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2021/2022

Communication Structure

Code: 103866 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2501935 Advertising and Public Relations FB 1 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:
Mercè Díez Jiménez
Email:
Merce.Diez@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

Lluís Reales Guisado

Prerequisites

Follow-up of news about the media system (mainly in Catalonia, Spain and Europe) is recomended, as well as the main trends of advertising industry.

Objectives and Contextualisation

This course introduces students to the knowledge of the communicative and cultural industries and, more specifically, the media systems and the advertising industry, as well as the political, economic and social actors that model them with their behavior and strategies (regulatory bodies, communication groups, business and professional entities...).

 In addition to describing the structural features of media systems, interpretation keys are provided on the reasons for their configuration, so that the historical, economic, political, social, cultural and technological framework in which they are developed is taken into account.

The focus is mainly on the Catalan and Spanish contexts, framing them in Western Europe and, particularly, in the Mediterranean countries, although the international and transnational spheres are also present.

The main objective of the subject is to develop a reflective attitude and the ability to critically analyze current events.

Competences

  • Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
  • Demonstrate a self-learning and self-demanding capacity to ensure an efficient job.
  • Develop autonomous learning strategies.
  • Develop critical thinking and reasoning and be able to relay ideas effectively, in both official languages (Catalan and Spanish) and a third language.
  • Differentiate the discipline’s main theories, fields, conceptual developments, theoretical frameworks and approaches that lay the foundations for the discipline’s knowledge and its different areas and sub-areas, as well as its value for professional practice by means of specific cases.
  • Identify modern communication 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.
  • 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. Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
  2. Demonstrate a self-learning and self-demanding capacity to ensure an efficient job.
  3. Describe the structure of the media and its dynamics.
  4. Develop autonomous learning strategies.
  5. Develop critical thinking and reasoning and be able to relay ideas effectively, in both official languages (Catalan and Spanish) and a third language.
  6. Differentiate the specificities of written and audiovisual languages.
  7. Explain the development of modern advertising traditions in the world.
  8. Find substance and relevance in documents on theory, structure and communication in a third language.
  9. Identify the fundamentals of theories and the history of communication.
  10. 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.
  11. Identify the structural foundations of the communication system.
  12. Link social analysis and impacts of new communication technologies.
  13. Manage time effectively.
  14. Respect the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  15. Rigorously apply scientific thinking.

Content

The syllabus is organized into three blocks:

-The first clarifies the key concepts of the subject and the theoretical perspectives from which it has been studied.

-The second presents the actors that contribute to the articulation of the media systems and the communication industries, from the role of the state and the independent regulators, to the communication groups, the business associations, the measuring bodies or organized civil society.

-The third analyzes in a general way the media sectors (press, radio and television) and the advertising industry with a current perspective, paying attention to the main trends in terms of the characteristics of the offer, the transformation of the consumer and business models or new services.


1. Introduction to the structure of communication

1.1. Object and perspectives of analysis

1.2. The articulation of media systems

1.2.1. Socio-political theories of the press

1.2.2. Comparative perspective of media systems

2. Actors

2.1. Audiences

2.1.1. Regulation

2.1.2. Public media (financing and governance)

2.1.3. The economic impact of public resources on the media and communication industries

2.1.3.1. Subsidies

2.1.3.2. Institutional advertising

2.2. Private

2.2.1. Companies and communication groups

2.2.2. Commercial advertising (advertisers and audiences)

2.2.3. Business and professional entities

2.3. Social actors

2.3.1. Citizenship and communication rights

2.3.2. Third sector media

3. Sectors

3.1. Press

3.2. Radio

3.3. Television

3.4. Advertising industry

 

Methodology

Two thirds of face-to-face teaching will be developed with the full group and one third in seminars in small groups.

The sessions with the whole group will be carried out mainly from master classes focused on the thematic blocks pointed out in the section "contents". The doubts related to the compulsory readings that the students have to do and to the self-learning work will also be clarified.

In the seminars, in-depth activities will be carried out on the topics already discussed, based on a documented analysis of documentary resources (news, academic texts or others). In both cases, current issues will be discussed, with the active participation of students, to update the agenda and identify key elements regarding the evolution of media systems.

The approach of the subject will incorporate the gender perspective in all possible aspects, from the contents to the methodologies applied to the dynamics of work and student participation in the classroom, so as to facilitate an egalitarian interaction.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
seminars 17 0.68 15, 2, 1, 3, 5, 13, 10, 11, 12, 14, 8
theory 34 1.36 15, 1, 3, 10, 11, 12, 14
Type: Supervised      
Evaluation 7 0.28 1, 3, 5, 13, 10, 11, 12
tutorials 5 0.2 15, 1, 3, 10, 11, 12, 14
Type: Autonomous      
personal study 80 3.2 15, 2, 1, 3, 4, 5, 13, 10, 11, 12, 8

Assessment

 The course consists of the following assessment activities:

 1. Various exercises related to the questions treated in the seminar, that will suppose 30% of the qualification. Due to their current nature, these evaluation activities will not be recoverable.

 2. Intervention in seminars. The intervention of the seminars will be valued qualitatively (10% of the final grade). This evaluation activity will not be recoverable.

 3. Two partial examinations on the theoretical contents, each one of which represents 30% of the final qualification, and that are liberatory of matter.

 To pass the subject it is necessary to pass these two exams. In the event of a suspension, you can take part in the recovery, as long as you have previously assessed the two midterm exams and at least one of the other two assessment activities.

 If one of the two partial exams is not taken the final grade will be "not assessable".

 In the event that the retake of one of the two exams is not passed, the final grade of the subject will be the one obtained in this exam (or the average, if both are failed).

 The dates of the evaluation and recovery activities will be announced on the day of the presentation of the subject. The information will also be available on the virtual campus.

 

 

Students from the second enrollment

 From the second enrollment onwards, students can opt for the assessment by means of a synthesis test, with the option of retaking as long as they have previously presented. The grade of the subject will correspond to the grade of the synthesis test, which will be broken down into two partial examinations on the contents of theory.

 It will be understood that students from thesecond registration who do not communicate explicitly by e-mail and within the deadline announced at the beginning of the course their assessment option will take the synthesis test.

 

Plagiarism

The student who makes any irregularity (copy, plagiarism, identity theft ...) that could lead to a significant variation of the grade of an evaluation act will have a qualification of 0 in this act of evaluation. In case of various irregularities, the final grade of the subject will be 0.

 

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Intervention at seminars 10% 2 0.08 15, 1, 3, 5, 13, 10, 11, 12
Partial exams 30% + 30% 2 0.08 15, 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 13, 10, 9, 11, 12
Seminar exercices 30% 3 0.12 15, 2, 1, 3, 4, 5, 13, 10, 11, 12, 14, 8

Bibliography

AGUADO-GUADALUPE, Guadalupe (2018). Las relaciones Prensa-Estado en el reparto de publicidad institucional en España. Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodistico, 24(2), 993.

ALBORNOZ, Luis y GARCÍA LEIVA, Trinidad (eds.) (2017) Diversidad e industria audiovisual. El desafío cultural del siglo XXI, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica.

ALMIRÓN, Núria (2010) Journalism in crisis. Corporate Media and Financialization, Cresskill, Nj: Hampton Press.

BIRKINBINE, Benjamin; GÓMEZ, Rodrigo; y WASKO, Janet (2016) Global media giants, Londres; Nueva York: Routledge.

BUSTAMANTE, Enrique (2013) Historia de la radio y la televisión en España, Barcelona. Gedisa.

CIVIL i SERRA, M.; LÓPEZ, B., eds. (2019) Informe de la comunicació a Catalunya 2017-2018. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Col·lecció Lexikon Informes, 6: http://incom.uab.cat/informe

FERNÁNDEZ ALONSO, Isabel (Ed.) (2017) Austeridad y clientelismo: Política audiovisual en España en el contexto mediterráneo y de la crisis financiera, Barcelona: Gedisa.

GARCÍA SANTAMARÍA, José Vicente (2016) Los grupos multimediaespañoles: Análisis y estrategias, Barcelona: Editorial UOC.

GUTIÉRREZ MONTES, Eladio (coor.) (2017) Televisión abierta. Situación actual y tendencias de futuro de la TDT, Madrid: Colegio Oficial de Ingenieros de Telecomunicaciones.

HALLIN, Daniel y MANCINI, Paolo (2008) Sistemas de medios comparados. Tres modelos de relación entre los medios de comunicación y la política, Barcelona: Hacer

HAVENS,Timothy; LOTZ, Amanda (2012) Understanding Media Industries. New York: Oxford University Press.

JONES, Daniel E. (2005) Aproximación teórica a la Estructura de la Comunicación Social, en Sphera Publica: Revista de Ciencias Sociales y de la Comunicación, núm. 5, Murcia: Universidad Católica San Antonio, p. 19-39.

LAMUERDA GRAVÁN, María (coord.) (2012) El futuro de la televisión pública. La necesaria alianza con la ciudadanía, Madrid: Editorial Popular.

MIGUEL de BUSTOS, Juan Carlos y CASADO del RÍO, Miguel Ángel (coords.) (2012) Televisiones autonómicas. Evolución y crisis del modelo público de proximidad, Barcelona, Gedisa.

ZALLO, Ramón (2011) Estructuras de la comunicación y la cultura. Políticas para la era digital, Barcelona: Gedisa

ZALLO, Ramón (2016) Tendencias en comunicación. Cultura digital y poder, Barcelona: Gedisa.

During the course other complementary bibliographical references and online sourceswill be suggested to delve into the contents explained and to follow up on the news of the sector.

Software

There are no specific software requirements.