Abstract
Once again - it is impossible to count how many times - media literacy was invoked at a pompous congress, the all-round commitment to it or it as an absolute prerequisite for all individuals and organisations that want to survive in the emerging "information society" and make comprehensive use of information technologies such as the new media in education, politics and the world of work. This time it was the Bertelsmann Foundation and the AOL Time Warner Foundation who presented these demands in a comprehensive communiqué (www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/documents/white_paperdeutsch.pdf) at the "21st Century Literacy Summit" in Berlin on 7 and 8 March 2002. And once again, 300 prominent representatives from business, politics, media, science and education agreed unreservedly; once again it was confirmed that without media literacy no "private and professional progress in a networked world" was possible. For education, it was again postulated that media competence must be added to reading, writing and arithmetic as a fourth cultural technique. This does not only mean operating computers; in the future, the ability to search for information, evaluate it and use it productively will be decisive - but this is exactly what is still neglected at schools and universities.
