About

In 1983, media educators from all education sectors throughout Scotland convened at Stirling University to form an association to promote media education: The Association for Media Education in Scotland. The following year, the Association published a journal, The Media Education Journal, which encouraged and informed debate around questions of theory, practice and teaching strategy for media education. Since then, The Media Education Journal has appeared twice a year.

From the earliest days of the association, AMES lobbied the key organisations of Scottish education to promote the aims of the Association. AMES members were heavily involved in establishing what became Scotvec Modules, the earliest formal media education qualifications in the Scottish system. Later, during the ‘Higher Still’ era, AMES members were responsible for writing the original Arrangements for Media Studies as a National Qualification, and AMES members were heavily involved in the work of the Scottish Qualifications Authority and its predecessors. AMES has also campaigned for a wider definition of what constitutes a “text” to be adopted. This aim has been secured in the Arrangements for Language and Literacy of a Curriculum for Excellence which recognises texts as multimodal and therefore includes all forms of media text.

As the subject association for teachers of media education and related disciplines, whether in the discrete subject of Media Studies in media education across different subject boundaries. AMES continues to lobby public bodies such as The Scottish Government Education Department, HM Inspectorate, Ofcom etc.

AMES membership costs £20 per year for an individual (which is tax deductible) and £35 for an Institution. Members of AMES receive free copies of the bi-yearly Media Education Journal and copies of the AMES newsletter.

To join AMES, go to the Membership page.

AMES can be contacted by post c/o Des Murphy (Secretary), 24 Burnett Place, Aberdeen, AB24 4QD or by email to desmurphy47@gmail.com.

AMES is a non-profit organisation and registered charity (Scottish Charity number: SC 029408). It is funded through membership subscriptions as well as subscriptions to the Media Education Journal. As a charity, AMES is overseen by OSCAR and examined by an Independent Examiner.

AMES organizes an annual conference around important questions of media education, theory and practice.

The AMES AGM takes place after the Conference. The AGM elects a Management Committee to organize the day to day running of the Association.

AMES’ activities and organization are directed by its Constitution.

Aims of the association are:

• To represent the interests of, and raise the status of, media education in general and Media Studies as a discipline.

• To lobby government and public bodies on behalf of media education and respond to initiatives from the Scottish Government and local education authorities.

• To provide a coherent and proactive voice for media teachers and others participating in current and future educational reform.

• To disseminate information about media education. To achieve this, AMES works in partnership with the higher education sector in, for example, co-producing issues of the Media Education Journal.

• To provide opportunities for members' personal development through examples of good practice which enhance and promote the teaching and learning of Media Studies.

• To advocate the importance of media education in the public domain and to defend media education from misleading coverage in the press about media education.

• To provide a forum for the views and experiences of those teaching media and to offer a means of addressing their resource needs.

• To develop reciprocal links with media industries and involve practitioners from the media industries in the work of schools.

• To provide conferences, a biennial journal, a regular newsletter and further support the needs of the membership.

• To promote dialogue between the varied constituencies involved in media education, both across the curriculum areas and across different sectors of education.