Since the 1960s, there has been a thriving Nordic tradition of media literacy research, pedagogics, and policy on how to best prepare the emerging media citizen for an increas-ingly mediatised society. Although the Nordic model of media literacy has previously been characterised by connections to Bildung, critical theory, cultural studies, and progressive pedagogics, much of today’s understanding of media literacy is associated with a more instrumental understanding of education, with connections to the commercialisation and digitalisation of compulsory education. By suggesting a historisation of the Nordic media literacy tradition, in connection to the Nordic media welfare state, this article opens a debate about the future directions of Nordic media literacy.

This entry is based on data from recent reports regarding the infrastructure, traditions, stakeholders, and so on in the field of media literacy and media education in Sweden, with focus on the K-12 (primary and secondary) system. It also describes a tension in terminology and orientation between media and information literacy (MIL) with its underlying tradition of Bildung and civic engagement, and digital competence, colored by presentism, with its more technology centered, instrumental view on media and education.

This entry presents mediatization as concept and as an emerging research field. Mediatization is a name for the long-term structural impact of the media on institutions like politics, religion, family, education, and so on. In this process, the autonomy of media institutions increases, media technologies become ever more present and deeply integrated into everyday life, media esthetics and media logics saturate the fabrics of social practices and cultural life. Different aspects and indicators of mediatization are discussed. So is mediatization in relation to education, digitalization, and media literacy.