MEDIA EDUCATION POLICY IN BULGARIA

Media education is difficult to achieve as it is aimed at understanding and interpreting of the greatest concentration of sources and contents which are located in the media institutions. On the other hand, forming in two different and zealously protecting territory fields pedagogy and media studies, media education is not yet positioned themselves in the relevant framework in almost all European countries. There are still no European or national mandatory requirements that would outlined its parameters in educational systems. This article is an attempt to enter the historical roots and placing the problems that accompany media education in our country legal policy framework; capacity-building; teacher training; materials and other relevant content; funding; educational institutions, etc. Within the presentation of the condition of educational institutions in this area, the review study focuses on a successful Bulgarian experience in combining the two research directions with respect to media literacy media studies and pedagogy at the biggest Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. Recommendations are made whit respect to the future positioning of the relevant issues of media literacy policy in the European context.


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Media education is seen in its historical roots, legal policy framework and capacity-building The article presents a successful BA program at Sofia University, concerning media education • Recommendations are made with respect to the future media literacy policies in Europe

Historical background
In the 1960s and 70s in Bulgaria the need arose to establish a scientific discipline combining pedagogy and the media in response to the many problems arising from the growing influence of the media on people of different age groups.This discipline has developed under different names, such as media pedagogy, media literacy, media education, etc. Initially the preferred term in Bulgaria was "media pedagogy", but later on "media literacy" widely accepted.(Angelov, 2005;Zlateva, 2006) The course on "Media Pedagogy" was first approved for

Introduction
Media literacy education is a relatively new trend in the Bulgarian educational system.It is based on an access to and participation in all media -traditional and new and involves obtaining skills for understanding of media content, as well as their interpretation and critical reflection in different contexts.Media literacy is a key prerequisite for active citizenship.
Media literacy is a matter of concern in many European and national official documents, but not yet with the imperative nature.All of the existing official European documents concerning media literacy are not in form of regalements, as we may see in Media Literacy Background Documents (2015) This reviewed study reveals the state of the media entity in Bulgaria -historical background, legal policy framework, capacity building, role of actors etc.The article is part of project "European approach towards public competencies in digital environment in conditions of post modernity" in frame of International Academic Seminar on Media and Education in Philosophical Faculty, South-West University, carried out in 2014 1 .
Printed ISSN: 2336-2375 An important step in the development and understanding of media education has been the Bologna process2 (which began in 1999; that same year, Bulgaria signed the Bologna Declaration), under which the university system of Bulgaria has been coordinated with regard to other European countries.An important aspect of this is the need for active and creative use of the media by young people, who must be equipped with a critical approach to the media; diversity of viewpoints regarding local and regional identity should be promoted.
A milestone event with respect to the policies on developing media education was the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union.Adaptation of the Bulgarian education system to the standards of the European Union was an important element.An important part of the Bulgarian education system adaptation has been the formation of young people's skills in the competent and creative use of media and critical approach to media contents.The role of media literacy is clearly understood and emphasized mainly by researchers, who view media education as a mechanism for alleviating the problems of the educational system.Other major actors in media education are: NGOs, professional associations, and the family; it should be their mission to assist Bulgarian media education.
The most important agent in this respect should be the state, the legislative and executive sphere playing a decisive role in this connection.In order for Bulgaria to achieve its own conception for media education, the first task would be complying with the European recommendations.Moreover, target groups of today' media education are not only children and young people, but also older people and people with disabilities; this means there is a broad basis for expanding the scope of media literacy among the general public.
Information literacy, computer literacy and digital literacy are more popular in Bulgaria then media literacy (Marinov, 2013;Stefanova, 2013).We can say that these three terms have mainly been associated with media literacy by university teachers and NGO activists in this sphere.
We can also conclude that, while the initiatives of some universities and NGOs contribute to media literacy, there is yet no explicit agenda or active national strategy with respect to this goal.

Legal policy framework
There is no an official designation or legal definition of media education.The latter has been associated with digital culture, digital competence as components of media literacy.Most researchers, media workers, and NGO experts have adopted the European definition of media literacy as "the ability to access the media, to understand and to critically evaluate different aspects of the media and media contents, and to create communications in a variety of contexts", which has been validated by a large majority of the respondents to the public consultation and by the members of the Media Literacy Expert Group (2014).They have Printed ISSN: 2336-2375 seen media messages as "informational and creative contents in forms of texts, sounds and images carried by different forms of communication, including television, cinema, video, websites, radio, video games and virtual communities".
From the researcher's point of view media literacy includes all dimension of the European approach to media literacy in the digital environment (2007): • "understanding all aspects of existing media -from newspapers to virtual communities; • actively using media, through, inter alia, interactive television, use of Internet search engines or participation in virtual communities, and better exploitation of the potential of the media for entertainment, access to culture, intercultural dialogue, learning and daily-life applications (for instance, through libraries, podcasts); • having a critical approach to media as regards both quality and accuracy of content (for example, being able to access information related to advertising in various media by using search engines intelligently); • using media creatively, given that the evolution of media technologies and the increasing presence of the Internet as a distribution channel allow an ever growing number of Europeans to create and disseminate images, information and content; • understanding the economy of media and the difference between pluralism and media ownership; • being aware of copyright issues, which is essential for a "culture of legality", especially among the younger generation in its double capacity of consumers and producers of content.
In such a framework, media literacy may be seen as an opportunity for young and old to develop their knowledge, values and a broad range of skills for critical thinking, communication and information management -skills that will make them reasonable users and creators.Therefore, it is an important and progressive strategy to foster thoughtful, engaged and informed citizens.
The Bulgarian legal document referring to media literacy is the mentioned Act on pre-school and school education (2015), specifically its article 77 (1).But the mentioned Act contains no official designation of media literacy, and media education is not explicitly connected to resource allocation.Media literacy is only implicit in this new law.Nor does it designate a clear authority overseeing media education.
It would be reasonable for this to be a prerogative of the Ministry of Education and Science but no special resources are allocated in this respect.The legal documents -acts, recommendations, etc. -that serve as a framework for media education policies fail to reflect the issue of media literacy.(Dineva, 2012;Kirova, 2013) The new Education Act nowhere mentions that media literacy is one of the key competences for lifelong learning nor is any mention made about this in the Action Plan for the implementation of the National Strategy for Lifelong Learning( 2009).The legal documents (laws, recommendations, etc.) which serve as a framework for media education policies fail to sufficiently reflect the EU recommendations regarding media literacy.
There We could say that the changing communications environment, the important role of the media in the education of young people, and the importance of the various forms in which media messages (such as programs, films, images, texts, sites) in everyday life can influence and change expectations with respect to the training and qualifications of teachers have not been taken into consideration and made sufficiently explicit.We should have in mind that, in this respect, target groups are all categories of people: children, youths, adults, elderly people, people with disabilities, etc.
There are informal links with other legal or social actors in the private and civil sector, which can deliver media education, but there is no explicit mechanism to facilitate interagency and inter-ministerial cooperation on this specific issue.There are no useful relations, discussions or dialogue going on with content editors and the program industries.Presentations, discussions and dialogue mainly take place between researchers (Marinov, 2013;Peicheva, 2014).
In the state educational requirements regarding the school disciplines of social studies and civil education (school education) the main focus is on the formation of the social culture of students and on developing their skills for active citizenship in society in terms of cultural diversity and globalization through building a critical approach to various media contents, creating communication and decision-making skills, promoting independent thinking and personal development.
Media education is the responsibility of various departments in the Ministry of Education, and there is no specialized department dealing with this specific area.Various departments in the Ministry (such as those of General Education, Vocational Education, Higher Education, Youth Activities) have media education as one of their priorities, insofar as it relates to the overall digital culture and digital education of young people.(Milenkova, 2011) There is no Strategic Plan for Media Education for the use of school teachers.There are no laws stipulating the inclusion of media education in primary and secondary education.In terms of resources, though schools are technologically equipped to a satisfactory degree, there is no special curriculum on media literacy.

Capacity building: Teacher training
Official government media policies on the role of teachers in the field of media literacy are lacking in our country -both with regard to their qualification and pre-qualification and to their role in student's training at all educational levels.There are no specialized disciplines connected with media literacy in the official curricula for the 1 As mentioned, the most significant political program in the field of media education in recent years is the National Program for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Schools, which is mainly focused on technology and Internet access.In Bulgaria media education, with a stress on media literacy, is mainly taught at universities.In schools media literacy problems are tackled more or less by the independent activities of lecturers, whose activity in this respect is linked to their participation in international programs and projects.(Sayanova, 2005) The different forms and varieties of media training in our country are mainly positioned: 1. Within university frameworks -in bachelor, master and doctoral programs at different faculties and departments; at scientific centers, research seminars, laboratories, etc.; 2. Within the sphere of non-government organizations, as the subject of their constant work in organizing lecture courses, international seminars, discussions, etc.; 3. In mobile "ad hoc" formations connected with international or national projects more or less related to media literacy.These mobile formations have initiatives connected with the realization of project aims and tasks, but have no policies for implementing and continuing these activities and initiatives afterwards.
Training activities by these three types of actors have been and will continue to be realized in all educational grades (kindergarten/primary school/junior high/high school).
Within university frameworks: lecturers in accredited subjects connected with media education (journalism, public relations, media pedagogy, media impact etc.) are qualified in the respective profile.Their involvement with media education stems from their education and/or academic degree.Usually people dealing with media problems at universities and non-government organizations hold bachelor, master or PhD program in the field.For other lecturers -those working in areas outside media subjects, but with some relation to these -media education is also a part of their respective degree.Such are the lecturers on media topics teaching at departments of sociology, pedagogy, philosophy, cultural studies, library science, economics, etc.
Media disciplines taught or discussed in the different scientific educational units are predominantly connected with studies for the bachelor, master or PhD program and are primarily mandatory, not elective, specialized training courses.Usually the separate courses to media education contain 30 to 60 hours per year and represent predominantly mandatory disciplines.
The hours, types of programs, mandatory or elective characters of the disciplines related to media specialties or of separate courses related to media education are given in the Table 1.The data collected in Table 1 were collected by the authors and give an instant view of the situation at Bulgarian universities, but we do.We do not claim to be quite precise as there is no uniform national methodology for designing curricula or for the inclusion of the respective indicators.
The development of curricula in the field of media education is not connected with the regulations that are currently in force.Moreover, the development is not coordinated between the various lecturers and specialists working in the field.The absence of official media education policies reflects on the initiation and curricula contents of media education.
The accredited curriculums existing at the different universities are predominantly mandatory both in master and bachelor programs.The curriculums and programs in place are the results of lecturers' initiatives and are consistent with accreditation requirements and specific features of the other disciplines at the respective university.Accreditation of universities, professional orientations and programs is carried out by the governmental National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency (NEAA) 4 The absence of official media education policies including requirements for a set of competences in media education is compensated by various competence indicators applied by individual lecturers, indicators that correspond to the general requirements of NEAA.Standard instruments for expected results are connected with the acquirement of skills for interpretations, analyses, co-creativeness, independent presentations, etc.They are consistent with the specific characteristics of the different age groups and with the aspects of media literacy.
The basic results are connected with the knowledge of, for example: • theories on the formation of media competence in different age groups -these theories take into consideration age group and multicultural environment particularities; This pedagogical bachelor program in media literacy has been very successful.Its workload is 2205 hours and provides 240 credits; the duration of training is 8 semesters (4 years).Upon successful completion students receive a bachelor degree in Pedagogy of Mass and Art Communication.Students of this program can use their knowledge in various ways.One way is for students to demonstrate certain literacy products to kindergarten children -this enables students to check the children's responses and assessments.Some media products periodically prepared by the students include broadcasting, stream radio, children's magazine projects, documentary films, etc.Some other media-related elements in universities involving research and training activities are centers, seminars, and associations.Some of the important ones are: • The International Academic Seminar of Media and Education ( SWU "N.Rilski"); • The Center for New Media and Digital Culture (SWU "N.Rilski"); • Southeast European Center for Semiotic Studies (NBU); • Summer schools in various universities.
In the secondary education, media education is partially in teaching of foreign languages or Bulgarian language and literature in the higher grades.There are no specialized disciplines in this area.Some forms of specialization are available only in the training of Bulgarians school students living outside the country -USA, Spain, Germany, etc.No official national data are available regarding the teaching of media literacy in schools.Sporadic data may be found related to project activities of participants involved in media literacy projects.(Sayanova, 2005) Within the sphere of non-government organizations.
NGOs are also involved in activities related to media literacy.This refers to various foundations and associations, some of which have long years of experience in organizing training courses, lectures, international seminars, discussions, etc.The most popular NGOs whose work is related to media education, for which they engage specialists, are the following: Easy Communication Association; The Media Development Center; Foundation Media with a Human Face; The Southeast European Media Center; Bulgarian Gender Reserch Foundation; AMI Communications Bulgaria; Media Democracy Foundation, etc.
The main areas of their activities can be summarized to: • training courses in language skills for media; • education and training for media professionals and journalism students in Bulgaria; • professional training for journalists and media managers from Southeast Europe; • training courses in language skills for media; • support for the development of the free media market; • development and implementation of media projects in Bulgaria and abroad; • research, consultancy and information services on media and for the media; • publication of media-related books and training materials; • media promoting events; conferences, round-tables, discussions.
No statistical data are available for Bulgaria regarding the number of events held and the hours allocated to this activity.Such a statistical account cannot be made due to the absence of systematic data in the public domain and the unwillingness of some organizations to share data.
This forms a mixed nature.They include various categories of professionals -scientists, experts from NGOs, teachers, etc. Participation is usually along the lines of international and national projects; the groups are formed within the framework of the concrete projects and do not continue beyond the duration of the projects.
Unlike the other two forms, ad hoc participation is generally marked by insufficient long or short-term effectiveness of the implementation of activities (actually, this kind of inefficiency is Printed ISSN: 2336-2375 also typical for other project performance in the humanities and social sciences).One example of ad hoc education is the project "Media Education in Schools: Opportunities and Challenges 2007-2009", conducted in the city of Razlog under international Comenius School Partnership.5Another example is "On Air: European Project for Media Education"(2008) the Pestalozzi project, with respect to the participation of the Ministry of Education, which organized competitions for modular training seminars on media literacy and human rights during the period 2008 -2010, etc.

Teaching/training materials and other relevant content
There are usually no teaching resources and materials made available under law or under official policies and the ones there are fail to address the issue of intellectual property.The few available materials are in the national language.The universities and their libraries, the training schools, centres, laboratories, seminars, etc., have been the significant research institutions and main support for media education.The NGOs and civil media centres have also played a role for creating teaching resources.
The majority of the available resources are copyrighted materials.They were created by teachers in universities and, to a much lesser extent, by people from non-governmental organizations and teachers in secondary education.The resources consist in published monographs, studies, manuals, including translations of books, articles from the European Union (manuals, statements, recommendations).
Materials in hard copies include lectures published in the printed media.The degree of their authenticity, similar to other author authenticities, is high in Bulgaria.Some of them are the results of specific project activities or of guided/mandatory activities.These resources have been selected and validated by official university committees, councils, boards.Some of them are disseminated among students in Bulgaria in the form of written texts prepared by teachers.Some available resources are usually created by the teachers themselves, and other resources are likewise usually selected by the teachers themselves.
The resources available are produced on the basis of specific projects.We have no official list of the most significant publications in the sphere of media education.

Funding
There is no official funding policy specifically for media literacy.Media education is situated in the framework of official education policies and their funding.The resources of media literacy are usually financed by university funds, by government science projects funds, by international project funds or EU funds, by different national funds, etc.Some projects are without funding, as are likewise some training programmes.There is no official information concerning funding.This issue usually lacks transparency.(Marinov, 2013;Peicheva, 2014) Some resources of training programmes are funded by university funds, others by project funds.But most are without funding.
It is difficult to say exactly what their proportion is in relation to the total education system revenues but it is certainly not high.In general, the media education in state universities is funded mostly and mainly by the central government.In private universities it is funded mostly and mainly out of students' tuition fees.The financial reports of non-governmental organizations are available to the public via the Internet only in rare cases.

Role of actors (outside the school system)
Мedia education policies take into account partnerships outside the school system, but there are no media education policies for partnership outside the education system.Partnership is conducted on a basis that is usually defined in the design requirements for partnerships between researchers and business.(Dineva, 2012;Kirova, 2013) A regulatory body for the media exists, called Council for Electronic Media, but this Council plays no role as regards the promotion of media education.The media authorities are not concerned with media literacy initiatives.They have appeared only on a power point presentation on "Protecting children from negative media content" -report prepared for the Council of Europe by Millwood Hargrave (2009).As for the private sector has been involved significantly in the conducting of training programmes and courses.
Some private universities offer media education in bachelor, master and PhD programmes and courses -The New Bulgarian University and the American University in Bulgaria.These universities have significant editorial capacity and available resources.
The role of civil society associations is not as visible as that of private universities.The former are involved in some European projects that include various kinds of media trainings and resources.Youth participation mostly consists in the participation of university students in the creation of media content and its presentation in various school units.The level of youth participation is not high.There is no grassroots community participation in media education.
In Bulgaria there are no specific professional organizations of media education teachers, librarians; learning centres professionals, or computer scientists.There are a few cases when parent associations and media/information professionals have collaborated in media education, but these were primarily on the basis of research projects, and were of low capacity.
We can cite many examples many examples of specific eventssuch as "press week", festivals, competitions, games -that draw attention to the importance of media education.But there are no overlapping structures or events that try to bring together media literacy, information literacy and computer literacy.There are no online platforms or mechanisms.

Evaluation mechanisms (inside and outside school)
No media education policies exist to test media accountability as concerns the traditional media contributions or the public service media.

Main concepts and legitimizing values
All sorts of educational paradigms are put forward, including transmission, prevention, participation, but of these, participation is a more attractive educational paradigm for teachers and students.The main competences that are preferred and adopted are critical thinking, citizenship, creative interpretations and participation in processes. There

Conclusion and general appreciation
To give in brief our general view on the relevance of the media education policies in the national media system and in the national school system, we should say that they are not significant, efficient or relevant.(Milenkova, 2011;Popova, 2013;Stefanova, 2013;Peicheva, 2013) There are discrepancies between the legal framework and the actual performance of the actors inside and outside schools.The actual performance of the actors is better in quality than official government policies, which are not satisfactory.The unwillingness shown with regard to structural changes and new opportunities for improvement are due to lack of understanding, and underestimation of the importance of media literacy.
There is no clash between the state and the activities of selfregulating and co-regulating entities dealing with media education, but the activities of the Ministry of Education and Science are not adequate to the existing needs of these entities.The Bulgarian National Science Fund at the Ministry of Education and Science support a wide range of Bulgarian organizations, including commercial ones, NGOs, etc.But very often these organizations lack adequate scientific and general professional competencies.A drastic case was the failure of the Science Fund program for the year 2012-2013.In the last twenty years many NGOs in Bulgaria have been able to exist through projects.They win projects but lack the required professional capacity and competency.Unfortunately this is also true of many projects in the field of media education and media literacy.As a result, there is a lack of awareness of the importance of media literacy, the media literacy results of teachers and students are inadequate, interest does not continue after the end of the project, and there is a lack of concern with regard to establishing official media education policies.
Future digital convergence may be a challenge for all these different actors to create new forms of cooperation and effectiveness.The successful meeting of this challenge will depend on our critical concern.The positive result might be the launching of new initiatives for media literacy and legislation relative to it.Bulgarian universities are the places for realizing effective media literacy and education.

Recommendations for better positioning of media literacy in EU countries
1. Media literacy should be a subject taught within the framework of compulsory education; 2. Media literacy should be taught as part of the primary school education.3. Media literacy training should focus on teachers, professionals and students.4.Many European countries need to have a special EU directive for including media literacy in their national education legislation and curriculums (one such country is Bulgaria).5.For better positioning of the national media literacy policies it would be good: • to be established a European network of media literacy training institutions; • to set up an EU Information Centre and network responsible solely for project support in the field of media literacy; • to enhance the professional and qualification criteria for participation in media literacy projects at European level.
The actors in media education policies were mainly teachers and students involved in media literacy training -NGO representatives played a considerably smaller role.But nowadays teachers, students and representatives of NGOs have become the major agents.as a result of the adoption of the European recommendations 3 .The role of our National Parliament and its Committee on Media and Education is another important factor in the adoption and ratification of European official documents.
Parliament's role in relation to the spread of the Internet among young people is particularly distinct.Discussions in this area are related to positive and negative sides of the Internet communications.In the "National Program of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Schools" (2006) the Parliament has emphasized the need for providing media education for people of all ages and developing their skills for dealing with Internet and the new media.The role of the Ministry of Education and Science in the process of creating and disseminating documents relevant to these goals, including its acting as intermediary for the organization of numerous seminars, competitions, proposals, etc. in the field of media literacy is also very important.In response to the European reports and recommendations concerning media literacy and the European program 2020, a series of strategies, programs, plans, etc., have been designed and published by the government.

Table 1 :Generalized information about media education at universities, 2014-2015
Evaluation Media educational resources, programs and actors are evaluated in accordance with national indicators.There are additional mechanisms for evaluation, which are different for different universities.Media education is predominantly targeted at the younger generation.No formal quantitative data about how many people to focus their efforts, and how many and what types of programs are available to targeted groups.There are quite a few media education programmes but yearly reports on them are prepared only in a few cases.
Usually, this activity is carried out by researchers through research projects conducted by NGO staffs at universities, etc.There are no legal mechanisms to ensure and measure the efficiency of media education policies.Legal mechanisms are official institutions for measurement of media education official government ratings of universities and their specialties and mentioned above National Agency for Accreditation and Printed ISSN: 2336-2375 are many examples of positive impacts of media projects on students and children -one of them is connected with G. Tuleshkov, a student at the Sofia University BA program Pedagogy of Mass and Art Communication.His video clip: "My small civil contribution."wonfirst place in a special national competition.The competition was organized by Human Resource Development Centre (2013)Improvement, diversity, pluralism and critical thinking are the foremost values used to justify policies.The idea of empowerment is presented.Pluralism is a value that holds a significant place in the learning process in Bulgarian schools.Employment and inclusion are also major values referred to in the programmes.The question of human rights has also been invoked in many Bulgarian programmes.The hierarchy of values are used to justify actions, mechanisms and events outside formal and official policies and outside schools.