Paradigm changes and new challenges for media education: Review and science mapping (2000-2021)

Abstract

Information, communication, and digitalization technologies have driven the unlimited access to knowledge, thereby promoting creativity, economic and cultural development, and the emergence of a global world at breakneck speed over recent decades. Across its multiple dynamics, this digital revolution has opened new educational opportunities that are closely connected to emerging technologies and, recently, to artificial intelligence. These advances have had an unexpected impact on people’s lives, altering the values of society and our understanding of the role of education and the modern school in this scenario of global communication. In this context, media education arises from the clear influence of electronic devices and digital technology on society. The aim of this study is to review our understanding of the scientific relevance of the terms “media education” and “educommunication” during the last two decades to describe its evolution on the basis of its terms, locations, thematic stages, and methodological approaches using a systematic quantitative–qualitative review of 598 articles collected from the Web of Science between 2000 and 2021. The results suggest that such scientific interest can be divided into two stages, viz. reflections on media education in its terminological diversity (2000–2012) and measurement, implementation, training, and educommunicative digitization in terms of technological–digital development (2013–2021). We conclude that studies in this transdisciplinary field, which have historically been spread across North and South America, Europe, North Africa, and the North/South East Asia–Pacific region, have broadened their perspective from early criticism of media education to consider the “glocalization” of media education, directing interest toward the cultural digitization of the Global South, algorithmic literacy, and the digital and ethical–critical (self-)management of individual and collective identity.