous experience. A researcher would not be able to prove, for example, that playing a violent video game caused a person to commit a violent crime, even if an association existed between the two behaviors. Did playing the game lead to the violent behavior, or did a propensity toward violence encourage use of the game? Why didn’t all individuals who played the game commit acts of violence? Traditional methods of research such as surveys, experiments, and panel studies cannot adequately solve this cause-and-effect dilemma." [65] 

Bryant and Thompson (2001) review historical evidence for media effects and related social concerns. The book also reviews the concepts and theories that serve as the basis for different types of media effect research. The authors argue that "heavy television viewers may lose the attitudes, beliefs or customs of their cultures in favor of those they see repetitively on television." [66] One of the media effects discussed is the disinhibitory effect, which is "media’s ability to desensitize people to socially unacceptable behavior, making it either acceptable or desirable. The disinhibitory effect may enable people to rationalize or justify media effects’ actions that conflict with their internal code of conduct or morality." [67] Even though media can have the undesirable effect of promoting cultural, racial or gender biases, either through stereotyping roles and behavior or the under- or overrepresentation of minority characters — the authors argue that by familiarizing individuals "with groups other than themselves, the media may also provide positive learning opportunities" [68] that help to overcome stereotypes and prejudices. In the era of new media technologies media consumers are no longer simply an "audience," but are now "users" – "heralding a new era of active consumption and that communication and media impact are now multi-directional; two-way sender-receiver models are too linear and orderly to represent these interactions." [69] The concluding remarks also state that "media fragmentation as the development of many highly-specialized media outlets makes targeting audiences easier, but may also make mass communication more challenging and the increased number of media choices may expose children to adult material before they are prepared for it." [70] 

Media literacy within literature

Media literacy is defined as "the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and produce communication in a variety of forms." [71] Media literate individuals can "think critically about what they see, hear and read in books, newspapers, magazines, television, radio, movies, music, advertising, video games, the Internet, and new emerging technology" [72] while for certain individuals it also includes learning how to create messages using print, audio, video, and multimedia. [73] As stated in Thinking Critically about Media: Schools and Families in Partnership (2002)—home is the place "where children spend most of their time using media, some proponents of media literacy have focused on helping parents develop their children’s media literacy skills through active mediation." [74] Singer and Singer (2001) suggest also making "a family media plan, using media together, and discussing media content with children." [75] 

A growing number of countries are developing media education programs in their schools, and media educators from around the world are meeting more often to share curricula, research, and strategies. In 1999, the 29th General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) approved the support for media education following up on UNESCO’s first call in Paris in November 1989. In April 1999, 41 invited representatives from 33 countries met in Vienna and made the following statement and recommendations: "Media education is the entitlement of every citizen, in every country in the world, to freedom of expression and the right to information and is instrumental in building and sustaining democracy. Media education should be introduced wherever possible within national curricula as well as in tertiary, non-formal and lifelong education." [76] According to Kubey (2002) the approaches can also be used in programs focused on conflict resolution and the reduction of aggression and violence. His suggest is showing middle or high school students a part of a film depicting a growing conflict between two rival gangs in a school. The film is stopped, and the students are then assigned to groups to write the next scene, wherein the characters resolve the conflict through talk, rather than with fists, knives, or guns. The assignment prompts students to think through how a conflict might be peaceably resolved. Then, in sharing their solutions, the class has the opportunity to hear a variety of solutions. "This increases the likelihood that some of these solutions will be mentally available should students become involved in a similar conflict." [77] The author also claims that with the incredible rise of the Internet and the unedited nature of many websites, students need more than ever to learn how to assess the validity and credibility of the information to which they are exposed. The author claims, that politicians have become extraordinarily adept at using media to their advantage. If their interests are in line with the nation’s, this can result in effective government. Major distortions taking place in public life partially depend on how media systems operate. The author suggests introducing media education as a part of the schools’ civil and social studies classes. As the degree of media usage for propaganda or manipulation is very high, it is essential that public is well informed. "No student should leave high school without knowing the classic techniques of persuasion and propaganda, many of which have been taught for decades, but not to all students." [78] 

Chem, Amstrong and Fuger (2002) argue that children are main media consumers, as an average American child spends 1,500 hours a year watching television. Roughly 17 million US children and teens have Internet access in their homes, and most of them use it daily for researching school projects, playing online games, sending instant messages, chatting with their classmates, watching music videos and films. Chem et al. argue that for all their exposure to mass media, American youth and teens spend too little time analyzing the messages they come across every day. The authors agree with Daniel Rossi, director of the Midtown Manhattan campus of Satellite Academy, who is an advocate for media literacy education: "The reality is that our kids are in constant contact with the media, their opinions – about violence, about commercialism, about issues of race and gender – are often developed as a result of the media images around them but many aren’t even aware of it until they slow down and analyze the process." [79] The authors state, that only in several US states media literacy classes are mandatory in schools and hope that teachers will continue introducing classroom initiatives designed to increase the awareness and analysis of the media that surround students. The best result can be achieved by operation of different stakeholders: "When educators, parents, and community leaders work together as a team to promote media literacy as the 21st-century form of print literacy, incorporating the skills of thinking, reading, and writing, they will be sending a powerful and coordinated message to this "media generation." [80] 

According to Hobbs (2010), a global movement for digital and media literacy education is developing all over the world, and especially in the European Union. The author argues, that "media literacy has been identified as a priority for the 21st century. Media literacy encompasses all media, including television and film, radio and recorded music, print media, the Internet and all other new digital communication technologies." [81] Media literacy is "a fundamental competence not only for the young generation but for people of all ages, for parents, teachers and media professionals. This issue is seen as so critical to the development of European social and cultural development that by 2011, all the countries of the European Union have developed preliminary metrics to measure the levels of media literacy among their citizens." [82] The author expects that in a process, teamwork, collaboration, reflection, ethics and social responsibility will be observed. "Media professionals in news and journalism, digital media, advertising, and cable and broadcast television are beginning to recognize that everybody wins when consumers are more active, engaged, intentional and strategic about their media use habits. When people have high expectations for the quality of news and entertainment, there will be more opportunity to produce quality products." [83] The author believes in success through building coalitions and partnerships in order to support media literacy as a community education movement in the United States and projects that once digital and media literacy becomes an important part of modern teaching at school and at home — the following results will be achieved:

"• Parents will pay attention to why and how screen media is used by their children and teens at home and balance on-screen activities with other forms of play and learning to both protect and empower children and youth.

• People of all ages will internalize the practice of asking critical questions about the author, purpose and point of view of every sort of message—whether it be from political campaigns, pharmaceutical advertisements, reports and surveys issued by think-tanks, websites, breaking news, email, blogs, or the opinions of politicians, pundits and celebrities.

• Teachers will use engaging instructional methods to explore the complex role of news and current events in society, making connections to literature, science, health and history, building bridges between the classroom and the living room that support a lifetime of learning.

• People of all ages will be responsible and civil in their communication behaviors, treating others with respect and appreciating the need for social norms of behavior that create a sense of personal accountability for one’s online and offline actions.

• As a fundamental part of instruction, students will compose and create authentic messages for real audiences, using digital tools, images, language, sound and interactivity to develop knowledge and skills and discover the power of being an effective communicator.

• People from all walks of life will be able to achieve their goals in finding, sharing and using information to solve problems, developing the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, communicate and share ideas and information, participating in meaningful social action in their neighborhoods, communities, nation and the world." [84] 

MaÅ¡ek (2008) discusses the power of media pedagogy support in developing citizenship skills. According to MaÅ¡ek media literacy teaching can connect students to community engagement, finding collaborative possibilities for projects with community institutions and involve undergraduates in creating media messages, having them contact community information service agencies and local community TV, newspapers, and magazines. [85] The author claims the importance of encouraging students to think critically about the information presented in any media message in the context of citizenship ideas and to discuss a controversial magazine or newspaper in small groups. MaÅ¡ek concludes by the concrete recommendation for the Media awareness and Media literacy enhancement in the Czech Republic; however, the following suggestions might be also applied to other countries:

"• explore ways how students are already familiar with a topic through the media, through examples of popular media messages that demonstrate what they might already know;

• analyze political, economic, social and cultural backgrounds of media institutions, detecting how they are formed by history, economy, policy and community;

• stimulate student interest in active participation in media campaigns e.g. those activating public opinion towards specific public and policy questions, or encourage students to create their own media campaigns on social issues etc.;

• discuss the role that the media may have played in the history of the citizenship topic, and/or across different cultures;

• develop a sense of message credibility by teaching how to recognize the purposes behind the production of media messages, and media constructions of political events such as presidential campaigns, war and conflicts etc." [86] 

Martinsson (2009) defines media literacy as the ability to "access, analyze, evaluate, and create media content," [87] and claims, that a fundamental principle of the governance reform agenda is to build more effective and responsive states accountable to their citizens; free, plural, and independent media systems can play a crucial role in this process, and access to accurate and objective information is more important than ever for a healthy democracy to flourish. According to this author, access to free and unbiased media is crucial in order to improve conditions for trust among citizens, media, and state, and to implement and sustain the governance agenda. "Fueled by media literacy, this informed discussion in the public sphere can engage citizens as active stakeholders in governance reforms." [88] The author believes that media literacy deserves priority and acceptance as a critical component for a healthy democratic public sphere. Hence, creating a strong mandate through a multi-stakeholder approach is necessary to affect policy change and to extend research programs, demonstrating clearly the linkages between media literacy, citizen action, and good governance. "Media literacy can strengthen the public interest to improve socio-political conditions, enable citizens to participate actively in public discussions and deliberations to affect change, and empower citizens to fulfill their rights and obligations." [89] The author recommends strengthening the public sphere through developing critical media literacy skills of citizens, as she believes that these skills help create an active citizenry empowered to make informed opinions, engage in public debates, and contribute to the governance reform agenda by demanding good governance and accountability. Suggested concrete practical actions tend to support the media observatories, promotion and enhancement of the role of news ombudsmen, building media literacy skills through mobilization, public forums, and debate, promoting media literacy as an essential element in media development programs, supporting research on linkages among media literacy, citizen action, and good governance. [90] 

Silverstone (2004) argues that citizenship involves responsibility, and to exercise such duty well and thoroughly it requires the ability to see through the media’s limited and inadequate representations. Silverstone highlights the importance of citizens’ participation and states that "a responsible and accountable media can be encouraged and regulated, however imperfectly and however vulnerably. A responsible and accountable media culture is another matter entirely, for it depends on a critical and literate citizenry, and a citizenry, above all, which is critical with respect to, and literate in the ways of, mass mediation and media representation." [91] 

Hobbs (1998) discusses how citizens can be prepared to participate in a democracy and gain essential knowledge, attitudes and skills for being a citizen in a media age. The author mentions the importance of creating opportunities for young people to develop their interests in democracy, and the role of teachers and parents in media literacy and media awareness building. Among the wide range of methods, Hobbs selects four different practices of media literacy enchantment. Those are: 1) awareness of time and choice in media consumption, 2) critical reading/viewing skills and media production activities, 3) analysis of political, economic, social and cultural contexts of the media environment and 4) media advocacy, media action and social change. The author claims that media literacy plays a crucial role in building citizenship skills. "Media literacy can inform students about how the press functions in a democracy, why it matters that citizens gain information and exposure to diverse opinions, and why people need to participate in policy decision-making at the community, state and federal levels." [92] The author argues that media literacy also can support and foster educational environments in which students can practice the skills of leadership, free and responsible self-expression, conflict resolution and consensus-building, because without these skills, young people will not be able to effectively engage with others in the challenges of cooperative problem-solving. The author debates that healthy democracy is characteristic for society with healthy, competent and engaged, media-literate citizens. [93] "The shifting knowledge economy now requires that people acquire sophisticated reasoning, communication and problem-solving skills, and yet 44 million adults in the U.S. lack even basic literacy skills" [94] . Hobbs writes, that within this broad context, media literacy has an important role to play: "A democratic civilization will save itself only if it makes the language of the image into a stimulus for critical reflection, not an invitation to hypnosis." [95] The author debates that in order for adolescents to thrive, it is essential to improve the quality of our nation's communities, schools and families if they are willing to participate in improving the health of American democracy. "As media literacy techniques help refresh our vision, we are invited to 're-vision' ourselves, our families, our neighbours, our communities and all our social institutions in ways that reflect the spirit