Comprehensive education in Media

Mediated communication is experiencing profound changes through digitization, the growing reliance on the Internet, development of mobile media technologies and the increasing use of information visualization. Aalto University considers it vital to place a strong emphasis on education related to media and communication. Already Aalto University is the most extensive provider of media education in Finland. The Media Factory acts as an active catalyst in further strengthening this position. Our primary aim is to create new and integrated educational offerings, innovative learning opportunities within the media context, as well as links between educators and students in the three Aalto schools.

Media Factory promotes education that is integrated directly to research and in connection with the media industry. Education offered via the Media Factory is strongly based on a hands-on with mind-on principle and peer learning, an approach used highly successfully since 1994 in the famous Media Lab Helsinki, which is now part of the Department of Media at Aalto University’s School of Art and Design. We give emphasis to courses organised in the form of workshops, seminars, small learning modules, and projects. During 2010, apart from education developed within Media Factory along with departmental representatives, new courses are being developed by several departments in accordance with the aims of the Media Factory’s open calls.

The first educational offering of Media Factory was “Media in transition” (Median murros), a bachelor level introductory course in autumn 2009. It was open to all students from the three Aalto schools. The well received course is being offered again in academic year 2010-11. In autumn 2010 Media Factory will launch a new Aalto wide minor study program “MediaBizLab – Commercializing Media as Service”, based in the Department of Marketing and Management at the School of Economics.

Media Factory also serves as an instrument for assisting and networking educators of media and communication in the Aalto context. In addition, Media Factory organizes workshops, often in collaboration with the media industry, that are directed to all Aalto personnel who teach subjects connected to the media field.

Media education at Aalto

School of Art and Design

At the Aalto University School of Art and Design subjects related to media and communication can be studied in the Department of Media, the Department of Motion Picture, Television and Production Design, and the Department of Art and Media Pori.

The Department of Motion Picture, Television and Production Design educates visionary artists and operators to meet the future needs of the film production and audiovisual industry. The areas of specialisation are defined according to specific occupations in the film industry, which are highly specialised in order to cooperate most efficiently in planning and creating films.

The Media Lab in the Department of Media is a unit dedicated to Digital Design and Digital Media. The Media Lab’s mission is to explore, discover and comprehend new digital technology and its impact in society, and to understand and deal with the challenges it poses to design and creative production. The lab offers multidisciplinary MA and DA-level education and is one of the most international units within Aalto University. The Department of Media also trains multidisciplinary graphic design professionals. The teaching areas cover all forms of graphic communications media and distribution channels. Photography is the third educational unit within the Department of Media, where the studies underscore photography as an independent means of expression and the development of conceptual and research-related thinking. Closely related to the production requirements of the department is the Print Lab, a specialist lab designed to assist in the production of high quality photographic and graphic prints for students and media projects within the School.

The fields of focus in the Department of Art and Media in Pori are research and tuition in visual culture and media, connected to producing art, media and culture. The department collaborates in Pori with several regional, national and international communities and actors in the field of visual culture and media production.

School of Science and Technology

At the Aalto University School of Science and Technology media and communication studies are represented foremost by the Department of Media Technology. The field of activity in the department is digital media in all of its forms: as a publishing platform, as well as an interactive environment. The goal is to promote the complex technical, content-related, and psychological skills required in building the current media systems and products.

The Department of Communications and Networking at the School of Science and Technology is a multi-disciplinary unit covering communications and networking technology, networking business and human aspects of communication and communications technology. The department develops communications, information and teletraffic theory and conducts fundamental and applied experimental research in communications and networking technology. Other areas connected to media and communication can be found at the Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics, which focuses on research and education in the fields of digital signal processing and digital circuit technology, acoustics, audio and speech processing, measurement and optical technology.

School of Economics

At the Aalto School of Economics media studies are represented by the Department of Languages and Communication, where the goal is to produce effective communicators for a global multicultural business environment, and the Department of Marketing and Management, where the students are equipped with in-depth business knowledge and professional skills that help them to excel in demanding positions as marketing executives and managers in different branches of business.