The Institute of Communication Sciences and Internet established within Istanbul Commerce University, is a revolutionary institute in Turkey regarding its content and scope. This institute aims to contribute to the development and globalization processes of research and studies in communication sciences and the internet.

The swift and extensive developments in communication and media technologies required the communication sciences’ inclination towards new areas of research and education. Thus, the institute established in 2019 launched its activities this year.

The institute intends to include the scientific data generated on communication processes and communication and media technologies in post-graduate programs, enhancing students’ know-how while extending their perspectives. Institute of Communication Sciences and Internet Institute will also function as a catalyst in developing research in communication sciences and internet and have a say in the international arena.

GLOBAL PROJECTS

The institute offers post-graduate programs in ‘corporate communication’, ‘media and communication studies’ and ‘cinema’ and PhD programs of ‘public relations and advertising’ and ‘media and communication studies.’

Students previously studying at the programs as mentioned above at the Institute of Social Sciences continue their education at the Institute of Communication Sciences and Internet.

In addition to the post-graduate programs it offers, the institute will participate in international projects and develop new research projects by cooperating with the prominent academies abroad.

AIMING FOR AN INTERNET INDUSTRY

 Director of the Institute of Communication Sciences and Internet, Prof. Dr. Füsun Alver stated that they have been intending to establish such an institute since the 2000s to build an Istanbul school in communication sciences.

Alver mentioned the power of communication and media technologies changing the communicative and social practices distinctively and having a tendency to transform the culture, economy, politics and the society as a whole. Alver continued, “An industry based on internet does not exist in Turkey yet. So, we decided to establish this institute to fill this gap. This institute is founded to establish the theoretical connection to link communication sciences with the internet, to improve the research methods in this area and to design education plans in post-graduate and PhD programs.”

150 STUDENTS

Mentioning their perspective that combines the communication sciences with internet research, Prof. Dr. Alver added: “The establishment of our institute was approved by the Council of Higher Education and the Presidency in 2019. We officially launched our activities in October 2020. Formerly, the Istanbul Commerce University’s post-graduate programs used to be introduced by the Institute of Social Sciences. Those programs were transferred to our institute last October. We have a total of 150 students and three master’s degree programs with or without thesis and 2 PhD programs in our institute.”

COOPERATION WITH THE UNIVERSITIES ABROAD

Regarding the research areas of the institute, Prof. Dr. Alver commented: “Particularly through corporate and journalistic perspectives, we will be examining the international and comparative communication, corporate and public communication management, internet researches, communication in digital social networks, digital and social media studies, researching the effects of digitalization over journalism practices, employment of artificial intelligence in journalism or in broad terms we will be studying the digital communication networks. And our focus will be the internet.”

Prof. Dr. Alver also expressed their wish to enhance their perspective in the global communication sciences and internet areas by cooperating with the universities abroad.

ALGORITHM BASED ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Emphasizing the interdisciplinary orientation of the institute, Prof. Dr. Alver noted that they wished to include graduates of social sciences, cultural sciences and engineering faculties in addition to communication science scholars and continued: “Internet may require engineering know-how. We aim to work on artificial intelligence algorithms. The internet economy is also quite substantive and there are graduates of economic and administrative sciences faculties interested in this area.

Of course, our priority is the communication science students, but our doors are wide open to the graduates of other science branches. We are the first institute in Turkey to include internet in its programs and its title. Our objective is to conduct post-graduate programs based on research. We intend to work on the planning of post-graduate education processes while directing our students towards research.”