The Finnish Society on Media Education (FSME) is a non-profit organization established in 2005 to support research and practices around media education in Finland. It is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Education and works nationally and internationally to share experiences through conferences and online resources. FSME coordinates events, provides informational materials through its website and newsletters, and brings together its community and partner organizations to advance media literacy in Finland.

1. Finnish Society
on Media Education
as a global innovation
Presentation, 18th of June on the World Summit on Media for Children and
Youth
Ms. Anniina Lundvall, coordinator
FINLAND
anniina.lundvall@mediakasvatus.fi

2. Finland in a nutshell
• Small country
• ”The land of associations”
• Technically advanced country
• Easy to co-operate
• Different viewpoints but same common task to
improve media literacy in Finland

3. Basic information
• FSME is a non-profit NGO
• Established in 2005 by Finnish media
researchers of media education
• Funded by Ministry of Culture and Education
• Works nationally and internationally
• Operates in two languages (Finnish & Swedish)

4. What do we do?
• Support and develop the field of
research and practises concerning
media education
• Contribute to the public debate
• Provide opportunities to share media
educational experiences online and
offline (Medialiteracy.now-conference
every year)
• Inform about media education via
newsletters, the social media and
mediaeducation.fi-web portal
Staff: Two full-time coordinators + two
trainees from Universities and
Universities of Applied Sciencies

5. Short history of the society
2005 Finnish Society on Media Education was founded
2006 First media education seminar was organized at the
University of Helsinki
2007 Project subsidy was granted to develop
Mediaeducation.fi-web portal and to produce
Medialiteracy.info-conference in Vaasa.
Books ”Viewpoints to Media Education” and ” The
Effects of Media in Children and Young” were published

6. More history…
2008 Mediekunskap.fi was developed properly
Two seminars were held in Jyväskylä and in Tampere.
Media Education Enviroment in Finland – review was published
2009 Statutory state aid was granted for the first time
Educational events and seminars were held in Stockholm,
Tallinn (+ 20 educational event in Finland)
Publications on Media Literacy in Finland were published
online and as printed paper copies

7. As strong as our members…
• 42 community members and over 170 private members (teachers,
youth workers, librarians, researchers, journalists...)
– Media associations
– Copyright associations
– Educational associations and schools
– Kindergarten
– Youth Information and Guidance Centres
– Newspapers
– Associations for Child Welfare and Child Protection
– Cultural associations (especially focused on film/movie)
– Consumer, Communication and Film Classification
Agencies/Boards
– Finnish Library Association
– Teacher Associations
– National Broadcasting company YLE

8. ..and partners!
• The Finnish National Board of Education (FNBE) (the national agency
subordinate to the Ministry of Education)
• Finnish Universities from Helsinki to Lapland
• The Finnish Youth Research Society
• Commercial media: different magazines and web publishers use content we
that we produce
• And many more…

9. Coordination tasks
• Educa-fairs every January. FSME organizes a Media Literacy alley
on the fair. 2010 10 members were involved in organizing the alley
and together we reached thousands of visitors
• Media Literacy now -seminar is held every year in different places
around the country. FSME organizes it and give local actors the
chance to present their activities in the exhibition area as well as in
the program. We bring at least one international key note speaker
to Finland every year
• We help schools to get appropriate educators/lecturers through our
network
• We gather, organize and store materials from projects that have
already ended
• We administrate four different newsletters to inform about new
materials and events that reach people all over the country

10. Activities in 2010
• The new Mediaeducation.fi 2.0-website is launched in
September with a campaign in the social medias and on
a blog
• National Youth and Media -seminar, held in Helsinki the
16th of September (lectures also online on:
www.mediaeducation.fi)

11. More activities
• Media Barometer 2010: Media Use of Small Children
(0-8 years) is published in December 2010. The study
contains a questionnaire for parents of small children,
qualitative experiments both in pre-schools and at
homes and a questionnaire for 7-8-year-olds in school.
• More than just child’s pl@y? – international invitation
seminar for professionals in the field of early childhood
media education in Helsinki November 1-2

12. Mediaeducation.fi
• Works in three languages (Finnish, Swedish, English)
• Contains news, events, materials, wiki, project descriptions,
researches, a library, support for parents…
• Gathers current, essential information and materials under one roof
• Contents are mostly produced outside the FSME, but edited and
published by the coordinators
• 3000 Finnish users every month
• Over 2000 subscribers of the newsletter (sent twice a month)
• Active online community: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Finnish-
Society-on-Media-Education/183908810850

13. More information about
Finnish Media Education
www.mediaeducation.fi/publications

14. Thank you!
www.mediaeducation.fi
anniina.lundvall@mediakasvatus.fi