The Fourth EAVI International Conference took place on 6th - 7th December 2011 in the Hall Karoly, Csekonics Residency, in Budapest.

The focal point of the two-day conference was media, education and citizens. For this reason, the EAVI conference was pleased to welcome distinguished representatives from the educational, the media, the political and the civil society’s fields. There were submissions from national and international institutions, such as UNESCO. Countries represented included UK, Nederland, Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Romania, and, of course, Hungary.

The conference was structured to include a variety of presentations to the large audience using different modalities to encourage interaction and debate: Panels, interviews, workshops and video screening.

Results were above expectations and participation was impressive. The important role that EAVI is playing among the international community to stimulate debate about full citizenship was consistently reinforced, as a mode of civic engagement and empowerment, to affect change.

It was interesting to observe that, in line with the EAVI studies findings, general concepts about media literacy are now shared.

Among the many conclusions drawn from the Conference, the importance of media literacy was reinforced as the dependence of democracy on citizens who know where and how to look for information through the media, who understand what they are being told and why.

Speakers included: Prof. David Buckingham, Professor of Education and Director of the Center for the Study of Children, Youth and Media; Lajos Aary-Tamas, Commissioner for Educational Rights, Prof. Peter Csermely, Hungary and representatives of international institutions, such as Vladimir Gai, UNESCO.

The Fifth EAVI International Conference will be held in Florence in November 2012.