The Centre
The Centre for Media and Communication Studies, founded in 2009, is based at LUISS University "Guido Carli", Department of History and Political Science.
The Centre is dedicated to the memory of Massimo Baldini, Philosopher, Professor of Semiotics and Dean of the Faculty of Political Science.
Our History
The Centre for Media and Communication Studies “Massimo Baldini " was born from the merging of two research centres already established and both actives in the Italian and international field of the communication studies.
The Centre recovers the experiences of the "Research Section for Communication", born in 2003 at Luiss “Guido Carli” thanks to Massimo Baldini, who was Director until his untimely death (December 2008).
In the same time the Centre assures the continuity of the Centre for Media and Cultural Studies (Crisc-Cmcs), born in 1997 as an Observatory on Media and subsequently established as an independent research centre (2002). Directed since its establishment by Michele Sorice, the Crisc-Cmcs was institutional member of ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association) and of MeCCSA (Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association).
Our goals
«Our society - Massimo Baldini wrote in 2003, presenting the new born (at that time) Research Centre for Communication - is, for the first time in history, a communication based society. All professions need communication skills. And if it is true, as stated by Watzlawick, Beavin and Jackson that "it is impossible not to communicate" is, moreover, in the same time true, that effective communication – as Mounier stated – is "less frequent than happiness, more fragile than beauty". In fact, it is possible to speak and write without communicating anything».
The Centre for Media and Communication Studies “Massimo Baldini" recollects the heritage of the two old centres and wants to represent the witness of a continuity with its origins. And in the same time to be ready to critical innovation. Our aim is to investigate the contemporary reality - and the phenomena of communication in particular – in an interdisciplinary and hybridized research approach. On the other hand, this is the same perspective of the Department to which we are honoured to belong. In fact, the Department of Political Science is deliberately interdisciplinary: sociology, political studies, media studies, political science, political communication are just some of the keywords to describe and to interpret the social reality and to understand social processes and phenomena sometimes still unexplored.
The Centre has an international vocation. It is involved in high scientific profile research projects and it is also engaged in the innovation of research methodology in the field of media and communication studies.
Our activities
The Centre carries out basic and applied research in the field of media, political and social studies. In particular the main research topics of the Centre's activity can be schematically described as follows:
- Political Communication;
- Political Studies;
- Political Science;
- Media audiences;
- Media and cultural consumption;
- Media system and political institutions analysis;
- Social and political participation in the new forms of communication (web 2.0, digital media, etc.)
- Media texts;
- Market research about institutions, products, consumers;
- Journalism and information system.
The Centre finally carries out training activities on behalf of public institutions and private companies, particularly in the professional backgrounds of the directors and managers of internal and external communication, press offices staff members, news and communication professionals.
The Centre for Media and Communication Studies "Massimo Baldini" is institutional member of ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association) and of MeCCSA (Media Communication and Cultural Studies Association).
CMCS Working Papers
The Centre publishes regularly high quality research and writing (including research in-progress) in CMCS Working Papers, a high profile and peer-reviewed publication.