2. Subject area: Communication Sciences

This subject area is broadly defined throughout Europe, encompassing a range of fields of study from Cultural Studies to Marketing and Public Relations. The working group has decided to retain the dominant practice in most Institutions of using this term to refer to the study of communication and communicative practices in the Human Sciences, in particular using distinctive interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches. The practical skills of communication are not excluded from these approaches. Thus the definition centres on the existing SOCRATES - ERASMUS subject category 15. Generic fields such as social sciences, technology or computing where communication is a contingent object of study or application are excluded, although it is expected that the results of the Thematic Network's projects would have widespread application in academic and professional worlds. The Thematic Network would include the following areas of study and would be organised in such a way that each area could develop its own Sub-group within which to pursue its own specific concerns:

Þ Media Studies,

Þ Cultural Studies,

Þ Communication Studies (linguistics/psychology/sociology),

Þ Film Studies,

Þ Information and Library Studies,

Þ Journalism,

Þ Museum and Heritage Studies,

Þ Writing and Publishing,

Þ Public Relations,

Þ Marketing and Advertising,

Þ Multi-media and Pedagogics.