Why a master’s in communications and gender matters
In a few hours my colleagues in Barcelona (Spain) are presenting a pioneering graduate program in Gender and Communication. Isabel Muntané and Joana Gallego have built a groundbreaking master’s degree that not only challenges the pillars of traditional journalism, but also the patriarchal-university structure in itself.
At this point, we know that the white-heterosexual journalism is coming to an end, that journalists are no longer in control of news and that the media industry is under global “reinvention”.
And there we are WE, invigorating the journalism we need.
- because media are key players in building a diverse and feminist society
- because media should already be informing from the CHANGE our society has been experimenting.
- because (we) women should no longer be treated in a discriminatory, victimized, infantilized or sexualized way.
- because media should be at the forefront of applying a feminist perspective into its craft
- because in the digital age universities should shift too
- and because the time to build our present-future journalism is here.
Personally, I’m really proud and honored to be part of this pioneering program in my hometown. We cannot know how can we make the most cutting edge journalism, but we can create environments where feminist frameworks and innovation can thrive.
One of the greatest characteristics of this program is that students will have more than 30 professors participating in different skill-blocks. Activists, academics, journalists, data scientists, filmmakers, writers and feminists (from many feminist perspectives) will work together in a diverse, multi-background and healthy non patriarchal ecosystem.
This is the first time the J-School of the Autonomous University of Barcelona offers this kind of program and it’s really, really exciting!
Congratulations for all the work already done and have a good presentation today!
