The International Media Center (IMC), a not-for-profit research and education center, has been established by FIU's School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC).

Since 1988, it has trained more than 8,000 mid-career Latin American journalists. The majority of these participated in a 10-year program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development: The Latin American Journalism Program, which covered Central American and the Andean Pact countries of South America: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

Other major projects have involved a five-year program under which Paraguayan journalists were trained. Since 1999, the IMC has been training the independent journalists in Cuba.

The purpose of the IMC is to strengthen the free flow of information through education, training and research. Most of the IMC activities are focused on Latin America because of the IMC's location in Miami, but the center is capable of working in almost any part of the world.

The Institute for Public Opinion Research (IPOR) is a research arm of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Florida International University. IPOR was founded in 1983 to provide decision makers with reliable and timely information on how a scientifically-selected sample of the public stands on important issues, and to enhance the dialogue on major issues among decision makers, the media, and the people of Florida.

IPOR provides professional services in all aspects of survey research including study and sample design, questionnaire development, interviewing, data entry, data analysis, and report writing.(br)

IPOR has conducted over 40 surveys, interviewing over 43,000 respondents. These projects include seven years of the FIU/Florida Poll, one of the most comprehensive public opinion surveys conducted in the country. The FIU/Florida Polls ask Floridians how they feel about the important issues facing them -- crime and drugs, education, transportation, health, taxes, politics, etc., and tracks these questions year after year to determine whether and how views are changing.