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Brasão da PUC-Rio

Graduate Program in Communication

General Information Concentration areas and lines of research Recognition of the Course Requirements for obtaining the Master’s and Doctoral degrees Admission and Enrollment

More information

Contact:
poscom@puc-rio.br
+55 21 3527-1144
+55 21 3527-1145

Address:
Departamento de Comunicação
Rua Marquês de São Vicente, 225
Prédio Kennedy, 6º andar
Gávea, Rio de Janeiro - RJ

Office hours:
9:00am to 1:00pm and
2:00pm to 5:00pm

General Information

Program Overview

The Graduate Program in Communication – Master’s and Doctoral degrees – was conceived by taking into account the specific challenges of Social Communication within the context of the contemporary world, which is undergoing an accelerated globalization process that also includes an inevitable tension between the global and the local. This complex frame indicates the urgency of a reflection on the social dimension of the phenomenon of communication, its meanings, experiences and practices that delimit contemporary culture.

The Doctoral course results from the academic maturity of Department’s professors and researchers who teach in the Master's course, that started in August 2003. During this period, professors and students have demonstrated competence in their academic functions of research and production of knowledge, presenting a significant number of dissertations that attest an unquestionable contribution to the critical reflection on contemporary social communication phenomena.

The Doctoral degree comes to add to the already existing integration process of the undergraduate and the master’s degree. Our academic vocation is directed towards an integrated academic training, without losing sight of the diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches. To meet the demands of this integrated character, the Doctoral course has led to some adjustments and reorientations in the Master´s course.

The structure of the lines of research involves the two Graduation levels, ensuring thereby a continuous flow of production of knowledge along the process of the academic formation of the graduate students. The lines of research are broad enough to meet the research and interests of professors and the historical profile of students.

Also, the curriculum structure of the Master’s degree enables a full credit transfer to the Doctoral course. For Doctoral applicants who come from other Graduate Programs, there will be a maximum transfer of credits from the Master’s course through a process of equivalence of disciplines. Our Doctoral course is engaged in opening new perspectives for graduate studies in Rio de Janeiro, without however losing sight of standard curriculum demands, thus avoiding problems of curriculum adaptation.

As seen in the course curriculum as well as in the syllabuses, the Master’s and Doctoral courses in Communication were structured in such a way as to lead the students as quickly as possible to choose a line of research and to define their object of research. The lines of research were elaborated on the basis of a wide range of discussion among the Program’s faculty members, of a close examination on their scientific production, as well as on the trends observed in almost a hundred master’s dissertations defended and approved in the Program. The same process converged for the maintenance, also in the Doctorate, of a single Concentration Area already existing in the Master.

Objectives

The main objective of the Master’s and Doctoral courses offered by the Graduate Program in Communication of PUC-Rio is to enable students for university teaching and scientific research. The Graduate Program in Communication of the Department of Social Communication, in line with the various international exchange programs offered by PUC-Rio, is open to receive foreign students.

The professional graduate from our program at PUC-Rio should be fully qualified for the exercise of university teaching and of high level scientific research.

The goal of the courses is therefore to offer the necessary elements so that the quality of the research developed by our alumni can guarantee a continuous scientific production. This production should result in the publication of articles in qualified journals, books and chapters of books, as well as in assiduous and proficient participation in congresses and academic seminars within the field of communication. Our former student should also be qualified to perform high level teaching activity, demonstrating the required skills and attributes to integrate the faculty of the most respected Brazilian and foreign universities.

The profile of the professional that we intend to form should also include, the ability to design, manage and conduct social projects in communication, as well as acting in the private sector, taking proactive actions for the development of communication in the country.

The Graduate Program in Communication, as an enhanced form of combining teaching and research, is committed to a continuous process of academic updating, which is being practiced laboriously in the Social Communication Department at PUC-RIO. Like this, we look for assuring the student with a set of essential knowledge for the study of communication, their representations, productions and experiences materialized in media culture, both providing flexibility to choose the composition of their study program and adapting the offer of disciplines to lines of research developed by the Program.

History

The Social Communication undergraduate course at PUC-Rio completed 60 years of existence. It began to work as a Journalism course in March 1951, through Decree 29312 of Feb 28, 1951, and it was recognized by the MEC Decree 37738 of Aug 10, 1955. With the 1968 University Reform, the course’s name was changed to Social Communication course, based at the same Department. Along these six decades, several reforms in teaching activities adapted the course, initially versatile, to the training requirements for the job market, with the creation of the qualifications of Journalism, Publicity and Advertising. Cinema, our third qualification, was implanted in 2005.

Our proposal of the Master’s degree in Communication was a natural consequence of a process of maturation at both an institutional and collective levels. Being approved by the Technical and Scientific Council (CTC) of CAPES (the Ministry of Education’s “Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel”) in December 2002, the Master's course started in August 2003, with the selection and entry of its first class of eleven students. During this period, the project of the Master’s program was consolidated. With an average of over six candidates per vacancy, it continues to be a much sought-after Program. Besides that, the course had its initial grade heightened to grade four, already in its first triennial evaluation by CAPES, having been confirmed in the subsequent three-year period 2007/2009, 2010/2012.

In its trajectory, the faculty’s scientific production has developed. Today, it constitutes a significant critical mass, with a relevant presence in the multiple areas of communication and has contributed to the bibliographical enrichment of the field, with publications of books and edited articles in national and international periodicals.

One should also emphasize that the implementation of the Master’s course has  enabled dissertation advisories at more complex levels, representing a wide-range of intellectual stimulus for the Department's teachers. This has led to the fact that about fifty percent of the faculty members are CNPq (The Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) research productivity fellows and ad-hoc consultants from this and other funding agencies. It is also worth noting the participation of our faculty members in national and international congresses and discussion forums.

Thus, after consolidating a well-evaluated Master’s course in the Area, the Social Communication Department at PUC-Rio selected its first class of the Doctoral course. The collective work of its faculty, along with personal vocations and initiatives, resulted in a maturity that allowed the implementation of a Doctoral course, approved by CAPES CTC at its 133rd meeting on February 27th and 28th, 2012, as a necessary step to consolidate a graduate plan capable of contributing even more effectively to the field of Communication in the country.

Concentration areas and lines of research

Concentration Area: Social Communication

Line of Research: Communication and Representation

Study of social representations as they are configured in the languages, narratives and products of the communications and media culture as forms of materialization of the contemporary imaginary. The symbolic dimension of the market, as trading arena of representation, identities and relationships of power.

Line of Research: Communication and Production

Study of the relationship between media production and sociocultural activities, emphasizing power interaction and systems involved in the processes of constructions and communication narratives. The use of communication technologies, the political negotiations, the social networks and the disputes for the control of media production.

Line of Research: Communication and Experience

Study of communication as a production of meaning, elaboration of subjectivities and materialization of experiences. The ways of reception of media narratives as cuttings, modelings, interpretations and experiences.

Course Recognition

Master’s and Doctoral degrees

CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Eduction Personnel; from Brazilian Ministry of Education) evaluation: grade 4 (in a 3 to 7 scale) for the 2010-2012 period.
Approved by the CNE/CES MEC n.288/2015 of July 08, 2015.
Granted degrees: Master and/or Doctor in Communication

Requirements for obtaining the Master’s and Doctoral degrees

Master

In order to obtain a Master's degree in Communication, the student must obtain at least 24 (twenty-four) credits, within a maximum period of 24 months:

Doctor

In order to obtain a Doctoral degree in Communication, the student must obtain at least 51 (fifty one) credits, within a maximum period of 48 months:

Admission and Enrollment

Applicant selection

Master

Doctor