Public Service Television as Education: Factual Programmes and The Media and Information Literacy (Mil) Policy Discourse

Authors

  • Maarit Jaakkola University of Gothenburg
  • Marjaana Mykkänen Independent researcher

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18146/view.278

Keywords:

factual programmes, factual television, genre, media and information literacy (MIL), media education, Finland, Yle

Abstract

This article examines factual programmes in public service television as a specific means of education, exploring and underscoring its educational function within the framework of media and information literacy (MIL) policy discourse. Factual programming forms a multi-stakeholder genre category that has gained relevance in times of democratic insecurities. It traditionally presents a source for cultivating cultural citizenship crucial to democracy but has been less explicitly examined as a source for advancing media education and literacy. in the context of Finland, which has been considered a forerunner both in its educational and media educational system, we inquire into the MIL dimensions of some of the newest multi-platform productions conducted in factual television. The results cast more light on the genre of factual programming and its underlying educational objectives, which paves way for further research on the MIL governance. The analysis also raises questions about their strategic relevance and future development in public broadcasters’ programming content.

Author Biographies

Maarit Jaakkola, University of Gothenburg

Maarit Jaakkola, PhD, Associate Professor, is co-director of Nordicom, a research centre for Nordic media research at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. She is also an associate professor in journalism at the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication (JMG) at the University of Gothenburg and an adjunct professor in journalism at the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences (ITC) at Tampere University in Finland. Jaakkola’s research interests are interdisciplinary and connected to the questions of (digital) media and journalism, cultural practices, and learning. 

Marjaana Mykkänen, Independent researcher

Marjaana Mykkänen, PhD, is a Director and Executive Producer working for the Finnish Broadcasting Company and as an independent documentarist. Her productions include several award-winning films and TV-programs, and she has been responsible for a voluminous share of cultural programming on Finnish television since 1980. Mykkänen’s research interests include engagement with and impact of factual television, and the prospects of (analogue and digital) public service television.  

Downloads

Published

2022-08-03

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 21 (2022): Education & TV: Histories of a Vision

Section

Explorations

License

Copyright (c) 2022 The Author(s)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-SA 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).