On Model Analyses of the Media from the Viewpoint of the Didactics of History (an Illustrious Historical Figure – Charles IV)

Historical figures have always aroused the kind of interest we would, in the modern age, call media publicity. What we have in mind here is, first and foremost, pictorial media, the communication of which was intended for the widest possible range of recipients, as well as textbooks and other didactic aids. Modern historical education is based on the concept of historical culture, for which reason it is assumed that the given communication will, rather than mere illustration, become a qualitatively new teaching aid. The text presented here analyses the potential of individual media (from academic texts and works of art to feature films, currency and postage stamps) using the example of a medieval sovereign, and gives an interpretation of the connection between media education and history teaching with a view to the development of the historical awareness of the pupil and his or her media literacy.