Abstract
When discussing today how to theoretically define and operationalise the term media literacy, it should also be remembered that in the context of media education measures and material development programmes, the focus was less on methodological questions of determining basic human abilities and their development than on unspoken educational target perspectives for which the term media literacy stood as a metaphor. The common definition was that a child was competent if he or she could "use media in a meaningful way". However, because everyone was free to bring in their own understanding of meaningful media use, the term proved to be open to all pedagogical directions. Thus, it was not so much the inflationary use of the term "media literacy" that undermined it, but rather its vagueness, which per se made it subsumable to the most diverse pedagogical perspectives. In view of the media on offer, doubts about the self-regulating powers of the child are emerging in the discussion, insofar as the genesis presupposes the (media) competent child as such.
