Real-Time Media and Communications

A postgraduate qualification in real-time media equips graduates with production, research and analytical skills which are applicable in a wide variety of professional contexts. David Garcia, Professor of Design for Digital Cultures at the University of Portsmouth tells us more. 
 
There has never been a better time for creating your own media business, developing your own independent media channel or media arts organisation. All professions, from academia and the arts to the commercial sector, require new levels of media literacy but a postgraduate course in Real-Time Media (RTM) will take you further than mere media literacy.
 
For example, at the University of Portsmouth, the MA in Real-Time Media and Communications programme will provide you with the knowledge and tools to take your own initiatives and set your individual professional agenda. Although the programme is valuable for those interested in a traditional media career, it is also aimed at students preparing for a much wider range of career paths. 
 
A postgraduate course in RTM is not just about technology and media craft skills - it is also about learning about the new economic models and frameworks along with skills needed for creating new audiences and customer bases. Real-Time Media emphasises immediacy and intimacy and the growing importance of dialogue and community building within media communications. Although this may sound utopian, these practices have in fact become the bedrock of the most advanced business models and successful organisational practices. 
 
On a Real-Time Media postgraduate course, students will learn how to use robust, small-scale media tool kits to create their own publishing, research and media channels. At Portsmouth, the primary goal is to provide students with the right combination of practical and theoretical tools to fully participate in the web 2.0 revolution that is currently changing the face of published and broadcast media. 
 
Teaching and learning methods
  • Teaching

    • A range of teaching modes should be utilised in a real-time media course:  whole group lectures or teacher-led workshops and seminars, interactive teaching and independent work in small groups, team-teaching, individual and group tutorials, and student presentations.
    • Teaching should also combine demonstration and the explanation of methods, concepts and debates, techniques and practice. 
  • Learning

    • The learning environment should provide for independent learning opportunities including management of independent and group projects. 
    • Students should be encouraged to extend and refine research methodologies.
    • A key factor in the learning environment is the opportunity for students to participate in discussions and the sharing of ideas with staff and peers.  
    • Students should also be given guidance in professional practice and benefit from the professional networks established by a real-time media course.
Who is RTM for?
Postgraduate courses in RTM have generated an extremely broad range of student interest. From visual artists to those seeking a career in journalism, mainstream media and politics; from academic researchers looking to use new media to create knowledge networks to those from business and marketing who want to understand the new approaches of building customer bases through community building. 
 
The way in which new high speed communications technologies have transformed every sector means that there is no profession or career trajectory that would not benefit from an intensive RTM programme. 
 
Professional Context
The professional context for and the career opportunities for an RTM student should be embedded within the curriculum design, in all phases of a course. For example, at Portsmouth: 
  • The units, Design for Cultural Networks, Project Management and Professional Practice Forum, are focused on the professional context and standards of performance. Students have the option of pursuing their final major project as an industry study in a professional context. 
  • Students learn the particular skills of team work and professional management of a project by way of their collaborative production work in Design for Cultural Networks. 
  • The Professional Practice Forum Unit incorporates workshops in CV writing, networking skills, employment-seeking skills and careers advice.  
Typical Destinations for MA Graduates
  • Webcasting and Interactive Broadcasting     
  • New Media Content Management and Marketing
  • Web and CD ROM/ DVD Publishing
  • Tactical Media Services
  • PhD  Degrees - Research Fellowships and Contracts 
Requirements
  • Candidates should have good written and spoken English
  • Ideally, candidates should have some media skills - these could range from new media web-design to basic video shooting, and editing and scripting techniques 
  • Candidates should have a good pass from their graduate programme
  • Candidates should be able to demonstrate a high motivation to join the course. Many of the requirements above will be set aside if you can demonstrate a passion for the field.
End-results
Students on a real-time media and communications programme will learn how to combine accessible and robust video production technologies with web-based new media to create functioning real-time media services. These possibilities will provide students with production, research and analytical skills applicable in a wide variety of professional contexts. 
 
About the author
David Garcia is Professor of Design for Digital Cultures at the University of Portsmouth and Hoogeschool voor de Kunst Utrecht in the Netherlands. 
 
His work combines making personal installations, video tapes and TV programmes, together with extensively published theoretical writing on critical media and internet culture. 
 
Professor Garcia is the initiator of The Next 5 Minutes (94-2003), a series of international conferences and exhibitions on electronic communications and new social movements.