The Postgraduate Program in “Communication & Media” started to operate in the academic year 1996-97. First, it was reformed as part of the EPEAEK II Program (2001-2002) in two specialized areas of study ("Political Communication and New Technologies" - "Cultural Studies and Human Communication") and functioned in this form until the academic year 2008-2009.

The Postgraduate Program was reformed for the second time during the academic year 2008-2009 in order to specialize in academic areas that are of a high strategic priority for the Greek state and society.

The subject matter of the reformed Postgraduate Program has at its core a number of thematic specializations of specific interest. The program:

(A) offers studies that provide knowledge and skills in the areas of European communications, public communication, cultural studies, conflict management and Information and Communication Technologies

(B) is directly connected to the labour market (fully trained and specialized executives in the above subjects)

(C) is delivered by academic instructors who have proven interdisciplinary approach (in line with the nature of the subject of communication) and have gained deep knowledge of the various thematic areas that deal with communication, in various surveys.

 Specifically, the current Postgraduate Program includes five thematic areas:

• European Communications: Structures and Policies
• Public Opinion and Public Communication
• Cultural Studies
• Conflicts: Conflict Management and Communication
• Digital Communication Media and Interactive Environments

OBJECTIVES OF THE POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM

The objective of the specialization "European Communications: Structures and Policies" is to look into the rapid changes that are taking place in the communication field in Europe and which have strong political, social and economic implications. It focuses on the European market, regulations, the content and the role of the Media. It is designed for candidates who are interested in the structure of European markets, audiences, producers and strategies. This specialization’s goal is to deliver knowledge about the function of the European community in the environment of contemporary developments, and simultaneously offer training on the research of journalistic sources. It also emphasizes on the way in which the Institutions of the European Union define and implement policies that affect the structure and function of the European communication field.

The objective of the specialization on "Public Opinion and Public Communication" is to provide specialized scientific knowledge and practical skills in theory and opinion research, on individual and mass scale, in the field of public communication. At the end of their studies, postgraduate students are expected to have gained, through theoretical analysis and practical exercises, a high level of knowledge about the nature of public opinion, theories and methods of analysis, the existent relationship between public opinion and democracy in the context of the information society, as well as an overview of the ways in which mass media define and frame the public themes.

The objective of the specialization on "Cultural Studies" is to produce a skilled scientific workforce in cultural matters. In this spectrum, the course provides an extensive study of the relationship between Greece and its history, its traditions and the new multicultural reality. This specialization combines deep theoretical knowledge in matters of human communication, culture, identity, theory and practice of culture with specialized training on the management of cultural products. For this purpose, cultural studies focus on the one hand on the art of communication (cultural issues in public and private life, the relationship between body and gender, culture and soul, matters related to the ethics of communication, literary writing techniques, systems that record and analyze the verbal or written expression), and on the other hand cultural studies focus on the art as communication (cinema, performing arts, literature).

The objective of the specialization on "Conflict: Conflict Management and Communication" is to provide specialized scientific knowledge in the theoretical approaches and practices that are related to the nature of the conflict and the root causes of conflicts, as well as resolution and conflict management. This specialization emphasizes on the analysis of the psychodynamics of interactions and communication practices that characterize the conflict in an inner-personal, interpersonal and intercultural level. Through discussions and case studies, types of conflicts are being investigated, whereas conflict management strategies and techniques of mediation and negotiation are presented.

The objective of the specialization on "Digital Communication Media and Interactive Environments" is to examine the new communication environments on the basis of the new possibilities of planning, development and evaluation. The latter includes techniques and methods of adaptation and personalization, artificial intelligence, e-learning, virtual environments, as well as new design rules based on the principles of open content, social media, peer communities and participatory forms of governance. This program of study provides students with specialized knowledge in the above techniques and rules of design, development, management and evaluation of digital media, both at on individual (human-computer interaction) and on a social level (computer-mediated communication), so as to develop interaction environments with elevated levels of usability, communication potential and user friendliness.

We should note that beyond the achievement of the goals of the Postgraduate Program, in its twenty years of operation, the Department of Communication and Media Studies has carried out international conferences with great success, has published and edited collective volumes and a number of unique, to this day, academic journals in Greece ("Issues of Communication", "Elelef") concerning the study of the communication phenomenon. In the “Issues of Communication” journal, members of the academic staff of the Department express their scientific views in cooperation with foreign university partners, whereas a large number of collaborative research projects and publications, including international projects that originate from postgraduate students’ dissertations of the Department, are reviewed. The “Elelef” journal, the issues of which focus on thematic areas or conferences related to culture, hosts research articles from the academic staff of the Department or foreign scientists as well as projects carried out by postgraduate students.