Cultural media education work

In Finland it has been attempted to bring media close to the everyday life of children and young people in a safe and controlled environment. Activities related to developing media literacy have been organized all over the country in youth work, libraries, school clubs, museums, culture- and film centres and also by various organisations.

Finnish cultural media education work has long-standing traditions; a centre for film and television education was founded in Finland as early as 1958. The central themes of the media education tradition are learning by doing, hearing the voice of children and young people and the active development of media skills. Children in day-care centres and school classes are producing animation and short films in conjunction with film and media centres. These projects have received awards at numerous international festivals.

Film is an important part of Finnish children’s culture. Koulukino (School Cinema) was founded in 1996 to promote film education in schools. All cinemas and film distributors in Finland are committed to this activity. The target is to allow each student at least one trip to the cinema per year and afterwards to deconstruct the film experience with a teacher in class. Media and film centres and schools organize local media education activities such as film screenings and related workshops where the thematics of the film are deconstructed. The national audiovisual archive also promotes film culture by organizing film screenings for children and young people and by providing materials that deal with the films in question.

A number of culture centres and high-class museums operating in Finland are making significant efforts in media education. With the technological progress of society, media education has risen to an important role in the pedagogic activity of museums. Taikalamppu - Aladdin's Lamp is a nationwide network of regional Arts Centres for Children. The aim of the network is to develop children's culture services throughout Finland. Aladdin's Lamp assists the Arts Centres for Children in their activities and provides aid in setting up regional culture services in locations where the services were previously unavailable.

In Finland, the public library is an important basic neighbourhood service for children and young people. In many small municipalities the library is the only cultural institution that provides culture for children and young people in the form of theatre, storytelling events, film screenings and exhibitions. Libraries provide access to new media and the Internet in a safe environment. Libraries actively promote children and young people’s information retrieval skills, reading habits and the media literacy skills necessary in a changing media environment.