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2020/2021

Communication Policies

Code: 103095 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2501933 Journalism OB 3 2
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Carmina Crusafon Baqués
Email:
Carmina.Crusafon@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Teachers

Ricardo Carniel Bugs
Carmina Crusafon Baqués

Prerequisites

No previous knwoledge needed. 

Objectives and Contextualisation

  1. Define and explain the fundamental elements of the study of media policies and contextualize them in the political, social, economic and cultural framework within the Catalan, Spanish, European and international landscape.
  2. Promote critical reflection on media policies in today's society.
  3. Create jointly, within the classroom, the appropriate instruments for reflection on communication policies and their close realities
  4. Develop a work dynamic within the classroom that allows the student to generate innovative proposals on media policies in the digital scenario.

Competences

  • Demonstrate adequate knowledge of Catalonia’s socio-communicative reality in the Spanish, European and global context.
  • Demonstrate ethical awareness as well as empathy with the entourage.
  • Develop critical thinking and reasoning and be able to relay them effectively in Catalan, Spanish and a third language.
  • Differentiate the discipline’s main theories, its fields, conceptual developments, theoretical frameworks and approaches that underpin knowledge of the subject and its different areas and sub-areas, and acquire systematic knowledge of the media’s structure.
  • Disseminate the area’s knowledge and innovations.
  • Generate innovative and competitive ideas in research and professional practice.
  • Properly apply the scientific method, raising hypotheses regarding journalistic communication, validating and verifying ideas and concepts, and properly citing sources.
  • Respect the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Rigorously apply scientific thinking.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analyse the influence of the media on public opinion.
  2. Apply scientific methods in a cross-cutting manner in the analysis of the relations between technological change and media access.
  3. Apply theoretical principles to the analysis of audiovisual processes.
  4. Appraise the social impacts of technological mediation in modern communication.
  5. Demonstrate ethical awareness and empathy with the entourage.
  6. Describe Catalonia’s socio-communicative reality in the Spanish and European context from the political point of view.
  7. Develop critical thinking and reasoning and be able to relay them effectively in Catalan, Spanish and a third language.
  8. Disseminate the area’s knowledge and innovations.
  9. Establish links between communicative knowledge and social, human and technological sciences in the process of implementing strategies and communication policies.
  10. Generate innovative and competitive ideas in research and professional practice.
  11. Identify phenomena and consider theoretical problems regarding audiovisual communication.
  12. Identify the fundamentals of theories and the history of communication.
  13. Identify the theoretical principles of audiovisual production and consumption.
  14. Lay the foundations for modern semiotic trends and apply them to communication and journalism.
  15. Respect the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  16. Rigorously apply scientific thinking.

Content

Syllabus

Theme 1: Media policies

  • Evolution of the concept
  • Definition, typology and methodological proposal

Theme 2: Public Service policies

  • Concept of Public Service and the defense of vulnerable values
  • Different European models
  • Case analysis

Theme 3: Media Policies and Regulation

  • Technology and impact on media policies
  • Liberalization of markets, platformisation, and concentration
  • Regulatory authorities

Theme 4: Content and Cultural Diversity policies

  • European audiovisual policy
  • The defense of Cultural Diversity
  • The debate: Quality vs. Marketing

Theme 5: Policies of the Digital Society

  • European Digital Agenda
  • Radio spectrum and digital dividend
  • Internet of things, artificial intelligence, and algorithm culture

The content of the subject will be sensitive to the gender perspective.

The calendar detailed with the content of the different sessions will be presented on the first day of class. It will be uploaded to the Virtual Campus, where students will also be able to access the detailed description of the exercises and practices, the various teaching materials, and any necessary information for the proper follow-up of the subject.

 

Methodology

The subject will be developed in theoretical-practical sessions. The lectures will focus on the key concepts of media policies. The seminars will have the following modalities: case analysis, theme assignments, debates and presentation.

The teaching methodology might undergo some modifications depending on the health authorities' requirements.

 

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures 37.5 1.5 6, 7, 9, 4
Seminars 15 0.6 2, 16, 6, 7, 10, 15, 4
Type: Supervised      
Tutorials 7.5 0.3 16, 7, 8
Type: Autonomous      
Personal work 82.5 3.3 2, 16, 7

Assessment

The evaluation of the subject is summative. It is necessary to submit to all evaluation activities to obtain the final grade.

The evaluation activities are:

  • 2 case analysis: 20 points (10 + 10)
  • 3 seminar assignments: 30 points (10 + 10 + 10)
  • Test: 30 points
  • Active participation in class: 20 points

Attendance in evaluation activities is mandatory for all students. In any case, there is a set of circumstances that can promptly exempt from assistance with the corresponding supporting evidence (illness, surgical operation, death of a relative, etc.).

When you cannot attend for the aforementioned reasons, the student will send an email to the professor through the Virtual Campus platform. Due to the teaching program, the activity cannot be reprogrammed another day during the semester, but the student can continue with the continuous evaluation.

Evaluation activities that could not be performed for the aforementioned reasons may be recovered in June 2021. The date will be announced on the first day of class. 

The evaluation might undergo some modifications due to requirements for health authorities. 

Assignments should be handed upon the class schedule and should follow formal requirements. They should be meet deadlines in order to get grading. The grades of the activities will be published through the Virtual Campus.

In order to clarify doubts or attend consultations, the teachers have office hours for attending students.

The student will be entitled to the revaluation of the subject if he or she has been evaluated of the set of activities the weight of which equals a minimum of 2/3 of the total grade of the subject. To have access to revaluation, the previous grades should be 3.5. The activity that is excluded from the revaluation process is participation in class.

The student who performs any irregularity (copy, plagiarism, identity-theft...) will be qualified with 0 this act ofevaluation. In case there are several irregularities, the final grade of the subject will be 0.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Assignment - Theme 3 10 1 0.04 2, 16, 5, 6, 7, 10, 4
Assignment - Theme 4 10 1 0.04 1, 2, 16, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 4
Assignment - Theme 5 10 1 0.04 1, 2, 16, 5, 6, 8, 9, 14, 10, 4
Case analysis 1 10 1 0.04 7, 9, 12, 15
Case analysis 2 10 1 0.04 2, 6, 7, 9, 4
Inclass participation 20 1.5 0.06 2, 16, 5, 7
Test 30 1 0.04 6, 7, 9, 4

Bibliography

ALBORNOZ, Luis Alberto i GARCÍA LEIVA, Mª Trinidad (eds.) (2017) Diversidad e industria audiovisual. El desafío cultural del siglo XXI. México: Fondo de cultura económica. 

CRUSAFON, Carmina (2012). La nueva era mediática. Las claves de la comunicación global. Barcelona: Bosch.

DONDERS, Karen; PAUWELS, Caroline i LOISEN, Jan (eds.) (2014). The Palgrave Handbook of European Media Policy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

JUST, Natasha i PUPPIS, Manuel (eds.) (2012) Trends in Communication Policy Research. Bristol: Intellect.

MACBRIDE, S. (1987). Un solo mundo, voces múltiples: comunicación e información en nuestro mundo. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2ª abreviada.

MANSELL, Robin i RABOY, Marc (2011). The Handbook of Global Media and Communication Policy. Londres: Blackwell.

PICARD, Robert (2020). Media and Communications Policy Making. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 

VAN CUILENBURG, Jan and MCQUAIL, Denis (2003) “Media Policy Paradigm Shifts: towards a New Communications Policy”, European Journal of Communication, vol. 18, 181-207.