Abstract
From the very beginning, the development of media education discourse has been linked to political motives. Essentially, it was about the fact that media were always seen as seducers that needed to be countered with educational measures. Children and young people seemed particularly at risk of succumbing to the media's lure of superficial consumption, moral brutalisation and bad taste. The mythical model for this danger of emotional seduction is provided by Odysseus with his experience of passing the island of the Sirens: Nymphs lived there who enchanted everyone passing by with their singing. Anyone who allowed himself to be lured over to them by their lovely song was lost and had to die. Since Odysseus had been warned by Kirke, Odysseus covered his companions' ears with wax as soon as they approached the island. But his curiosity drove him to hear the sirens' song himself. So he had himself tied to the mast and ordered his companions not to release him until they had sailed past the island. In the Odyssey it says:
