The Project

The issue of Media Education had been raised regularly for more than 30 years by UNESCO, and then it was taken up by the European Council, the European Commission and many national governments and NGOs. There was a clear need for a media education that covered a range of needs and cultural contexts; not to mention, one that was aimed at the rising generations – a fact that was of particular relevance at a time when most countries were evaluating their educational content, especially with regards to civic-related content in the digital age.In 2003, the European Commission financed a UNESCO-lead project under the Media Literacy Programme call for proposals; the Mentor Project. There were many participants who had an active and legitimate role to play in media education; however, the Mentor Project focused on the effectiveness and relevance of what was being done in schools, especially at secondary level. It aimed at providing and preparing secondary school teachers with the basic materials and skills to teach media education so that their students could make the best use of the media that is offered to them.The Mentor Project created a shared media education module for the various countries in the Mediterranean basin. In Thessaloniki, March 2003, UNESCO supported a Mentor Project workshop for developing the media education module for basic teaching training in the Mediterranean region.  First, the specialists from all the Mediterranean basin countries elaborated the curriculum taking into account the role of media in the lives of children and youth. They considered the cultural and social differences that the countries might find amongst each other; like, the way the media is and its importance in every country. The specialists set up the curriculum so each educational training institution would be able to decide whether to use the materials or not and in which order; the material would be adaptable. The conclusions from the Thessaloniki workshop produced the following documents and tasks: A “general” curriculum to develop teaching capacities of secondary level teachers. The strategic program to integrate the curriculum at a micro level (national) and macro level (regional). The structure of a website for online education. During the life of the project the objectives evolved although the curriculum continued to be the central focus of the project.  While building the Mentor website, the project coordinators thought about how they could incorporate more countries and specialized groups linked to Media Education.  They wanted to target academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, communications companies, technology groups, and international organizations, amongst many others.  Mentor also started branching out and began aiming at Latin American communities and Portugal. Latin America, Spain (the Department of Communication and Education at the UAB), and Portugal had been doing research and put together a common Media Education curriculum based on the field work and individual country reports. This research was separate during the life of the project, but now it forms part of the Mentor International Media Education Association.