Graduate-level institutions of Hokkaido University consist of research faculties of the teaching staff and graduate schools of the students. While the Graduate School of International Media, Communication, and Tourism Studies (IMCTS) is one of such educational institutions by its own, it has close relationship with some research bodies and practically constitutes a unified and integrated system of research and education.
At the same time, several research faculties are related and cooperate with each other and conduct advanced research activities responding to the need of the age, forming a global scholarly network. In the following are shown some features of the Research Faculty of Media and Communication (RFMC) and its two affiliated organizations, the Center for East Asian Media Studies (CEAMS) and the Center for Media and Tourism Studies (CMATS).
Research Faculty of Media and Communication
Research Faculty of Media and Communication was established in 2007, reshaping the former institution of the Graduate School of International Media and Communication and is a research institution focusing mainly on public relations and journalism studies, language and communication studies, and culture studies.
The specialties of its academics have quite a wide range of varieties, including subjects from mass media studies to theoretical linguistics and from theories of civil society to sociology of tourism. Such variation reflects no less than the fact that the targets of research in the institution are set around analyses of the media environment and relations in social communication in the contemporary society.
The faculty organizes and works on various cooperative research projects and such co-working and cooperation is not limited within the institution but is pursued to involve other humanities and science departments of the university and external organizations such as private companies and public offices. Furthermore, such networking is extended to overseas researchers and organizations, mainly through the activities of the two affiliations, CEAMS and CMATS, and attempts to solve problems are made beyond the regional and cultural differences.
Center for East Asian Media Studies
In RFMC is the Center for East Asian Media Studies set up where research is focused on information accumulation and analyses of the current media environment of each country and region in East Asia and practical proposals are provided so as to make contributions towards enhancement in consensus making and mutual understanding in terms of the public relations and the media in the region. At the same time, it aims for forming an international center in the field of East Asian media studies through establishing a network with institutions of the journalism and media studies in East Asia.
The IMCTS students are given opportunities to participate in collaborative work with the CEAMS in various ways including provision of special seminars related with the East Asian media studies. Many student-centered research projects on the media in East Asia are also conducted, many foreign students from East Asia participating. CEAMS holds newspapers and journals publishes in China and academic literature on East Asia, which are available when such projects are carried on.
Center for Media and Tourism Studies
Owing to the upgrading of ICT and diversification of the media, various phenomena are rapidly developing in the contemporary society, such as mixture of the cyberspace and the real space, transformation in the forms of communication, cultural border crossing and reception mainly of popular culture. Such hybridity in culture and society is accelerated by explosion of the nonresidential population caused by international tourism and heightened individual mobility, specific sites illustrating the condition.
As a hub for support for and advancement of collaborative research to cross between, bridge and blend the media studies and the tourism studies, CEAMS is engaged in collaborative research beyond the framework of established disciplines, setting up pioneering research topics such as studies on contents tourism, studies on augmented reality tourism, studies on tourism culture in East Asia, studies on peace tourism, etc., so as to elucidate the new tourism activities and cultural practices ongoing.