Media education and intergenerational communication: inclusive practice for children and the elderly

Abstract

Within a context of economic crisis which reproduces new educational and relational needs, and in a society characterized by new technological innovations and communicative changes (Cardoso, 2009), media education faces unprecedented challenges and a need for new, more collaborative and inclusive practices. The consequences of various phenomena affecting Portugal, such as the economic and financial crisis and the ageing of the population at an unprecedented speed (INE. 2011; EAPN, 2013), feed into 'the fourth world', characterized by the digital and social exclusion affecting mainly, and in various ways, the more vulnerable generations, children ancl the elderly (Castells, 2008; CE, 2011).