Communications: Digital Britain

My Lords, reverting to the question of media literacy, is my noble friend aware that his affirmation of the importance of media literacy today will be extremely welcome, as is the emphasis on that matter in the report? Does he agree that there is too much facile disparagement of media studies courses? While it may be the case that some media studies courses are not as good as ideally they would be, is it not absurd to suggest, given the power of the media in influencing the development of public opinion in our politics and given the ubiquity and power of digital media in our emerging culture, that people should not be educated in media literacy? Is he aware that 100 years ago, the innovation of English literature in academic studies was rather comparably disparaged, and is not the situation today equal to that? Will my noble friend continue to do what he can to encourage his colleagues to promote good media education?