Media Literacy in Finland – National Media Education Policy

Media literacy in Finland is the media literacy policy and the national media education policy document, published by the Ministry of Education and Culture in 2019. The document updates and extends the cultural policy guidelines for media literacy published in 2013. The Media literacy in Finland policy document aims to clarify the field of media education and describe the strengths, values and principles of media education in Finland. This document also highlights areas for improvement and the related social, cultural and technological development trends. According to the three main objectives of the media education policy, media education in Finland is comprehensive, of high-quality, and systematic. To support the implementation of the policy Media Literacy in Finland portal introduces the policy and provides insights to the Finnish media literacy initiatives.
KAVI (The Finnish Media Education Authority), a subordinate of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, has a legal task to promote media education, children's media skills and the development of a safe media environment for children . KAVI actively participates in international collaboration and represents Finland in the European Commission Media Literacy Expert Group and Safer Internet for Children Expert Group, for example. Since 2012 KAVI has organised annually Media Education Forum, event that supports networking between the different actors and the development of the sector. KAVI's Media Literacy School is a portal for educators with information and exercises that support media education activities in schools, libraries, youth centres, etc. All resources are free of charge, and many of them are available in English. KAVI also implements and actively develops film education as part of the promotion of audiovisual culture.
Every year in February Finland celebrates Media Literacy Week . The aim of the initiative is to advance the media literacy skills, as well as to support professional educators, guardians and other adults in their important media educational tasks. In 2019, the Week was organized as a series of 30 different materials and campaigns created together by 55 partner organisations from all sectors of society. Media literacy week is part of the Finnish Safer Internet Centre -project coordinated by KAVI and co-funded by the European Commission. Another major awareness raising campaign part of the project is Finnish Game Week. Game Week comprises of hundreds of individual events organized around Finland.
In the Finnish education system Media literacy and media education is integrated to the following national core curricula: early childhood education and care, pre-primary education, basic education, basic education for adults, general upper secondary education, extended and general syllabus for the basic art education (studies in media arts). Curricula are mandatory for the education providers.
University of Lapland provides international master degree studies in media education. In two-year English-taught master's degree programme the students will build expertise in three major themes: media in teaching and learning, media in society and media and psychosocial well-being. Univeristy of Lapland's Media Education Hub (MEH) is a unit for education and research with fifteen years of experience of carrying out interdisciplinary research projects and developing educational models for different contexts. The Hub also coordinates for example the Ikaihme -project (2018-2020) funded by the ministry of education and culture that aims to develop teacher education of adult educators - targeting older people's media education.
Established in 2017, the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats is an international hub, which unites its Member States (24 countries as of November 2019) , the EU and NATO institutions to assist them in better understanding and defending against hybrid threats. It includes the work on resilience against disinformation as a part of wider concept of hybrid threats.

In Finland there are many active civil society organizations promoting media literacy. A large proportion of the active organisations in media education in Finland are members of The Finnish Society on Media Education. The Finnish Society on Media Education raises awareness and spreads information and best practices of media literacy; organises events; publishes materials; implements development projects; contributes to the public debate and provides opportunities to share media education experiences online and offline nationwide. The Society publishes a newsletter with information on the latest projects, events and research in Finland.
A long-term promoter of media education among companies in the media sector is Yle, the Finnish public service media company, which actively produces media education materials on its websites. As an example, the Digitreenit (Digital training) website offers citizens a wide range of freely available materials for independent learning, and the Yle Uutisluokka (Yle News Class) media education activities are targeted at adolescents between 11 and 18 years of age.