The Department of Journalism at the Faculty of Arts and Letters, Catholic University in Ruzomberok is a respected institution in the area of journalism and media studies in Slovakia. It offers degree programmes at all three levels. At the bachelor (BA) and master (MA) level students may choose a single major study programme in journalism. At the doctoral (PhD) level students may study theory and history of journalism. During the lectures and seminars students are offered theoretical knowledge from the areas of journalism and media studies. Moreover, they are encouraged to improve their critical thinking and their skills to devise, create and analyse journalistic outcomes in the textual, audio and audio-visual format. The practical training is carried out in the modern studios. The students of the department have also an opportunity to take part in extracurricular activities in the student media: the magazine Zumag, the radio station PULZ and the university TV station UNICA.
The research of the faculty members is primarily but not exclusively centred around the following three areas. The first one is the area of media language, journalism genres and media presentation of religious topics. Here, the emphasis is on the mediation of religious content – its possibility, its effectivity, its place in media – but also on the genres used in contemporary media and on the presentation of religious topics in secular and religious media. The second one is the topic of media recipients, especially the issues of the media users’ habits, media education and literacy but also the media influence on individuals or families. The third area is the research of regional media from the perspective of journalistic practices and sport journalism.