COMMUNICATION RESEARCH TO TRANSFORM REALITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF NORTHERN SANTANDER

This document presents the process developed in an initiative whose purpose was to identify the research tendencies present in the degree works carried out by students of the Social Communication Program, attached to the Faculty of Education, Arts and Humanities of the Universidad Francisco de Paula Santander, UFPS. In order to carry out the research process, the research projects developed by students of this academic program from 2011 -the year in which the first-degree projects were submitted for final evaluation- until December 2021 were systematized and analyzed. The study made it possible to establish the topics most addressed by the students and the objects of study constructed, aspects that facilitated an analysis that showed how, through research, the region’s social problems can be studied and how to present alternative solutions to them. Among the study findings, it was found that students and teachers of the program have conducted projects in three lines of research, highlighting the line of communication, languages, discourse and power, without leaving aside those of communication for social change and planning and management of communication. Finally, it is concluded that formative research processes are developed that manage to articulate the curriculum of the Social Communication Program of the UFPS with its context of influence.