CommunicationEconomics
Code: 103098 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2501933 Journalism | OB | 3 | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Anna Garnatxe Masmitja
- Email:
- Anna.Garnatxe@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
Other comments on languages
Grup 01, 02 i 03 - teaching in CatalanTeachers
- Albert Salord Trampal
- Marc Espín Heras
Prerequisites
When students enroll this subject they have already studied the subjects of Theory and economic structure, History of Communication and Structure of Communication, necessary to address the economy and management of the media.
Objectives and Contextualisation
- To introduce the students in the business management of the communication industry, entrepreneurship and innovation.
- To go in depth to the knowledge of the economic and business sciences from the perspective of the communication.
- To understand the communication company in the general or macroeconomic environment and the specific or industrial environment.
- To highlight the importance of business management strategies in the design, implementation and development of the media.
- To apply the scientific research methodology in aspects related to business management and the economic analysis of communication.
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
- Analyse the economic dimension of the media.
- Apply scientific methods in a cross-cutting manner in the analysis of the relations between technological change and media access.
- Appraise the social impacts of technological mediation in modern communication.
- Demonstrate ethical awareness and empathy with the entourage.
- Describe Catalonia’s socio-communicative reality in the Spanish and European context from the political point of view.
- Describe the structure, workings and management of the communication business.
- Develop critical thinking and reasoning and be able to relay them effectively in Catalan, Spanish and a third language.
- Disseminate the area’s knowledge and innovations.
- Explain Catalonia’s socio-communicative reality in the Spanish and European context from the economic and business point of view.
- Generate innovative and competitive ideas in research and professional practice.
- Identify the fundamentals of theories and the history of communication.
- Identify the theoretical principles of audiovisual production and consumption.
- Respect the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
- Rigorously apply scientific thinking.
Content
The economic and political restructuring in the last three decades includes a fundamental but not unique ingredient, a change in the communication industry. This course aims to provide answers to the transformations in this industry, as well as to the changes that have occurred in the techniques of business management, which require a rethinking of the management of communication companies. The content of the course is divided into the following topics:
1.- Special features of communication as an economic activity
2.- The communication company in its environment
3.- Innovation and the communication company
4.- The organization of the communication company
5.- Business model, marketing plan, production plan and financial plan of the communication company
6.- Legal-economic structure
The content of the subject will be sensitive to aspects related to the gender perspective
Methodology
The subject has a theoretical part (online) and a practical part (presencial).
The calendar will be available on the first day of class. Students will find all information on the Virtual Campus: the description of the activities, teaching materials, and any necessary information for the proper follow-up of the subject. In case of a change of teaching modality for health reasons, teachers will make readjustments in the schedule and methodologies.
The theoretical part is developed online. Professor will explain the concepts about the organization of the communication companies, considered as economic units of production and located in the macroeconomic environment, social and industrial activity in which they act.
The practical part consists in the elaboration of a business plan that will be tutored and guided through the sessions of seminars that will be held in smaller groups. The students will study in depth the aspects of entrepreneurship, based on exercises and analysis of real cases, with the final objective of developing a business plan within the communication industry.
The proposed teaching methodology and evaluation activities may undergo some modifications depending on the health authorities' attendance restrictions.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Seminars. Elaboration of a business plan | 14 | 0.56 | 1, 14, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 3 |
| Theoretical classes | 34 | 1.36 | 1, 14, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 3 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Tutorials | 7 | 0.28 | 1, 14, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 3 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Readings, personal study, research, work in groups | 86.5 | 3.46 | 1, 14, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 3 |
Assessment
To pass the subject, each one of the assessment activities must be approved, which consists of two theoretical exams that each will count a 30% of the note, and a group work that will be held in the seminars and with work at home, and that will be 40% of the mark.
Class attendance seminars is mandatory, and it is only admitted that the student miss 20% of the sessions.
Qualifications of any evaluable test will be uploaded to the Virtual Campus and the student may review the correction with an individual tutorial.
The last weeks of the course will be devoted to re-evaluation activities. Students will be able to recover the theoretical part with a theory recovery exam. To recover the practical work, the students will have to pass a practical recovery exam.
Students will be entitled to the revaluation of the subject. They should present a minimum of activities that equals two-thirds of the total grading.
In the case of a second enrolment, students can do a single synthesis exam/assignment that will consist of an exam. The grading of the subject will correspond to the grade of the synthesis exam/assignment.
The students will be qualified as Non-evaluable if they do not attend any of the three activities of continuous assessment or the recovery test.
The student who performs any irregularity (copy, plagiarism, identity theft...) will be qualified with 0 in this assignment or exam. In case there are several irregularities, the final grade of the subject will be 0.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Theoretical exam 1 | 30% | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 6, 7, 10, 3 |
| Theoretical exam 2 | 30% | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 2, 6, 7 |
| Work: Elaboration of a business plan | 40% | 4.5 | 0.18 | 1, 2, 14, 4, 6, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 3 |
Bibliography
Handbook:
De Mateo, Rosario; Laura Bergés; Marta Sabater (2009) Gestión de empresas de comunicación. Sevilla/Zamora: Comunicación Social.
Other references:
Albarran Alan B. Silvia M. Chan-Olmsted y Michael O. Wirth (eds.) (2006) Handbook of Media Management and Economics. London, Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Campos, Francisco (coord.) (2011) El nuevo escenario mediático. Sevilla/Zamora: Comunicación Social.
De Mateo, Rosario; Laura Bergés; Anna Garnatxe (2010) “Crisis, ¿qué crisis?: Los medios de comunicación: empresas y periodismo en tiempos de crisis”. En: Francisco Campos (coord.) El cambio mediático. Sevilla/Zamora: Comunicación Social.
European Commission (2011) GREEN PAPER on the online distribution of audiovisual works in the European Union: opportunities and challenges towards a digital single market. Brussels, 13.7.2011
COM(2011) 427 final.
European Commission (2009) Creative Content in a European Digital Single Market: Challenges for the Future. A Reflection Document of DG INFSO and DG MARKT, 22 October 2009.
McChesney, Robert W. (2008) The Political economy of media: enduring issues, emerging dilemmas. New York, N.Y. : Monthly Review Press.
Picard, Robert (2011). The Economics and Financing of Media Companies. New York: Fordham University Press