This article explores the emergence of the concept of ‘media literacy’ within UK communications policy, focusing particularly on the period leading up to the 2003 Communications Act. While broadly deregulatory in intention, the Act gave the new media regulator, Ofcom, a duty to ‘promote media literacy’. This article explores the origins of this theme, the different discourses and definitions in play, and the roles of the various agents involved. It argues that there were some significant strategic shifts in the debates around media literacy, which reflect broader tensions between neoliberal and social-democratic tendencies within New Labour’s communications policy. The article suggests that this resulted in a lack of clarity about the definition of media literacy, the scope and nature of Ofcom’s role, and the means by which the policy might be implemented – problems that partly account for the subsequent demise (or significant redefinition) of media literacy as a theme within communications policy towards the end of the decade.

dose-rounding of adjuvant FEC within the range ± 5% is not associated with any difference in acute chemotherapy side effects. Longer term follow-up is required to determine whether patients receiving rounded doses below that calculated from their body surface area are at increased risk of relapse.

This article examines media literacy in the UK: a policy that emerged within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in the late 1990s, was adopted by the New Labour administration, and enshrined in the Communications Act 2003. That legislation gave the new media regulator, Ofcom, a duty to 'promote' media literacy, although it left the term undefined. The article describes how Ofcom managed this regulatory duty. It argues that over time, media literacy was progressively reduced in scope, focusing on two policy priorities related to the growth of the internet. In the process, media literacy's broader educative purpose, so clearly articulated in much of the early policy rhetoric, was effectively marginalized. From the Coalition government onwards, the promotion of media literacy was reduced further to a matter of market research. Today, if not altogether dead, the policy is governed by entirely different priorities to those imagined at its birth.

Teaching students aspiring to media work presents the educator with a fundamental dilemma. On the one hand, students require the knowledge and skills necessary to find and sustain employment within existing industry practices, systems and structures. On the other hand, students need to be prepared for the uncertain and shifting nature of media work, and highly problematic aspects of some of those selfsame practices, systems and structures. How do you ensure the former without condoning or under-playing the latter? An overly theoretical and critical education risks producing graduates unprepared for the practicalities of media employment. An overly instrumental education risks graduates lacking the necessary responsiveness and resilience required to drive a media career over time, or the ability to recognise, navigate or challenge systemic problems within these industries. This article approaches the dilemma from the UK perspective, through a consideration of the notion of employability, interpreted as career readiness. It advocates five interrelated forms of graduate capital: human capital; social capital; cultural capital; psychological capital and identity capital. The article argues that their application to aspiring media workers, in particular, provides a valuable conceptual framework for educators concerned with finding an approach to employability that is both instrumental and critical.

Despite scholarly interest in the disruptive changes to have affected media industries, and a growing understanding of how Creative Industries now operate as labour markets, to date there has been little consideration of the way in which media careers are navigated over the longer-term. This article focuses on the subjective experience of media work over time. We report on a study of a single cohort of Media Production graduates of a UK university, who are now in mid-career. They reflect on: their transition from University into work; freelancing; job satisfaction; industry changes; and work-life balance. In our analysis we note the way in which the demands of media work are experienced through the prism of age, and life stage. Contrary to our presumption that the most significant challenges are experienced in early career, our findings suggest that media careers may become increasingly difficult to sustain over time, and are characterised by a limited 'shelf life': the rate of attrition from media work by mid-career is particularly striking. We suggest that this underreported feature of media work is likely to be systemic and to have wider implications.