The First International Conference on Media Education in China opened here Friday in Communication University of China (CUC), a leading university special for training media talents in China.

Focusing on "Media Education in Information Age," experts from domestic and overseas will discuss a series of topics, including building media education theory with Chinese characteristics.

The 4-day seminar will also focus on how China can teach its young people to critically evaluate the media. Media literacy is the ability to access and evaluate information from the media. Many countries, like Canada and the United States, have listed the media education a regular curriculum in schools.

Originated from 1930s in England, media education was aimed to encourage students to "see clearly and resist" the influence of mass media.

As the presence of television. movies and advertising expands in China - so does education about its affects.

In China, media education is at its initial stage. Many experts at the conference hold that with the complication of China's media environment and the emergence of new media forms, residents' media literacy is yet to be improved.

"The citizen's media literacy, especially their mass media literacy is deficient in China, which needs us to assimilate the experiences abroad, develop media literacy education, especially to improve the media citizen's qualities and strengthen their responsibilities and profession ethics then to build a better media environment," said Xie Jinwen, the associate professor from Shanghai Communication University.

Huang Yong, Deputy-Chief Editor of the China State Broadcast, Movie and Television Bureau, said that the both the disseminators and the receivers of the information should be educated.

Irving Rother, a scholar from Canada, is optimistic of China's media education future.

"The development of China's economy has brought the change of style and channel of media communication, which will push the research on media education to a new stage," said Rother, "The future of media education in China is promising."

Source: Xinhua