The main areas of research are
Aera 1 : The use and appropriation of emerging media
Research in this area focuses, simultaneously or alternatively, on the 'technical' logic of designers, taking into account the semio-technical constraints of new media and the way in which they influence the communication process, and/or on the logic of uses, looking at the way in which individuals develop their own media experience and practice.
Aera 2 : Social discourse and representation
This research focuses on the discursive dimensions of interaction in communication situations. It takes into account the audio-scripto-visual aspects of media discourse, always considering them in the context of social practices and uses. They consider the different forms of articulation and interaction between the linguistic on the one hand, and the social, cognitive or technological on the other.
Aera 3 : Ethical and deontological issues of communication in contemporary society
This research focuses on observing, analysing and monitoring the ethical and deontological positioning of the various communication actors in the public arena, from journalists and communicators to companies, associations and institutions. This attention to communication ethics and deontological principles also takes the form of regular collaboration with media regulatory bodies.
Aera 4 : Professional practice in communication
This research focuses on the observation and analysis of communication professions and professional practices and how they are changing. Specific themes include the construction of professional identities and cultures, the challenges posed by digital technologies, and the legitimisation of communication professions in the fields of public relations, mediation, advertising, educational communication and journalism.
Objectives and missions / Communication Research Centre
The Pôle / Centre de Recherche en Communication aims to develop knowledge and federate research in the field of communication sciences at UCL. Its ambition is to become an international reference centre in this field.
The research carried out at the Centre has in common an interest in all forms of communicational mediation linking various kinds of institutions or social organisations (companies, public bodies, NGOs, scientific, cultural or educational institutions, newspapers and audiovisual media, etc.) to their members on the one hand, and to the audiences they address on the other. These forms of mediation mobilise various semiotic forms offering their own possibilities of representation, and combine them in different media (verbal interactions, written texts, photographic or cinematographic images, videos, multimedia, etc.) using a variety of technological artefacts. They modulate the cognitive activity of the social actors involved in these devices, as well as the social relationships in which they participate.
The need for systematic study of communication-related phenomena arose when the means of communication - in particular the mass media - began to play a decisive role in the organisation of modern societies. Since then, research has been highly diversified, developing explanatory models that are sometimes very different depending on the disciplinary perspective or paradigm adopted: sociological, anthropological, linguistic, pragmatic, psychological, semiological, etc. Whatever the issues raised by each of these approaches, it is from their complementarity that originality springs.
This is why the communication sciences question the relationship before the terms of the relationship. The Centre de Recherche en Communication intends to play a leading role in the development of this emerging discipline, the purpose of which is to study socially constructed acts of communication, the meanings conveyed by these acts, the conditions under which they are produced and circulated, the communication technologies that underpin them, the relationships and cognitive phenomena they call upon, the socially shared representations linked to them and the effects of representations on social relationships.
In particular, the Centre's mission is to promote the scientific production of its members, by coordinating their research efforts (in particular research contracts on external funding) and the supervision of doctoral students (as part of the thematic doctoral school in Information and Communication Sciences), as well as the dissemination of knowledge (through publication in leading journals and participation in international scientific events, but also through the publication of an internationally recognised scientific journal and the organisation of international scientific conferences).