Media literacy and pre school children
Child is born in the world of everpresent and unavoidable effect of media. The mission of parents is to acquaint children with media, but with the entrance of a child to the kindergarten, this mission transfers on a preschool teacher. Throughout carefully chosen and planned activities they acquaint children with media and include them in the process of media education. Children gain abilities to understand, value, analyse and evaluate media messages and delevop critical distance towards them which in the mail goal of media literacy. The thesis titled Media literacy and pre school children consists of theoretical and empirical part. In the theoretical part I defined the concept of the media, its history and specifically described some media types. More specifically, I defined the concepts of media literacy and media education, and presented the level of media literacy around the world. Separate chapter is devoted to language in the media and actual impact of media on children's development. Within the empirical part I used a questionnaire to ascertain what is the opinion of preschool teachers on media literacy and to what extent they are aware of it. The survey was attended by 47 teachers from four different kindergartens. The survey showed that around 72 are familiar with the concept of media literacy, use media in activities of their group and that they know the different effects of media on children. Still, there is a proportion of educators that does not include media literacy in planning activities within curricular areas.