Master’s in International Political Communication and Democratic Risks (CORIS)
Number of hours of training
600 hours
Training duration
2 years
Cost of training
price of the national master's degree, indicative for the year 2022/23, 243 eurosHead teacher
Philippe ALDRIN
Political Science, Communication, International Relations
The Master’s in International Political Communication and Democratic Risks (CORIS) is a triple degree in international partnership designed by Sciences Po Aix/Aix Marseille University (France), UCLouvain (Belgium) and the University of Sherbrooke (Canada). The lessons of the 1st semester of the master 1 are organized by Sciences Po Aix and the diploma is issued under the double seal of Aix-Marseille University and the State.
Description of the course
The CORIS international master’s programme is supported by universities recognised for their excellence. It offers a unique training programme, combining a North American/European cooperation axis around an emerging issue: the intensification of the international circulation of risks.
Working at the heart of media companies, governmental or intergovernmental communication services or large NGOs, future CORIS graduates will be able to adopt a global and comparative approach to the following fields: media systems and informational/communicational practices; radicalities and contestations; public policies and democratic risk reduction mechanisms.
The four semesters of training are spread over two continents:
- M1 in Europe (France then Belgium) ;
- M2 in North America (Canada).
Theoretical and practical university courses are complemented by periods of professional immersion:
- Optional (but strongly recommended) internship of 4 to 8 weeks at the end of M1;
- Compulsory internship of at least 12 weeks after the third semester in Sherbrooke.
Targeted competences
- Develop new expertise and a rigorous professional approach;
- Develop international skills in political communication by discovering practices specific to the American and European continents;
- Analyse complex international communication issues;
- Transforming these analyses into strategic recommendations applied to different public, parapublic, non-governmental and private sectors;
- Work in collaboration with different members of a multidisciplinary team in an international context;
- Analyse complex democratic issues in a professional context;
- Increase ability to make strategic decisions and solve complex communication problems in an international environment governed by economic, social, cultural, legal, deontological or ethical constraints;
- Work in collaboration with different members of a multidisciplinary team in a professional context.
Job opportunities
The course is strongly oriented towards careers in strategic consulting, media and communication, and towards positions reserved for influence specialists within governmental and non-governmental organisations.
Graduates of the Master’s programme are trained to occupy the following positions in public organisations as well as in private structures
- Strategy and communication consulting
- Public relations
- Advocacy consulting in NGOs or interest representation organisations
- Institutional communication
Training organization
Tri-national experience
This pedagogy shared between three academic spaces offers students a very complete training in the fields of professionalization of the master’s degree as well as socialization in the scientific and professional cultures specific to each of the three countries. The search for internships is greatly facilitated by the coordination of the teams but also by the personalized follow-up offered by the very experienced Internship and Professional Development Service of the University of Sherbrooke. Endowed with recognized human and technical resources, the latter is the guarantor of an internship policy in line with the professional ambitions of the master.
Multidisciplinary training
The teaching teams of the three establishments are closely interested in the transformations of contemporary societies under the aspect of the tensions introduced by the omnipresence of the media, in particular digital, the rise of apolitical attitudes and radical behaviors and the responses proposed by the public authorities to claims or threats to democratic systems today. The teaching of the Belgian and Canadian teams, both highly specialized in communication studies and media phenomena, is supplemented by the skills of the French team in terms of public policy, government knowledge and expertise in areas sensitive (security, terrorism, new religious phenomena).
Targeted professionalization
The objective of this international master is to train professionals involved, whether within media companies, communication services or public decision-making teams, in the governance of democratic risks within public authorities such as NGOs. Because these phenomena cross all contemporary societies, political or religious radicalism, protests against the social, economic and political order and their media coverage require an approach that is both global and comparative in the following areas: media systems and practices informational/communicational; radicalism and protests; public policies and mechanisms for reducing democratic risks.