Entry N°9 - Changes to my study programme

This is surely one of an interesting topic to write about. I think the University of Chile has one of the most successful and iconic schools of journalism here in this country. The Communications and Image Institute (or ICEI in spanish) is a place where you can learn some useful skills, not only in terms of mere journalism, but also in terms of cinema, image culture, sociology, etc.

This career curriculum is about the new students learn about everything involving the process of creating a text, an image, an audiovisual piece, which is more than the mere fact of creating those, it’s about the critic paradigm. In that case, I think the focus of the school is appropriate, but I think 5 years is way too long and tedious in this particular case of the journalism career. I think four years is an accurate time length to finish it.

In terms of infrastructure and use of technology, I think this point is the weakness of the Institute. The ICEI needs to receive more economic resources in order to supply the students with cameras, tripods, sound equipment, etc. And also, which maybe is more relevant than the point before, is the recondition of key rooms of the Institute, which are: The television studio, the radio studio and the library. That should be the main focus of those non-existent/short limited economic resources.

To finish, I think the Institute should re-evaluate their hiring policy. In some cases, some teachers don’t have the proper approach to make the students learn and apply the knowledge. This is bigger and more important when you think about the audiovisual subjects, which are more practice than theory. Teachers must know how to apply their knowledge to students and at the same time, considerate the nature of his/her class.

That’s a lot of stuff to change honestly. I hope our Institute will get better and better in the future, regarding of the University’s economic distribution policy.