Department of Communication

Research Profile

As a small Department we have opted to focus on specific areas of research and to develop joint projects. Our focal areas are 1) communication, citizenship and the public sphere, 2) science and environmental communication, 3) web-based communication, and 4) organisational communication and information studies. All these areas are linked together; most of our teachers and researchers have shared interests in at least two of them.

1. Communication, citizenship and the public sphere is the main area of research interest at the Department of Communication. Recent projects include Media coverage versus citizen response ,  The Public Sphere and Politics in the Age of Globalization , J ournalistic Culture in Transition , and European Public Spheres .

2. Another line of research at the Department since the late 1990s has been that of science and environmental communication. The main projects in this field include Science in Biodiversity Politics and The Power of the Gene . The Department started a new branch of study, science communication for postgraduate students in 2003.

3. A new branch of web-based communication with two fixed term professorships was launched in 2002-03. Recent research projects include Citizen activity and information technology, T he Mobile Boundaries of Working Life, and Life on and through the Web - cultural diversity or social inequality.

4. Organisational communication has featured in the Department’s curriculum ever since the 1970s when the first professorship was established. A professorship in information studies was founded in 2003 on a short-term basis. Recent projects include Intelligent organisation and the dynamics of knowledge, Information behaviour and strategic collaboration networks and eCommunication: with and within)