La investigación como estrategia de formación de los educomunicadores: Máster y doctorado

Abstract

Training educommunicators, experts in audiovisual education and media literacy, is undoubtedly one of the best strategies for consolidating this new class of professional in this field, and it should be a successful synthesis of communication and education dynamics taken to a higher level. The educommunicator is no mere media or teaching professional, and neither is he or she a mixture of both. This is a new type of professional with origins in both trades but with a separate, specific vocational profile that combines communication and educational competences, its main target being the “audience” of a mediatized society in all its diverse strands and situations. Educating audiences in media competence is based on the simple premise that since we live in a society «mediated by media», what is needed is a generalized form of education and literacy aimed at the public because, as research consistently shows, consumption of media does not guarantee that these are viewed in an intelligent, creative and constructive way. In this sense, research in its essence becomes the best resource for training educommunicators for the development of audiovisual literacy and media competence; and this new task calls on all sectors involved in communication and education to contribute to the training of citizens in a media world. For this to happen, the generation of scientific endeavor in this new knowledge area is essential. The design and implementation of research projects is one of the more urgent needs especially given that there is still so much to discover in this field. It is a new reality that did not exist previously and which could not have been foreseen a decade ago but which has transformed our lives. Let’s pause and think for a moment of a typical daily situation, our dependence on the mobile phone that manifests in any work or leisure space in any type of society where smartphones have taken control of the audience.