A note on terminology
The term Media Studies mainly refers to specialist examination courses taught at GCSE and A-level and in Higher Education. Such courses have existed since the early 1970s: they typically include both creative and critical elements, and use a well-established set of ‘key concepts’. In schools, these courses are optional and confined to students in Key Stages 4 and 5.
The broader term media education began to be adopted in the 1980s, largely in response to a 1983 HMI report Popular Television and Schoolchildren and two ‘Curriculum Statements’ produced by the British Film Institute. The term refers to teaching and learning about the media wherever it occurs in the curriculum, including in primary and lower secondary schools. Media education has been part of English teaching since the 1930s, although it was effectively removed in 2015.
Media literacy is a term imported from the United States. It began to be discussed in Britain in the early 2000s, in the wake of the 2003 Communications Act, which gave the media regulator Ofcom responsibility for ‘promoting media literacy’. Ofcom’s work in this field has largely focused on informal education with adults and marginalised groups, rather than on schools. The term is often adapted or extended, for example in discussions of ‘digital literacy’ or ‘media and information literacy’.