Digital content management for media, corporate communication and cultural heritage

Ruggero Eugeni, coordinator of the programme, describes its main characteristics

Given the growing centrality of this sector, the GeCo is a direct channel of access to the world of communication.

Given its profoundly innovative structure and in line with the most advanced demands of the labour market, the GeCo combines a solid theoretical training with a series of practical opportunities for contact with the professional market: meetings with professionals, workshops (autonomous or connected to courses),  a final workshop and a final internship of at least 300 hours.

The programme has an international vocation and includes exchange programs with foreign universities focused on similar training programs. At least three of the courses are taught in English.

The GeCo can also be used by working or non-attending students, thanks to advanced distance learning methods and a modulation of study plans over 3 or 4 years of programme with a corresponding reduction in annual enrolment costs.

The main objective of the training concerns the ability to design, plan and manage communication operations within new media such as, for example: product campaigns via web and social media; internal communication of companies and institutions (e.g. management of business communities via intranet), organization of professional development courses with distance learning); construction of branded content for companies and institutions; management of public relations and press offices via web and social media; conception and implementation of storytelling operations through different media; organization and promotion of e-commerce activities; innovative communication initiatives for museums, libraries, archives and cultural institutions; communication and promotion activities of territories and tourism or coordination of the same through digital tools; And so on.

There are three concrete areas in which these skills can be applied:

• small and medium-sized enterprises;
• territorial and national institutions working for the preservation and promotion of environmental, artistic and cultural heritage;
• publishing companies, media companies and communication agencies that intend to take advantage of the innovation opportunities offered by digital.

The skills and knowledge necessary to achieve these educational objectives are cultivated first of all through historical and theoretical teachings belonging to the philological - literary, artistic and expressive, philosophical areas, adequately integrated with the historical, geographical and socio-psychological ones. Around this nucleus are aggregated sets of knowledge and skills relating to legal, economic and marketing, graphic and design, IT and linguistic tools necessary to interact consciously with professionals and specialists operating in the same sectors, even of different languages and cultures. The "frontal" courses are in any case integrated with a large series of workshops, with a final workshop led by professionals and with a final internship aimed at transmitting the more concrete aspects of the operational skills required by the job market.

The programme includes international student exchanges and the offering of at least three courses in English (including one for writing on the web).

The training path implies at all levels (and in particular in the workshops) various opportunities for working together, also in order to enhance the soft skills essential to face the work environments in the digital content management sector. A privileged opportunity to assess skills is the Geckathon, a hackathon dedicated to GeCo students: some companies launch a creative challenge in the digital and social field to Geco students, who provide original and functional solutions in teams. The Geckathon takes place once or twice a year, normally at the beginning of the two semesters.

In order to best implement the training project of the programme, the teaching staff combines tenured university professors with professionals who have accumulated solid expertise in the field of education; In some workshops and professional courses, ample space is dedicated to first-hand testimonies from operators in the sector specialized in individual aspects.

Prof. Ruggero Eugeni (Coordinator): ruggero.eugeni@unicatt.it 
Dr. Marzia Morteo (Tutor): lm.geco@unicatt.it