DEPARTMENT OF
MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS

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The relationship between media, culture, technology and society is at the heart of the department’s teaching and research activities. The focus here is on the complex networking of media, cultural and communicative practices with societal, economic and political processes in everyday and institutional contexts. These processes and networks are observed and examined at local, regional, national and global levels. In addition to the traditional theories from media and communications science, transdisciplinary cultural studies with its multiperspective and contextualising research strategies, as well as interpretative theories and theories from media and technical sciences relating to computer technology and the virtual space, also form a theoretical point of reference of research and teaching. A wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods are applied in the department. Our diverse fields of research are also reflected in the courses the department offers. Specialist fields include cultural studies, digital media, film and television research, media and convergence management, media and cultural theory, media education, media pedagogy, media change, organisational communication, visual culture and advertising research.

The following programmes of study are offered in the Department of Media and Communications:

Bachelor’s degree programme “Media and Communications” (information in German)
Master’s degree programme “Media, Communications and Culture” (information in German)
Master’s degree programme “Media and Convergence Management” (cross-faculty)
Thematic doctoral degree programme “Health, Science and Social Responsibility, Communication and Management (cross-faculty)

The declared objective of the programmes of study on offer is the scientific foundation of specialist skills that enable the student to act in a flexible, effective and successful way in today’s diverse and rapidly changing professional fields that are characterised by global information and communication structures. International guest professors, conferences, cooperation projects and summer schools help embed teaching and research in the global scientific community.

Since 2013, the Department of Media and Communications has been a partner in the alliance between the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt (AAU) and it cooperates with the Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies (www.oeaw.ac.at/cmc/).