Overview

Media Studies

The Undergraduate Program in Media Studies at PUC-Rio

Program Overview

The course provides a broad, hybrid and integrated educational background, centered on the understanding of the media as an ecosystem – a concept consolidated in several countries as a field of research and teaching in an interdisciplinary perspective. This alignment with international standards in media education facilitates internationalization and student exchange. The model is adopted in top foreign universities, such as University of California (Berkley), University of Amsterdam, University of Southern California, University of Brighton, City, University of London.

The flexibility and international standards of the Media Studies course encourage a plural and entrepreneurial learning based on the experimentation of multiple languages and media formats: production of narratives and images in media such as cinema, television, radio, social media, advertising etc. It involves, for example, audiovisual production in the broadcasting system, and even consulting in communication and marketing for agencies, public and private companies, third sector organizations. The student is qualified for the changing production and business models of digital technologies, with broad career possibilities.

 

There are three emphases:

- Advertising and Corporate Communication

Focuses on the qualification of professionals for positions of planning, management, execution, control and evaluation of projects. It is based on the qualification of Communication and Advertising analysts and consultants with a wide background, aligned with the complexity of the contemporary market and the different media, cultural and social contexts in dispute.

- Cinema and Audiovisual

It is dedicated to preparing qualified professionals for several activities in the field of Cinema and its audiovisual interfaces, as well as for insertion in the universe of academic research. It provides knowledge, reflection, and cinematographic practice. It encourages students to do creative work, to take risks in order to discover their own voices, connected to the idea of citizenship through art. The intention is to educate citizens who are equally equipped with the power of images, words, movement, and the desire to share a humanistic vision of the world.

- Communication and Technology

This program's emphasis includes courses and workshops designed for professional qualification and improvement within the scope of the relationships between communication and the technological development of societies. Thus, it encourages the study of computer language, technological entrepreneurship, data management, and creative models, from the communicational perspective of technology and information. With this, the student becomes able to professional growth in any of the multiple possibilities related to the technological interface of communication.

 

The academic path is built from a flexible curricular grid, in which students combine subjects according to their projected route. In an innovative process, each student traces his or her academic-professional track with the support of specialized tutors and laboratories focused on career planning.

- After many consultations and research on top-quality courses in Brazil and abroad, we came up with the design of a hybrid and flexible course, in which it is possible to experiment with vocations, without losing the theoretical foundation, humanistic training and the ethical values of PUC-Rio - explains professor Cláudia Pereira, Media Studies coordinator.

The format allows the formation of inventive professionals, open to experimentation, qualified for the demands and opportunities resulting from the media reconfiguration, and able to manage their careers in an autonomous way. The graduate can work as a planner, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, producer, fiction director, critic, audiovisual advertising specialist, social media analyst, among many other professional options.

– The Media Studies course is characterized by innovation and audacity. Academic innovation, by proposing a flexible and interdisciplinary curricular matrix, integrating diverse areas of knowledge. Epistemological audacity, by providing a polyvalent professional formation, transmedia technological qualification and multifunctional competence in the area of Communication – observes the director of the Department of Social Communication, professor Tatiana Siciliano.

 

Background

The Undergraduate Program in Social Communication at PUC-Rio was created in 1951, initially established as a Journalism program. After the 1968 University Reform, the program was renamed to Social Communication, offered under the Department by the same name. Over the course of next six decades, the program went through several changes driven by wider educational reforms, adapting to job market demands with a more versatile course of study that included Publicity & Advertising in addition to Journalism. A third discipline, Cinema Studies, was added in 2005. It has flourished into one of the most respected undergraduate programs in Journalism, Publicity & Advertising, and Cinema Studies in the country. 

In 2020, the Media Studies undergraduate degree was launched. Aligned with technological and media transformations, new socioeconomic demands, and international standards related to teaching and practice in communication, it incorporates the fields of Advertising and Film, and integrates knowledge, reflections, and dynamics oriented to the qualification of polyvalent professionals. Its curriculum provides a comprehensive and critical education in Humanities.

 

International Exchange Programs

The Department of Social Communication at PUC-Rio strives to encourage knowledge exchange, research cooperation, excellence in student and faculty education, and strong partnerships with universities abroad.

International students have the opportunity to take courses in English at PUC-Rio and learn Portuguese.

Central Coordination of International Cooperation (CCCI)

Access the website: https://www.puc-rio.br/ensinopesq/ccci/

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