Media and communication

Our society is deeply mediafied and all fields of life depend increasingly on the media. At the Institute of Social Studies, we examine and analyse phenomena connected to media and communication on the individual, organisational as well as the societal level.

Our interdisciplinary team of researchers are, among other subjects, interested in professional journalism, political communication, the work rhythms and resilience of memory institutions, datafication and technological risks, the threats and opportunities of social media, organisational culture, media policy and information law, informational, media and digital competences, information disorder and informational influencing, cybercrime and scientific and crisis communication. We also deal with descriptive and analytical base science, incl. developing new digital methods.

In the field of media and communication science, we are constantly dealing with information, data and meanings. We regard diverse, independent and critical analysis as our general competence. Our aim is to develop a cocreation of meaning in a democratic society. We examine the history, content, creative process, influence and audience of media, but also memory institutions and their work methods, the process of interpersonal communication, information seeking behaviour, organisational communication and creation of meaning in shared information fields.

We currently have three main areas of research in the field of media and communication. Our interests in the field of datafying and digitalising institutions include digital competences, artificial intelligence and profiling, and the datafication of education. To foster professional journalism that supports democracy, we examine the roles of journalists and the tensions these bring with them, minority media, European media landscapes and audiences. To evaluate the agency and media competence of the Estonian public, we analyse digitalised childhood, media competences among youth, the work rhythms of memory institutions in the context of an accelerating social time, the media usage of the Russian-speaking population, and cybercrime during the pandemic.

In addition to creating new, quality expert knowledge, we also consider it important to have a voice in society. This involves the communication of scientific results to society as well as developing a culture of public discussion. To ensure the continuity of research, we already include undergraduate students in research projects and studies.

Principal fields of research

Journalism and social media;
Media, information and digital competences;
Political communication;
Media policy;
Scientific communication;
Information education and library science.

CORE – Children Online: Research and Evidence. A knowledge base on children and youth in the digital age

Post-migrant voices in the Baltic Sea region (Sweden, Germany, Estonia)

MEDIADELCOM: Critical Exploration of Media Related Risks and Opportunities for Deliberative Communication

ySKILLS – Digital skills among youth

How is this applied in the curriculum?

Information and data, their meaning and communication are integrated in all of the institute’s curricula. The Master’s program “Analysis of Society and Information Processes” binds the skills and knowledge from the fields of sociology and information science to a specific competence in working with data. The curricula “Journalism and Communication” on the bachelor’s as well as the master’s level, the interdisciplinary master’s program “Change Management in Society” and the one-year block learning based master’s program “Managerial and Digital Communication” place more emphasis on communication skills and cocreation of meanings.

Students who study with us will obtain competences pertaining to:

Data and text analysis;
Data-based decision making;
Coping with information overload and information disorder;
Data journalism;
Application of methods of social analysis (incl. new digital methods);
Skills for mediation between interested parties and cocreation.

Media and communication

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Principal fields of research

Research projects tackling media and communication include...

How is this applied in the curriculum?