Alexander  Fedorov:

So, media education today maybe divided into the following directions: 1) media education of future professionals in media sphere-journalists (press, radio, TV, Internet), cinematographers, editors, producers, etc.; 2) media education of pre-service teachers in universities, pedagogical institutes, training for in-service teachers at professional development courses; 3) media education as part of the general education of school pupils and students in schools, colleges, institutes (that in its turn can be integrated with traditional subjects or autonomous (clubs, optional subjects); 4) media education in leisure centers (Palaces of Culture, out-of-school centers, children clubs); 5) distance media education of children and adults through television, radio, Internet (media criticism plays a very important role here); 6) self/independent/continuous media education (theoretically lifelong).

Media education is closely connected not only to pedagogics and art education, but with such academic fields as Arts studies (including film studies, literature, and theatre studies), cultural studies, history (history of world art culture), psychology (art psychology, creativity) and others. Responding to the needs of modern pedagogy in development of a personality, media education broadens the spectrum of methods and forms of classes. And comprehensive study of press, cinema, television, video, Internet, virtual computer world (synthesizing traits of almost all traditional mass media) helps to correct for example such significant drawbacks of traditional aesthetical education as the isolated, one-sided study of literature, music or art, separate study of the form (so-called “imagery”) and contents while analyzing a specific work.

Media education involves heuristic methods of teaching based on problem solving, role-plays and other productive forms of teaching, developing the individuality of a student, his/her independence of thinking, stimulating creative abilities through the direct involvement in creative activities, perception, interpretation and analysis of the structure of a media text, learning about media culture. Media education combines lectures and practical classes to involve students in the process of media text production, merges the audience into the inner laboratory of main media occupations, which is possible both at the autonomous option and during the process of integration into traditional subjects.