Media Literacy Education and Hate Speech in Turkey

The strong conception in the effectiveness of media has changed since the second half of the 20th century, assuming that the audience do not have passive perceptions on the media content. Along with this active audience understanding, the media users have been called media literate, or even writers upon in the case of considering their generating capacities. Media literacy, which has developed as a research field since the 1980s, was later discussed by educational scientists and media / communication trainers. The course of elective media literacy has been added into primary and secondary education curriculum in 2006 through the works and efforts of Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTSC) and the Ministry of National Education. This article examines the media literacy as an elective course in primary and secondary education in the framework of the content and curriculum of critical pedagogical principles and discussions on the hate speech in Turkey. The present curriculum and materials of the media literacy course are critically analyzed qualitatively in terms of the content of hate speech produced and disseminated in the media. Accordingly, the currently taught media literacy course is based on an understanding of education that is conservative and also insensitive to the hate speech which is widespread in the media, rather than based on an audience understanding with a participatory, responsible and critical citizenship.