The hero in military education and media narrative: Possibilities of development of values by media education

From the perspective of imaginary studies, as manifested in diverse mythologies, the hero is the one who seeks to prove personal value in the face of hostile conditions, confronting apparently invincible opponents to defend people and/or communities. In this regard, we investigated whether the construction of the hero figure in media narratives is congruent with the archetype of the hero as manifested in the military model of professional training, which is based on tradition and the ethics of sacrifice, from the point of view of military ethos. The research method involves bibliographical research and an analysis of media narratives, which led to an elaborate set of guidelines for carrying out media education in the armed forces (in military training courses) to foster the military ethos. This research concludes that the concept of the hero was transformed after the Cold War, giving rise to the anti-hero, who does not defend collective values but contrasts with the figure of the hero typical of military culture. Considering the characteristics of new generations and the current challenges of media culture, this work proposes some guidelines for developing military values through media culture: role-playing exercises, production of media on historical figures, and analysis of moral dilemmas based on historical and fictional narratives. The use of narratives includes, but goes beyond, educational approaches focusing on media skills, since, in addition to promoting skills aimed at understanding and producing media messages, such narratives also emphasise the methodologies and techniques aimed at developing students’ ethics and vision of the world with regard to military training courses.