after the chilean coup of 1973, mattelart returned to france where (at age 37) he had to restart his academic career—he became a visiting scholar at the university of paris viii saint-denis. he later became a full professor of science of information and communication—a topic on which he later became a theoretician. in 1974, he worked on "la espiral", a film justifying the chilean route to socialism. between 1983 and 1997 he has been professor of information and communication sciences at the university of rennes 2 – upper brittany, and in the postgraduate program at paris iii (nouvelle sorbonne) -rennes 2. between 1997-2004, he has been professor at the université of paris viii. since september 2004, he is professor emeritus.