The public broadcaster RAI (Radiotelevisione italiana), in its parliamentary campaign in 2018, was to be the guarantor of the electoral success of the Italian centre-left. However, this was not the case. The Democratic Party (Partito Democratico) lost the elections. The decision of the then Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to strengthen political control over the RAI before the upcoming elections was wrong. The model of government television criticised by the opposition proved to be dysfunctional. The restriction of the autonomy and the consequent reduction in the credibility of the public broadcaster RAI gave the Italian opposition an argument to change its electoral strategy and to transfer the campaign to the network, which determined its final outcome. In the 2018 parliamentary campaign in Italy, RAI stopped serving as a forum for public debate, thus ending the stage of its domination as a medium in the process of political communication during the Second Republic.  

In the modern world mass media stimulate and create social reality. It is with their significant participation that the socialization of the young generation takes place. As the researchers point out, they often teach better than school and interact more effectively than traditional educational environments. A lot of subject literature is devoted to the analysis of the impact of mass media, mostly negative, on the recipients. This text will present the implementation of media functions on the example of the All-Poland Charity Action “Help the Children Survive Winter”. It is an initiative that,thanks to the strength and power of mass media, has evolved over the course of 25 years from local ad hoc collection of gifts into a nationwide program to help the youngest in need.

High educational hopes were put into the appearance of each and every medium. The history of media development in the 20th century is also the history of high educational hopes and spectacular failures. It seems that at least some major links of these processes are repeated in the development of most important technologies for transmission of information. Many scholars (e.g. Neil Selwyn from Monash University) believe that critical approach provides accurate diagnosis of failures in educational technology applications. Historical perspective, on the other hand, allows for seeing the whole of certain processes and eliminating the phenomena that are negative from the researcher’s standpoint, e.g. excessive enthusiasm that accompanied the introduction of new technologies. This kind of “emotional smog” largely disappears if we accept historical perspective. Critical and historical analysis of the use of technology in education may give the opportunity for its effective use and avoiding traps into which radio, television, and the Internet fell during the 1990s.  

The article proposes a reflection on the experience of British Broadcasting Corporation in promoting media literacy which is defined as “the ability to access, understand and create communications in a variety of contexts”. While discussing the issue of media literacy in Poland, one is prompted to refer to the experience of public broadcasters in countries regarded as leaders in pursuing its objectives. The BBC seems to be a natural choice due to its leading position in the digital revolution of the British media system and its public mission to promote education and reading. The article presents an overview of selected projects committed to the promotion of media literacy among various social groups. The authors seek an answer to the following questions: 1) are these projects in line with the strategy for media literacy formulated by the BBC in 2013? and 2) what conditions would need to be fulfilled if such projects were to be implemented in Poland?