Abstract:

The goal of the paper is to present the structure, form, content and research aspects of the Postgraduate Doctoral Study Program in Media and Communication at the University North. The Program is primarily focused on the field of information and communication sciences, but unlike other comparable studies in Croatia, it puts great emphasis on interdisciplinary component. Regarding the structural and formal characteristics of the Program, paper clearly demonstrates its compliance with current documents and regulations at the national level and the level of the European Union. Next, we present the advantages of modular concept of the Program and elaborate on the importance of ensuring parallel development of teaching and research phase, which enables doctoral students to perform scientific research work from the beginning of their studies. In the part of the paper related to the content and research specifics of the Program, we elaborate the understanding of media and communication studies in the context of contemporary theoretical and methodological tendencies that explicitly display the need for redefinition and explore the possible paradigm shift. Consequently, the aim is to show that both Program curriculum and research developed in collaboration between professors/mentors and doctoral students are moving in the direction of understanding the "new" media as digital or computer media which are rooted in information and communication technology and which demonstrate their direct repercussions in the breadth and diversity of contemporary socio-cultural forms.

By way of qualitative analysis of scientific literature, primarily one focused on discussing and understanding “new” media as computer media, as well as the analysis and examination of doctoral education guidelines in the European research domain and the European higher education domain, the paper presents the specifics of the doctoral education process and suggests the frame for understanding and successful performance of doctoral study in the field of media and communication.

Motivated by the lack of systematic and comprehensive discussions that approach the study of new media as computer media from the perspective of postgraduate education, this paper will contribute to the theoretical consideration of the concept of media from a contemporary perspective. On the other hand, it will also contribute to understanding of the importance of doctoral training in the European research domain.

Keywords:

Postgraduate education, media, communication, European research domain.