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2020/2021

Communication Theories

Code: 103851 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2501933 Journalism FB 2 1
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:
Maria Corominas Piulats
Email:
Maria.Corominas@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

Maria Corominas Piulats
Jaume Soriano Clemente
Ezequiel Ramón Pinat
Nuria Torras Planas

Prerequisites

No specific knowledge is required.

Objectives and Contextualisation

This module belongs to Communication subject or area and it is qualified as fundamental within the Journalism Bachelor Degree. It is considered that there is a progressive logic linking the basic modules of the Communication subject or area;, based on a long teaching experience and structured as follows:

  1. History of Communication. It introduces students to the historical evolution of communication and journalism from the first communicative phenomena to nowadays communicative experiences.
  2. Structure of Communication. It presents the communicative ecosystem, its dynamics and structural logic.
  3. Communication theories. It presents and specifies the different theories, schools, authors and different communication analysis perspectives and approaches.

The general training objectives of this module are: 1) to identify the main theories in the communication field, the conceptual elaboration and the theoretical approaches that lay the foundations of its knowledge; I 2) to favour critical thinking about the role of the media within society.

Competences

  • Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
  • Demonstrate a self-learning and self-demanding capacity to ensure an efficient job.
  • Demonstrate adequate knowledge of Catalonia’s socio-communicative reality in the Spanish, European and global context.
  • Develop autonomous learning strategies.
  • 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.
  • Identify modern journalistic traditions in Catalonia, Spain and worldwide and their specific forms of expression, as well as their historic development and the theories and concepts that study them.
  • Manage time effectively.
  • Research, select and arrange in hierarchical order any kind of source and useful document to develop communication products.
  • Respect the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Rigorously apply scientific thinking.
  • Use a third language as a working language and means of professional expression in the media.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Contextualise the different journalistic trends and the work of renowned journalists.
  2. Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
  3. Demonstrate a self-learning and self-demanding capacity to ensure an efficient job.
  4. Describe the structure of the media and its dynamics.
  5. Develop autonomous learning strategies.
  6. Develop critical thinking and reasoning and be able to relay them effectively in Catalan, Spanish and a third language.
  7. Differentiate the specificities of audiovisual languages.
  8. Explain the development of modern international journalistic traditions.
  9. Find substance and relevance in documents on theory, structure and communication in a third language.
  10. Identify the fundamentals of theories and the history of communication.
  11. Identify the media system and groups that have had, at a given point in time, the power to inform, and be able to describe the legal framework that exerts a certain governance on the media.
  12. Identify the structural foundations of the communication system.
  13. Interpret and discuss texts regarding the main communication and journalism theories and present the summary of the analysis in writing and in public.
  14. Link social analysis and impacts of new communication technologies.
  15. Link the historic development of journalistic forms and traditions with the groups that have had, at a given point in time, the power to inform and the manner in which this power was accessed.
  16. Manage time effectively.
  17. Research, select and arrange in hierarchical order any kind of source and useful document to develop communication products.
  18. Respect the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  19. Rigorously apply scientific thinking.

Content

SYLLABUS:

Introduction and year planning. Presenting the program. 

Interpersonal communication.

Non-verbal interpersonal communication.

Media communication. Beginning of the communication media research.

Media communication. Functionalist paradigm.

Media communication. Agenda setting theory.

Media communication. Silent spiral theory.

Media communication. Social construction of reality.

Media communication. Birmingham school.

Media communication. Media events.

Media communication. Journalistic process of scandals.

Media communication. Post-truth.

 

The calendar will be available on the first day of class. Students will find all information on the Virtual Campus: the description of the seminar 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

 

This teaching guide includes a gender perspective when addressing the module’s content.

 

 

Methodology

The learning will be based on theory lectures, leraning throug discussion and debates, readings, tutorials, projects and tests. The main goal of this module is to lay the foundation and develop a critical analysis and critical thinking.

 

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures 32 1.28 19, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 18, 9
Seminars 14 0.56 19, 5, 6, 13, 14, 18, 9
Type: Supervised      
Tutoring 19 0.76 19, 3, 5, 2, 16, 18
Type: Autonomous      
Personal study and oriented readings 65 2.6 5, 6, 7, 11, 10, 12, 13, 14, 18, 9

Assessment

Evaluation

1. Continuous evaluation of students of first enroling 

All students on their first enrolment will follow the continuous evaluation system: two exams/tests (test type) + individual work project + participating on the seminars

1.1 Tests (having a 37% value each of the final grade), which will be about the theories and debates given in lectures and about the content of the module’s mandatory readings. The aim of these tests is to prove the students’ knowledge on communication theories, conceptual definitions, theoretical approaches and social communication analysis.

1.2 Fulfilment of an individual project (16% value of the final grade) within the module’s seminars. At the begenning of the course, seminar lecturers will provide guidelines about the project and its evaluations, as well as about dalendar and deadlines. Seminar lecturers are also responsible for follow up and tutorial of students projects

 

1.3 Seminar participation (10% value of the final grade). Seminar activities include discussions and debates about the mandatory readings. These readings are planned to provide knowledge about the usage of the communication theories within the analysis of reality and news. The readings will be mandatory and alongside with the content of the lectures, they are part of the module’s core.

Final mark.

Every student has to take, at least, the two tests and the individual project. To pass the module it will be necessary to have passed both of the exams. If one of the tests is failed, the final mark of the module will be the same one of the failed test. Given the case the student doesn’t take one of the tests, the final grade will be “not evaluable”. If the student has failed both of the tests, the final grade will be the average of both tests.

As to the project, in case that the student doesn’t doesn’t deliver it or doesn't do it at all, the mark will be “not evaluable”. Taking into account that the module has a continuous evaluation system, if a student is “not evaluable” on the project, he/she will also be “not evaluable” on the module’s final grade.

Because of this, the result would be:

  Test 1: 37%

  Test 2: 37%

  Individual essay: 16%

  Seminar’s participation: 10%

2. Evaluation of students enroling this module for the second time or more

In the case of a second (or third) enrolment, students have to choose one of the follosing two forms of evaluation:

2.1 Continuous evaluation – two exams/tests (test type) + individual work project + participating on the seminars. These student will follow the same procedure of evaluation as explained in the section 1. The requirements to pass the module are the same as the ones specified in the section 1.

Final mark. Same procedure as section 1.

2.2. Final test (test type) students on their second/third enrolment, can do a single synthesis exam (test type) covering all the the contents, according to the article 117.2 of UAB’s Academic Regulation, applicable to all the university students regulated accordingly to the Royal Decree 1393/2007, of 29th of October, modified by the Royal Decree 861/2010 of the 2nd of July. Students who choose this evaluating option will be welcomed to join lectures and seminars, as long as they are aware that the only evaluated activity they will take will be this test. They will not be evaluated within seminar participation nor the fulfilment of the project

Final mark.The final grade of students choosing this evaluation will be the same as the one they get in the test they’d take.

 

3.      Second-chance exam:

According to UAB’s Academic Regulation, students will have the chance to make up for the evaluation activities, provided they fulfill the following requierements:

3.1 Students taking the module for the first time or more(as long as they have chosen this evaluation option) – two tests + individual project + seminar participation. Students who took the tests and failed them will be entitled to the recuperation of thesubcject, and specifically the tests, provided a) They present a minimum of activities that equals two-thirds of the total grading, anb b) The weighed average of the previous grades of at least 3,5

It will not be possible to retake the individual project. The aim of the project is to evaluate the comprehension, the analysis capability, structuring and systematization of knowledge acquired during the module and applied to a case or situation. It is the result of a continued evaluation started at the beginning of the semester and it will not be able to redo it within a short time.

It will also not be possible to retake the participation in the seminars for obvious reasons.

3.2 Students taking the module for the second time or more who chose to follow the one final test evaluation. Students who did this exam and failed will be able to retake that test if they failed with a grade equal or higher than 3.5.

 

4. Chances to get a higher mark

4.1 Students who having followed the continuous evaluation and passing the exams can take the make up exam to opt to a higher mark. They can do it either with both exams/tests or only one. In any case, students will have to accept the results they get, even if they are worse than before. If one od the second chance exams is failed, then the final grade of the module will be the same as the one in this test.

4.2 Students taking the module for the second time or more choosing the final test evaluation system and passing it will also have the chance to take a make up exam to get a higher grade. In any case, students will have to accept the results they get. The final grade will be the same as the one in this second chance exam.

 

5. Ordinary revision of the evaluated activities:

Given the case the student is not satisfied with the grades of his or her different evaluated activities, there will be an option for revising these marks. In the case of the tests and final exam (test type), the ordinary revision will be carried by the lecturers responsible of theory groups. The individual project and seminar participation will be revised with seminar lecturers. Dates dates and time of ordinary revisions will be made public through UAB’s Virtual Campus.

 

6. Extraordinary revision of the module’s final grade:

In case of not agreeing with the final qualification of the module, students will have the right to ask for an extraordinary revision. He or she will have to fill a reasoned request to the Communication Sciences Faculty office within the fifteen days following the publication of the final mark. The revision will be carried out following the extraordinary revision instructions approved by the Faculty Board on the 5th of May of 2016, and revised in May 2019.

https://www.uab.cat/web/estudiar/grados/informacion-academica/evaluacion/revision-extraordinaria-de-la-calificacion-final-1345717361537.html

https://www.uab.cat/web/estudiar/graus/informacio-academica/avaluacio/revisio-extraordinaria-de-la-qualificacio-final-1345714263962.html

 

PLAGIARISM: The student who performs any irregularity (copy, plagiarism, identity theft...) that can lead to a significant variation of the qualification of an evaluation act, will be qualified with 0 this act of evaluation. In case there are several irregularities, the final grade of the subject will be 0.

 

NOTE: The proposed teaching methodology and evaluation activities may undergo some modifications depending on the health authorities' attendance restrictions.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Individuat essay 16% 10 0.4 19, 17, 3, 4, 5, 2, 6, 7, 8, 11, 10, 13, 14, 15, 18, 9
Seminar participation 10% 6 0.24 3, 5, 2, 6, 13, 14, 18, 9
Test 1 37% 2 0.08 19, 1, 3, 5, 2, 6, 7, 8, 16, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18
Test 2 37% 2 0.08 19, 1, 3, 5, 2, 6, 7, 8, 16, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18

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