Digital Media Summer Institute 2013

6 May 2013

Short courses with UT Austin faculty in Lisbon and Porto.

The seventh annual Summer Institute will offer students and professionals in Lisbon and Porto the opportunity to explore a variety of digital media topics. Renowned instructors from the University of Texas at Austin will teach intensive short courses from two to three weeks in duration in May and June. The courses will be taught at the graduate level.

Lisbon (FCSH/UNL and FCT/ UNL)

Entrepreneurial Journalism
Rosental Alves, UT Austin
20 May to 7 June at FCSH/UNL, Lisbon
(14h-17h)
ECTS 3,5

Research Methods*
Sharon Strover, UT Austin
20 May to 7 June at FCSH/UNL, Lisbon
(11h-13h)

*mandatory for all enrolled PhD students (2012/2013).

Human-Computer Interaction and Interactive Media
William J. Moner, UT Austin
12 June to 28 June (3X a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday) at FCT/UNL, Monte da Caparica
(10h-13h)
ECTS 3

Porto 

Digital Games Design
Bruce Pennycook , UT Austin
17 June to 28 June (2 weeks classes + 1 week project), FEUP (classes 9h30-12h30 + lab work at afternoon)
Fee: 35€
Registration: http://bit.ly/GamesSummerSchoolFEUP2013
 

How to Apply

Interested prospective applicants should send an email to carolina.enes@fct.unl.pt with the following information. The deadline is May 13 for Lisbon courses.

• The name of the course to which they are applying on the subject line of the email (one email per course);
• An application letter of up to 350 words and CV (both in English);
• Full name, address, telephone number, age and highest degree achieved. Students must also indicate the course and institution they are attending.

Course Descriptions

Entrepreneurial Journalism - Rosental Alves
The course is expected to include online and offline components. Students will look at how digital media has affected the processes of production, distribution, and consumption in the news industry, and study specific examples of innovative journalism projects that have taken advantage of the opportunities offered by digital platforms.

 Rosental C. Alves is a Professor in the School of Journalism at UT Austin. He began his academic career in the United States in March 1996, after 27 years as a professional journalist, including seven years as a journalism professor in Brazil. For over a decade, he was a foreign correspondent based in Spain, Argentina, Mexico and the United States, working for Jornal do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro, one of the most important Brazilian newspapers. In 1994, he managed the creation of Jornal do Brasil online edition, making it the first Brazilian newspaper available on the Web. Professor Alves created the first course on online journalism at The University of Texas at Austin. He also teaches courses on international reporting and Latin American studies. A working journalist since he was 16, Alves received a B.A. in journalism from the Rio de Janeiro Federal University. He was the first Brazilian awarded a Nieman Fellowship to spend an academic year (1987-88) at Harvard University. He previously taught journalism at Fluminense Federal University and at Gama Filho University, in Rio de Janeiro, beginning as a lecturer when he was 21.


Research Methods - Sharon Strover
Students will study the basics of conducting systematic research, relying on a social sciences methodological approach. The course will address theoretical aspects of research such as epistemology, conceptualization, and measurement, and also introduce students to specific methods including focus groups, interviews, online and offline surveys, field experiments, ethnography, and other Internet-oriented approaches. This course will be very helpful for students constructing their research proposals and embarking on their doctoral projects.

 Sharon Strover is the Philip G. Warner Regents Professor in Communication and former Chair of the Radio-TV-Film Department at the University of Texas, where she teaches communications and telecommunications courses and directs the Telecommunications and Information Policy Institute. Some of her current research projects examine statewide networks and advanced broadband services; the relationship between economic outcomes and investments in digital media programs in higher education; social media; the digital divide; rural broadband deployment; e-government; telecommunications infrastructure deployment and economic development in rural regions; and market structure and policy issues for international audio-visual industries. One recent research project examines the impact of newly acquired broadband in four communities across four years of deployment efforts, a study funded by the Department of Agriculture. She is also working on the Connected Viewing project, looking at how people use new platforms and devices for entertainment purposes. In 2010 she stepped down from her eight-year stint chairing the RTF Department in order to work on the USDA’s Broadband Initiatives Program in Washington D.C., after which she returned to the University of Texas.


Human-computer interaction and interactive media - William J. Moner
The course will focus on using the tools of the web to create a story. Students will employ proprietary and open source software to design a narrative experience that communicates the story of a place, such as a home town, using the web as a data source for materials and platforms. The course will address both theory and production and will include discussion of mobile devices, remix culture, and transmedia storytelling.

 William J. Moner is an educator, designer, and researcher of digital, web, and social media and a PhD candidate in Media Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. William has been a college-level instructor since 2005, focusing heavily on web-based production and development. He is formerly an Assistant Instructor of Digital Media at the University of Texas at Austin and formerly a Lecturer of Interactive Design at Texas State University in the Communication Design department. His research focuses on the topic of storytelling through access to online media archives and repositories and how web-based interactive media and other born-digital materials face an uncertain archival future. He will join the faculty of the Interactive Media Masters Program at Elon University in Fall, 2013.