The interaction between communication and education as fields, is a difficult task because it demands a complex and permanently dynamic of individual and collective formation, which must occur in a non-linear way through different levels of perception and assimilation of information and values. In this sense, this article presents the interdisciplinary work and the University Extension Project as objects of reflection, developed in the Social Communication course at Santa Cruz State University, in the South of Bahia, Brazil, whose main objective was to reflect respect to national and regional social problems, through the interlocution of knowledge in educational contexts and its social actors, mediated by the audiovisual sector.

Descriptors: Communication; education; dissemination of information; social systems. (Words taken from UNESCO Thesaurus).

INTRODUCTION

The hierarchy of specialized awareness and the valuation of skills do not contribute to the democratization of access to knowledge. This reality leads to a verticalization of the learning process, as well as to social exclusion, once there is hegemony of the predominantly disciplinary knowledge model, whose autonomy appears linked to a production process de-contextualized with the everyday and the reality (Santos, 2010). All this knowledge construction model often does not consider the interlocution between different types of knowledge, such as those that are inserted into experiences, stories, expectations, desires, emotions, values, etc., which we often do not find in university curricula; but they are values that, although subjective, make up human complexity.

For this model to be overcome, education needs to be questioning if we consider the impermanence of human beings. It refers to a process of approaches and consciousness of the world inserted in the world that occurs concomitantly.

Twenty guidelines for Latin America and the Caribbean were noted at the World Conference on Higher Education in December 2003. From such guidelines we highlight three that justify the proposal for interdisciplinary work and the University Extension Project which is the object of this reflection: reinforce the critical function and prospective of higher education; promote a relevant higher education system adapted to social needs; take advantage of the available potential of new (which are no longer new) information and communication technologies for the renewal of higher education, through the amplification, diversification and construction of knowledge with the purpose of reaching a wider audience.

Reflecting on these issues at the Santa Cruz State University (UESC), located in the city of Ilhéus, in the south of the Bahia state, Brazil, whose society has innumerable social problems, the idea is to carry out an interdisciplinary work that came up through the disciplines under our responsibilities (Communication and Regional Reality, Television Journalism Workshop and Educational Video Workshop), with the main purpose of using audiovisual for the promotion of educational actions; and later, the elaboration of the University Extension Project entitled: “Education for diversity: the audiovisual as an educational strategy”.

DIALOGUE BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE

The dialogue between Communication and Education as a field of knowledge is presented as a prior need, especially, when we consider that we are living in a society called information and knowledge. In this sense, Gutiérrez, Rogel and Alvarado (2014) underscored the need to reflectively respond to this new society and face it as a requirement that all citizens should consider, particularly, among new generations, in which the presence of the media inside society is sensitive.

Barros (2011) points out that current events require individuals to be able to collect, systematize, store, represent and interpret information in more complex and dynamic nuances, based on the incorporation of various skills for the dissemination of knowledge in the multiple spaces of performance. This author defends, even, the need for a renewal in the posture and in the looks in front of the panorama presented by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), especially in relation to the appropriation of knowledge, since, as he stressed, when producing culture, the human being also builds knowledge in interlocution with others, which makes new senses emerge in communication processes.

For Citelli (2018), the changes brought about by digital technologies opened possibilities for subjects to act in the territories of sign production, symbolic and representative elaborations, as well as promoting the circulation of messages. The author affirms that it is appropriate to point to the analysis and practices that are being activated by the education / communication interfaces.

This perspective of thought opens up a vast field for the emergence of new sensibilities, anchored in the diversity and plurality of subjects and ideas, through the circulation of symbolic forms generated from criticality in the re-meaning of the School and the role of the educator(s) in their participation as mediator(s) of knowledge construction. In this sense, the challenge of educators is to mediate learning processes that arouse the interest of the participants immersed in the educational field; as well to present the perspective of pleasure and fun as "effective motivation", through activities connected to the media and linked to a proposal for fulfilling, effectively, educational commitments.

Although the idea of interdisciplinary does not present a single reading, it must be approached as a path that can lead the learning process, since there is a common understanding of diverse student(s) about the need to relate the senses and meanings in the search for knowledge, with the aim of a perception of knowledge as a whole. In this work, we use the concept "multidisciplinary meetings", defined by Japiassu (1994) as "initiatives developed by open and curious subjects (highlighting our own), with the sense of adventure, who are not afraid of making mistakes, who make of recklessness a method, who do not look for any safe harbor and who are affirmed by a solemn anti-authoritarianism and by a resounding anti-dogmatism” (p. 2).

Freire (1996, p. 50) ya subrayaba que “el sujeto que se abre al mundo y a los demás, estrena con su gesto la relación dialógica en la que se confirma la inquietud y la curiosidad como in-conclusión no continua de la historia”. Frigotto (2008, p. 43-44) corrobora esa idea cuando afirma que “la necesidad de la interdisciplinariedad en la producción de conocimiento se funda en la dialéctica de la realidad social, al mismo tiempo una y diversa”.

Freire (1996, p. 50) already argued that "the subject who opens up to the world and to others, initiates with his gesture the dialogical relationship in which restlessness and curiosity are confirmed as a non-continuous in-conclusion of history" . Frigotto (2008, p. 43-44) corroborates Freire’s idea when he affirms that "the need for interdisciplinarity in the production of knowledge is based on the dialectic of social reality”.

Documentary production

Thus, by conceiving the University as an institution for teaching and producing knowledge, we understand that it must, therefore, act with a vision towards the development of the social context, in which it is inserted, with the main objective of promoting interlocution with society, as proposed by Araújo (2011). We understand that such participation can be effective in many ways, including through communication for education.

From the observation of our environment, we perceive, in the last four years, that the young students who reached the third year of the Social Communication course were distant from the scenery in which they lived, with a very distant look from their environment; we could even qualify an attitude of apathy. We felt that this pedagogical context would be aggravated if we did not adopt a different attitude with the aim of promoting change, since we believed in a dialogical teaching and learning process based on the autonomy of the subjects involved.

In moments of experience exchanges, common concerns related to this scenario arose, which made us think of a line of action that would lead to the interlinking of our practices towards an attempt to direct them in the sense of involving our young students in the process of searching for already produced knowledge and also, in the construction of other knowledge about the realities of our environment.

The fact that the three disciplines involved (Communication and Regional Reality, Television Journalism Workshop and Educational Video Workshop) are dictated in this way: two in the same period of the degree (second year and a half year) and the other in the subsequent period (third year) did not prevent us from working together. We assume the risk of affirming that, perhaps, this is the most interesting point of the aforementioned collaboration because it reinforces the aspect of interlinking, of continuity and, above all, of “dialogical unity” mentioned by Freire (1990).

The initial idea was to combine theory and practice, which would culminate in the construction of an audiovisual product whose content, would represent our view of current issues in the regional reality of South Bahia, mainly, in contrast to what is generally broadcast in the regional media. So, we decided that the appropriate way would be to create documentary videos produced from the social problems presented in that reality, with the aim of circulating around various social spheres, to stimulate approaches, reflections and even changes of positions that contribute to overcoming the problems.

Thus, considering the power of the audiovisual, we began our “pluri-disciplinary meetings” anchored in the encouragement of the student(s), with the aim of allowing them to establish their choices, both in terms of themes and in the production process of documentaries, since the idea was to motivate them for the construction of knowledge not aligned to the imposition of content, but considering the identification and adherence to their preferences.

Each of the documentaries produced presents narratives defined by those who created them, based on their best choice for their representation of reality. In our interdisciplinary work, the documentary is understood as an essential tool in the construction of knowledge, in the deconstruction and reconstruction of values; and can be used as educational material in the learning process. But, to permit the paths can be followed, it seeks to stimulate the students’ thinking and reflection on the treatment they want to give to the chosen topic. We underline the relevance of discussions respect to the importance of actions aimed at education through the School - but also of other educational instances - that provide spaces for debate and for lines of action whose objective have focused on facing the social problems existing in the South of Bahia.

From this process that started in 2014, we can highlight the production of nine documentaries, which deal with various issues such as gender violence, racism, human rights, and water scarcity, among others. Documentaries are intended to be educational considering the sense of Kaplún (2003) who expresses the following: it is not only an audiovisual or multimedia that has information, but also a product that, in a certain context, facilitates or supports the development of a learning experience.

It is worth noting that the documentary construction process occurs through the combination, elaboration and integration of new information with another previously known. Existing knowledge is combined with new knowledge and processed to shape a new idea on the topic being addressed. For example, from testimonies of the characters present in the documentary "Street of my life: the portrait of people living in the streets" (original title “Rua de minha vida o retrato de pessoas em situação de rua”), people can learn the life stories of those persons considering the reasons that took them to the streets; the way they see the world, themselves and others; the way they face fears, loneliness, the joy of finding someone to talk to; distrust of the unknown; freedom; the relationship with relatives; and dreams.

The aforementioned documentary presents, initially, the characters talking about who they are and what they dream of, in order to create with them, a certain "intimacy"; as well as arousing curiosity regarding their life stories. From this point, it presents the reason(s) for being on the streets, their daily difficulties, their feelings towards other people and how they stay alive in the face of the situations in which they find themselves.

The video also presents socially absorbed and propagated stereotypes regarding people living in the streets. At other times the documentary shows its characters as subjects with the same rights and duties as any citizen, with the aim of exposing the public that those subjects, as well as others, have feelings, and express their thoughts and opinions. In other words, prejudice is presented only as one of the many phases that make up the social problem that victimizes millions of people in Brazil and in the world.

In another documentary, “For them” (original title “Por elas”), the main purpose is to discuss violence against women based on the stories of four female characters, with the aim of promoting debates on the subject, in addition to analyzing and contextualizing the causes of gender violence. The documentary seeks to show that the various forms of violence against women are reflections of patriarchal society and of a macho culture built and reproduced by various institutions, such as the State, the Family or the Mass media themselves, which shows the need that the process of education of the subjects does not only occur in formal spaces, but also in all instances of life in society.

When producing an educational material, we thus find new paradigms that must be considered: First, how to intertwine Communication and Education, that is, to search how to use the media for building learning. Second, it is possible to observe the need for an analysis regarding the relationship between subject/ digital media, in the sense that this subject appropriates digital media to amplify their learning. Third, the questioning based on the way to guarantee the production of the educational material meaning to obtain the desired result of the individual who receives it.

Audiovisual as an educational strategy

The documentaries produced circulated in various environments of the South Bay society, such as public and private schools, organized social movements, festivals, workshops, among others. However, this circulation has been taking place spontaneously, or through the individual initiatives of the young people producing these audiovisual materials. Since August 2018, these same documentaries began to be used in a systematic way, due the integration of a set of audiovisuals intended to support the PRISMA Extension Project - Education for diversity: audiovisual as an educational strategy -, now official and with a budget allocated by the Santa Cruz State University (UESC), developed in schools, neighborhood associations, union associations, cultural and recreational entities, among others.

The process is designed to take place very closely to the one that is already being developed with the UESC Social Communication students, through the interdisciplinary work that begun in the second semester of 2014. The focus of the initial idea is to ensure that the interventions assisted by the project team works during a year in the chosen institution / entity, time that the authors of the project consider necessary for the members of the work groups to acquire autonomy and become multipliers, giving continuity to the educational / communication process, since the idea is based on the educational power of communication and on the effectiveness of the dialogue related to shared knowledge and experiences.

The PRISMA University Extension project - Education for diversity deals with the audiovisual as an educational strategy which starts from the conception that the role of the University does not develop in itself, but in the permanent relationship with society.

CONCLUSIONS

The productive vision removes from the construction of knowledge, a more humanizing and relational approach in the training process. Much knowledge is not considered adequate in the academic learning process such as the potentialities and subjective, dialogical, relational, intimate and particular transformations that those subjects experience inside the various social spaces. For this reason, social inclusion, considered necessary, imposes reflection on the importance of the parameters in which the fields of Communication and Education are inserted, through initiatives whose objective focuses on demonstrating new pedagogical perspectives that correspond to the real educational needs of the human being.

The creation of a dialogue can minimize the consequences of educational processes focused on mercantilist productivity or scientific materiality through different interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary proposals in the teaching research inside and outside the University. In a context in which open television is the preferred medium for 63% of the population, there is no doubt that society receives direct influences through content mediated by audiovisual communication. Given this scenario, it is coherent to affirm that TV is still configured as potentially influential in society.

And, when we consider the situation that local radio stations (including those in the South of Bahia) suffer from demands to follow the national patterns of the large chains, which direct the themes and ways of expression (Peruzzo, 2005), in addition to the very small spaces for regional production, it is possible to affirm that the contributions of the television channels in the South of Bahia are almost nil in the sense of “discussing” the social problems of this context. And it is logical when we think about marketing interests, which are priorities, given the commercial model of those stations.

When we think that the transformation of the subjects does not occur individually, but collectively and with a premise for a greater change; it must meet all those subjects who seek emancipation and humanization. Therefore, we believe that the expected transformation can be consolidated through a collective struggle, with equally collaborative responsibility, which requires concerted consciousness.

FINANCING

Non-monetary

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank the Santa Cruz State University, especially, The Department of Arts and Letters, for their encouragement in the development of this research.

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