About Us
Educating Media Professionals for the Future
The contemporary media landscape is one characterized by enormous and rapid changes taking place on a scale and of an importance never before witnessed. The ever-expanding internet and the growth of mobile communication technologies continue to have a profound influence on how media are produced, distributed and consumed. Indeed, the very meaning of the word “media” itself is constantly evolving. Taken together, these changes offer a huge range of exciting new opportunities for young people aiming for careers as media professionals or media studies researchers or teachers.
The Media Professional Course’s MA and PhD degree programs have been specifically designed to prepare students for such careers. Established in 2004 we aim to provide students with a thorough grounding in the knowledge and skills they need to create, distribute, interpret and evaluate various kinds of media including both traditional mass media and new social media formats. Graduates from the programs are highly-qualified for media-related careers not only in broadcast, print and other media organizations but also more generally as specialists in information and communication in the fields of advertising, public relations and education.
Vocational Training
In the past, media and other organizations tended to recruit new graduate employees without much regard to what they had studied at university, relying instead on on-the-job training to provide them with the specific knowledge and skills considered necessary for their work. However, in recent years as the competition for media-related jobs has increased, the tendency has been for such organizations to recruit people who not only possess a broad understanding of society and culture but who can also demonstrate some technical knowledge and practical experience of media work. It was in response to this tendency that the Media Professional Course was established as an educational institution that is uniquely dedicated to the mission of meeting the needs of both media organizations and students seeking media-related careers.
Media, Society and Industry Collaboration
Underlying the Media Professional Course’s success in accomplishing its educational mission has been the close and productive collaboration between academia, media organizations and civil society that it has developed. In particular, we have benefited enormously from the support and cooperation of a wide range of media organizations that have kindly allowed some of their most senior personnel to serve as visiting professors and lecturers. These organizations include the Nagoya-based Chunichi Shimbun newspaper and Tokai Television companies, Japan’s public service broadcaster NHK, news agency Kyodo Tsushin and the country’s leading advertising agency, Dentsu. The classes taught by these industry professionals are highly popular because of the unique opportunity they provide for students to learn about the media from experienced insiders. The classes currently include Practical Newspaper Reporting, Television Broadcasting, Television and Film Journalism and Advertising. As a further development of our ties with media-related organizations, in 2009 we launched a new class, Corporate Communication, which is taught collaboratively by our academic staff and PR specialists from a number of major companies based in the Nagoya area. In addition to these classes we have also established an internship program with the Chunichi Shimbun through which students can gain vital experience in actually working for a media organization.
Research
The academic faculty of the Media Professional Course conduct world-class research in the fields of media, communication and information studies. We are particularly fortunate in having a number of faculty members who in addition to holding advanced degrees in their fields of expertise also have extensive experience as media professionals, both in Japan and in other countries including the USA and Germany. Research strengths include new media and mobile communication, media and politics, communication design, media education and media language. Note, however, that in addition to these areas our faculty can offer supervision to MA and PhD students in a range of other subjects.
Faculty members have been successful in obtaining funding for their research through competitive grants-in-aid from the Japanese Ministry of Education and elsewhere and they have received a number of academic awards in recognition of the value of their work.
In recent years the Course has hosted a number of conferences and symposia featuring leading experts in various fields of media research.